The most popular news sites
Do you read news online?
What websites do you use and why?
Recently the list of most popular global news sites was released.
Do you think Fox News (right wing) or the New York Times (centre left) is more popular?
Do you think CNN (centre) is more popular than that?
Which country has a more popular news site, Japan (yahoo news) or Brazil (globo)?
Which is more popular; BBC, CNN or Yahoo news in Japan?
Are you surprised by the rankings?
Why do you think Yahoo news is so popular?
Yahoo Japan was established in 1996. Softbank owned 60% of the company.
Globally Google was overtaking Yahoo in market share. Why did Yahoo Japan become so popular here?
Masayoshi Son believed that Japan had “Galapagos Syndrome (ガラパゴス化)” What does that mean?
This Japanese business phrase means a globally available technology develops rapidly locally (in isolation) from the world.
…Basically Son realized that Japanese people had unique needs that are different from other countries. He made a “hyper-localized” service.
Son believed that Japanese liked having many services in one location (news, weather, email).
Google won the search engine battle in the US because it’s main search page was extremely simple with little other information but this didn’t appeal to Japanese consumers.
Can you think of any more examples of Galapagos Syndrome?
Can you explain the unique features of:
Japanese Flip Phones (ガラケー)
Toilets
Kei cars (軽自動車)
Unique features:
Japanese Flip Phones: contactless payment, watch TV, high quality camera, messaging apps
Toilets: heated seats, make noises, bidet
Kei Cars: must be small, with small engines and be fuel efficient. They are designed for affordable city travel
Google vs Yahoo
What do you think the search engine market share is for Google, Yahoo and Bing?
Do you know any differences between them?
What does this data show us about future trends?
In 2024:
Google: 78.2%
Bing: 10.7%
Yahoo: 9.8%
The data clearly shows that young people are using Google and YouTube to search for information and that Yahoo isn’t popular.
What can yahoo do to attract young people?
How do you feel about young people using YouTube and tik tok to search for information?
Sources:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/07/15/companies/yahoo-japan-news-website/
https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/media_metrics/biggest-news-websites-in-the-world/
https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/yahoo-japan-became-popular-google/
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15231025
https://nihonium.io/the-search-engine-market-in-japan/#The_Search_Engine_Market_in_Japan