The shopping search engine Become is hoping to replicate Yahoo’s success in Japan.
Yes, the China gold rush is on, but it would not include the young Mountain View shopping search engine Become.com. Not yet, anyway. The U.S. shopping search engine Become.com said it’s expanding into Japan, Asia’s largest shopping market, though a partnership with Japanese information technology services firm Transcosmos.
The joint venture, called Become Japan, will run a shopping search engine catering to the Japanese market.
The company is expanding to Japan first, creating a business model that emulates the Softbank-Yahoo Japan partnership. Become is partnering with Japanese marketing firm Transcosmos.
The two will be equal partners in the venture with Become.com providing the technical know-how and Transcosmos, which led Become’s second round of funding, providing the investment. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
There is a lot happening around China, Become CEO Michael Yang tells us. But we thought China was too early. The infrastructure is not there yet. Credit card use is not big enough. And the whole legal and regulatory environment is not transparent enough yet. It’s a matter of timing for us.
Become hopes this partnership will have the same success enjoyed by another U.S. Internet search name, Yahoo Japan. Become is another case of a U.S. company partnering with a Japanese firm and entering the Japanese early in its growth cycle.
Become has found a strong Japanese partner to form a Japanese company, similar to Yahoo’s entry into the Japanese market with SoftBank, said Michael Yang, CEO of Become.com.
Bigger Market
The company is the brainchild of Mr. Yang and Yeogirl Yun, who founded and sold shopping search engine MySimon to CNet for $700 million in 2000. Its executives say it has indexed more than 3 billion pages so far.
He said his company chose to enter Asia through Japan because it was a bigger market than China. However, he said that Become also has plans to expand in China, but did not specify a time frame.
Become, which has raised $11.7 million in funding since its inception in January 2004, recently came out of beta. Like other shopping search engines, Become scours the Internet for online merchants and shopping sites to help consumers find the products and prices they want. But in an effort to differentiate itself from other engines, it also digs up reviews, tips, and information from assorted sources on products that users might wish to buy.
Shin Nagakura, an executive vice president at Transcosmos, said his company likes to partner with American companies that can succeed in the Japanese market. In the past, the group has also invested in Ask Jeeves, Real Networks, and DoubleClick.
If I can bring that service or company to the Japanese market, that is very important to us, Mr. Nagakura said.
Become’s competitors in Japan will include Yahoo "the 800-pound gorilla,” Yang says, online shopping site Rakutan and comparison shopping engine Kakaku.com.
Become Japan will be headquartered in Tokyo, and will launch with a staff of 15 in a 2,000-square-foot office. Become Japan will launch sometime before the end of the year. Yang says the goal is to take Become Japan public in Japan.