MOZILLA GOES WITH YAHOO! IN ASIA... INTRODUCING FIREFOX 1.5

From Mozilla's press release last week, I found it interesting but not surprising that they are partnering with Yahoo! in Asia. It probably was a practical move since Yahoo!'s overall presence in Asia is stronger than Google's.

I remember about three years ago when I was living in Seoul and talking with my friend at NHN Corp., who owns the leading search service Naver.com, on how surprising it was that Google still hasn't setup a strong presence in South Korea. It was and still is the 5th largest online advertising market in the world, but I believe Google had only one or two sales reps in Korea back then and less than 5% of the market. Why don't they have a full operating office here? This was a question that obviously came to mind.

Finally, Google is building out their presence in Asia, so it will be interesting to see how quickly they will ramp up and compete with Yahoo! and the local players in each market.

With Firefox 1.5, Mozilla continues its search partnership with Google in the Americas and in Europe and begins a new search relationship with Yahoo! in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

"Yahoo! is very pleased to enter into a strategic relationship with Mozilla that enables us to offer Firefox to further extend our network of products and services in four of the most rapidly-growing Internet markets in the world," said Farzad Nazem, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo! Inc. "By combining Yahoo!'s global Internet leadership with Mozilla's innovative, easy-to-use, open source Firefox Web browser and our shared commitment to end users, we will deliver an enhanced Web experience for millions of users worldwide, beginning with China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan." (full press release)