Yahoo!7 has signed a contract with Microsoft and Bing, and just a few moths ago, they have struck an indorsement with Google for search in Australia. That means both search results and ads served will be powered by Google.
In 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! signed a 10 year agreement where Bing would support Yahoo! Search. That agreement looked like including Australia up until earlier this year when the two failed to reach an agreement locally. Since it is a joint venture in Australia with Seven West Media, Yahoo!7 is not bound by the terms of the global search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo.
In July 2013. Mi9 launched Bing Ads without Yahoo!7 onboard. Both sides have blamed the other for failing to commit a deal, a situation that has not helped relations strained by intense local rivalry. Yahoo!7 then approached Google, and the two have negotiated a deal. It is understood that the deal is not exclusive, which means the two are free to work with other partners.
Yahoo!7 has played down the implications for staff as a result of the deal. “We are undertaking changes to evolve the Yahoo! Search Marketing business in Australia,” said Amanda Millar, director of trade marketing and corporate affairs at Yahoo!7.
In regards to the release of the Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance, unlike other markets globally, Microsoft made a decision to launch Bing in Australia without a managed migration of advertisers. As a result, there will be some changes in their business which will see the majority of the search inventory transition to the Google Ad platform. This has led to a small number of redundancies representing less than 2% of our workforce.
“We will undertake a planned migration to the Google Ad platform over the next few weeks. We believe the decision by Microsoft to launch Bing without us is not in the best interest of the Australian search industry.”
Now, Google has over 90% of the local search market and Bing has around 5%.