[Company analysis] Yahoo Japan Corporation (ヤフー)

「Yahoo Japan Corporation (ヤフー)」operates the portal site Yahoo! JAPAN, and their main source of revenue is advertising on our own site, broadband-related businesses, and Internet auctions. It is is a subsidiary of「Softbank Corporation(ソフトバンク)」. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 6,515.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Yahoo Japan Corporation
Company name (Japanese)	ヤフー
Date of establishment	April 1996
Headquarters location	〒102-8282 東京都千代田区紀尾井町1-3
Capital	8,737
Consolidated sales	954,714
Consolidated operating profit	140,528
Consolidated total assets	2,429,601
Consolidated capital	910,523
Capital adequacy ratio	37.5%
Consolidated number of employees	6,515

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
In January 1996,「Softnank」and「Yahoo!」jointly established the current「Yahoo Japan」. As a first portal site in Japan, "Yahoo! JAPAN" started its actual service three months later in April 1996. Eventually, It became the most popular Japanese portal site. On January 19, 2000, during the heyday of IT bubble, the stock price of「Yahoo Japan」exceeded 100 million yen per 1 share. This was the first event in Tokyo stock market history. At this point, the market capitalization of「Yahoo Japan」even exceeded that of its parent company,「Softbank」.

 

However, after that, they repeated stock splits, now the stock price per share dropped. Nevertheless, if we sum splitted stock share up, the total amount is almost same with the heyday times. In terms of the control structure,「Yahoo Japan」is indirectly controlled by「Z Holdings」, the parent company of「Softbank」.

 

One of the interesting facts is that the domain of「Yahoo!」in the United States ends with ".com", and「Yahoo! Korea」also had its address at "kr.yahoo.com" but only「Yahoo! Japan」ends with "co.jp". In addition,「Yahoo! Japan」is not included in the list of「Yahoo!」's affiliated companies. The reason is that「Altaba Inc.,」, the successor company of 「Yahoo !」sold all its holdings of「Yahoo! Japan」to「Softbank」as of September 17, 2018, so「Yahoo! Japan」became completely in control of「Softbank」. For this reason, only「Yahoo! Japan」maintains its own identity, unlike other countries.

 

「Yahoo! Japan」 offers an extremely wide range of services. Thanks to this strategy, this company even surpassing「Google」in the cumulative download ranking of smartphone applications in Japan. The quality and amount of big data obtained based on this result, become the driving force behind Yahoo's competitive advantage. In addition, because it has been active for a relatively long time among IT companies, it has brand power. And it is highly evaluated as having a strong appeal to middle-aged and elderly people.

 

In addition, the operating profit margin of「Yahoo! Japan」is over 20%. This is an average result for an IT company, but given the aggressive new business development and investment unique to「Yahoo! Japan」, it is said to be sufficiently high. Recently,「Softbank」and「Credit Saison」started the fintech business "PayPay" from 2018, and 「Yahoo Japan」is actively engaged in expanding it. Currently, Japan's non-cash payment ratio is about 18.4%, which is extremely low for a developed country. To put it the other way around, the market potential is extremely huge.

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Media business
It is a business that provides the services necessary for daily life and produces benefits by displaying advertisements. This is basically related to almost all services provided by「Yahoo! japan」, and this advertising-related sales continue to grow every year. 

■ E-Commerce business
Membership services such as EC services "Yahoo! Shopping" and auction services "Yahoo!", "Yahoo! Premium", "Yahoo! BB", and businesses such as "Yahoo! JAPAN Card" and "Japan Net bank". In the case of "Yahoo! Shopping" and "Yahoo! Auctions", the store opening fee is not required. 

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated revenue		853,730	897,185	954,714
Consolidated operating profit		192,049	185,810	140,528
Consolidated total assets		2,516,633	1,121,887	2,429,601
Consolidated net assets		1,534,212	998,709	910,523
Breakdown of revenue	Media business	279,898	286,914	301,880
	E-Commerce business	553,119	590,457	646,443
	Others	20,713	1,814	6,390