By NAOKO MURAI/ Staff Writer
September 26, 2023 at 13:38 JST
Yahoo Japan Corp.’s statement regarding a Fair Trade Commission report posted on a Yahoo News blog on Sept. 25 (From the company website)
Yahoo Japan Corp. will review contracts with media organizations that provide content to its Yahoo News platform after the Fair Trade Commission warned that the company could be in an unfair bargaining position.
“We need to make serious efforts toward further development of the entire online news distribution market,” the company said on Sept. 25, referring to an FTC report on the compensation paid by news platform operators to media organizations that provide articles.
News portal sites, such as Yahoo News, receive stories from media organizations and earn revenue from advertisers based on pageviews.
They pay fees to media organizations for using their stories, but media outlets cannot determine if the amounts are appropriate or how they are arrived at because they conclude contracts individually.
In its report released on Sept. 21, the FTC warned that there could be a violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law if rates for using articles are excessively low.
The Yahoo News website carries about 7,500 stories provided by about 720 media organizations daily and garners about 17 billion monthly pageviews.
In a statement posted on a Yahoo News blog, Yahoo Japan said it plans to explain contract provisions to affiliated media organizations in more detail and review them based on performances.
The company also said it plans to disclose data on how their stories are read and explain in advance planned changes in service specifications and guidelines.
The FTC said Yahoo Japan could be in a dominant bargaining position over media organizations as the industry leader accounts for about half the fees for using stories that news portal sites pay to media organizations.
The competition watchdog added there is no denying the possibility that other news platform operators are also in a superior bargaining position.
A Yahoo Japan representative declined to comment on the possibility of the company abusing its negotiating position, saying, “A judgment should be made based on individual relationships.
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