Dear Yahoo,

I know times are tough for you, but that’s no excuse for losing site of the plot.

Yours,

Chris

Imagine my surprise today when I was reading an article on Marketing Interactive on MySpace’s diminishing relevance, when I saw an advertisement for Yahoo Vietnam being run off of Google Banner Ad network?  The banner is in Vietnamese, and says quite simply “How do you like your Yahoo? Check out the new home page” and directs users to the Singapore homepage http://sg.yahoo.com/bin/set which is also weird.  I would have thought that a banner in Vietnamese would redirect to the homepage of Yahoo Vietnam.

I would hope that this banner is IP-targeted to Vietnam, so people outside of Vietnam wouldn’t see this.

Besides that though, Yahoo has over 90% penetration with the online population in Vietnam through Yahoo! Messenger.  They do not need the additional reach that running on Google might give them, nor should they be running Vietnamese banners on them.  Here in Vietnam, Google’s sites are still largely in English.

Yahoo! must have a compelling reason to send money to their competitor and strengthen their ad network.  Heck, if Yahoo! really wanted to do expand their reach, they should get in touch with Admax Network!

Admax Network has a much better reach in Vietnam than Google.  :)