Yahoo! International
Yahoo offers a multi-lingual interface. The site is available in over 20 languages. The official directory for all of the Yahoo International sites is world.yahoo.com.
The company's international sites are wholly owned by Yahoo, with the exception of Yahoo Japan, in which it holds a 34.75% minority stake. SoftBank holds 35.45%, Yahoo!Xtra in New Zealand which Yahoo!7 have 51% of and 49% belongs to Telecom New Zealand and Yahoo!7 in Australia which is a 50–50 agreement between Yahoo and the Seven Network. Historically, Yahoo entered into joint venture agreements with SoftBank for the major European sites (UK, France, Germany) and well as Korea and Japan. In November 2005, Yahoo purchased the minority interests that SoftBank owned in Europe and Korea.
Yahoo used to hold a 40% stake in Alibaba, which manages a web portal in China using the Yahoo brand name. Yahoo in the USA does not have direct control over Alibaba, which operates as a completely independent company. On May 21, 2012, following years of negotiations, Alibaba announced that it would buy back half the 40% stake owned by Yahoo. The deal would raise about $7.1bn (£4.5bn) for Yahoo, which has been losing ground to rival Google and Facebook in online advertising.
On March 8, 2011 Yahoo launched its Romania local service after years of delay due to the financial crisis.
Yahoo officially entered the MENA region when it acquired Maktoob, a pan-regional, Arabic-language hosting and social services online portal, on August 25, 2009. Since the service is pan-regional, Yahoo officially became Yahoo Maktoob in the region.
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