BuzzFeed has announced that it’s partnering with Yahoo Japan to bring localized shareable content to readers in the country.
Unlike BuzzFeed’s other international launches where it’s maintained complete ownership of its operations — such as Brazil, the UK, France, Australia, India, Germany, Mexico and Canada — this will be a joint venture with Yahoo Japan that will harness the latter’s expertise in localizing content.
BuzzFeed will own a majority share of its first-ever joint venture and will provide its brand, technology platform, and process for developing content and native advertising. Yahoo Japan will share cultural insights, drive traffic to the new site and own the sales channel to bring BuzzFeed Japan to market.
The company says that 45 percent of its traffic comes from outside the US. For its part, Yahoo Japan claims that it reaches 88 percent of Japanese Web users, with nearly half its audience aged between 20 and 39 — which is right up BuzzFeed’s alley.
BuzzFeed also launched a Snapchat channel last month, as well as a news app for iOS in June.
Update: BuzzFeed confirmed in a statement today that NBCUniversal has agreed to invest $200 million in the company.
➤ BuzzFeed Partners With Yahoo Japan [BuzzFeed via TechCrunch]
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