Yahoo's Australia Arm Undergoes Shakeup

yahoo7.jpgYahoo7, the joint venture site between Yahoo and the 7 network in Australia has undergone a big shakeup following declining traffic and poor advertising results.

According to a report at Australian IT, Yahoo7’s traffic has declined from 5.5 million in January to 4.9 million in August, and advertising has remained flat despite massive growth in the sector.

Yahoo appointee and previous Chief Sales Officer Markus Barnikel has been moved to a “less hands on role” and Yahoo Search Marketing’s Craig Wax will be returning to the United States. Willie Pang, who previously workedon Yahoo’s Panama project will head Yahoo Search Marketing Australia & New Zealand.

Australia has long been a dominant market for Google, with the Mountain View search giant holding between 80-85% of the local search market for at least the last 2 years according to various reports. Australia is a surprisingly strong market for Microsoft, with its local joint venture NineMSN holding a 26% share of main ad buying marketplace (corporate buys), followed closely by News Corp and local media group Fairfax Digital, who operate well known sites including SMH.com.au and a variety of ecommerce ventures.