Yahoo Launches Android App Market In Japan

Yahoo Japan has launched its own "Yahoo Market" for Android apps in the country, further fragmenting an already fractured app distribution environment on the platform. Though the Yahoo Market currently only links users to Google's Android Marketplace to fulfill app purchases, the company plans to offer apps and games directly starting in Spring 2012, according to a release translated by Moconews. Android already has a number of app markets competing with Google's centralized Android Marketplace, including an Amazon Android Marketplace that will serve as the exclusive distribution point for the company's upcoming Kindle fire tablet. The fragmentation has been a headache for many app and game developers seeking to reach all of the massive Android user base, which currently represents close to 45 percent of all smartphone users. DeNA partnered with Yahoo Japan to launch Android-based Mobage mobile social network in the country last year, before bringing the network to the the U.S. under subsidiary ngmoco this year.