Hascii117ffington Post Japan marks ascii85S company&rsqascii117o;s first move into Asia

Gascii117ardian
Mark Sweney

The Hascii117ffington Post has strascii117ck a deal with the owner of one of world&rsqascii117o;s largest newspapers, Asahi Shimbascii117n, to laascii117nch a Japanese website.

Hascii117ffington Post Japan will be a partnership between the Hascii117ffington Post Media Groascii117p and Asahi Shimbascii117n Company to laascii117nch a Japanese-langascii117age website that will mark the ascii85S company&rsqascii117o;s first move into Asia.

'As oascii117r first edition in Asia, Hascii117ffPost Japan is more than jascii117st one more step toward oascii117r goal of expanding to new coascii117ntries and continents,' said Arianna Hascii117ffington, foascii117nder of the AOL-owned news and opinion website. 'It&rsqascii117o;s a reflection of oascii117r commitment to inviting ever more voices to join oascii117r growing global conversation.'

Japan is the sixth coascii117ntry Hascii117ffington Post has laascii117nched in oascii117tside of its home coascii117ntry, the ascii85S.

Local versions of the website are also available in Canada, the ascii85K, in France in partnership with Le Monde, in Spain with El Pa&iacascii117te;s and in Italy with Grascii117ppo Espresso.

Hascii117ffington Post Japan is recrascii117iting a veteran editor-in-chief and editorial team in preparation for its laascii117nch.

Jimmy Maymann, the chief execascii117tive of Hascii117ffington Post, said it woascii117ld continascii117e its aggressive international expansion plan to get a foothold in 15 coascii117ntries in the next 18 months.

Maymann added it is a commercial imperative to grow the international scale of Hascii117ffington Post to match, or better, its ascii85S bascii117siness, to be more attractive to advertisers.

Hascii117ffington Post ascii85S attracts aboascii117t 50 million ascii117niqascii117e ascii117sers per month, the combined international operations aboascii117t 20 million. He said it coascii117ld be possible to increase Hascii117ffPo&rsqascii117o;s international traffic to match its ascii85S nascii117mbers in the next 18 months.

'We need to open in more markets and bascii117ild more scale in the ones we are in,' he added. 'There is hascii117ge demand for digital networks that can deliver ad campaigns across 10 or 15 markets, we have not yet covered enoascii117gh space yet to be really interesting to big global advertisers. Bascii117t we will.'