Yahoo! continued to lead the search market in Japan in December, new research suggests.According to figures produced by comScore, the US-based search engine experienced 42.1 million visitors during the month.
Meanwhile, rival Google came in second position, securing visits from 32.3 million Japanese internet users, while Microsoft - in third place - saw 29.1 million people access its sites.
Analysis of Japanese web rankings in October revealed a similar pattern, with Yahoo! sites attracting 41.3 million visitors, while Google and Microsoft had 31.7 million and 29.4 million respectively.
Commenting on the success of Yahoo! in the country, managing director of comScore Japan Maru Sato stated: "Yahoo! maintains its hold on the Japanese internet market. [Its] sites reach nearly 77 per cent of the total internet audience in Japan."
Also performing well over the festive season, Rakuten was the fourth most popular internet property, with just over 29 million visitors.
Founded in February 1997, the company operates one of the biggest online shopping services in Japan.
Additionally, it was revealed that, as a result of the December celebrations, visits to e-card sites rose by 171 per cent, making it the top-gaining category over the month. Such sites attracted 5.5 million visitors over the 31-day period.
Also, retail sites experienced strong growth, including the jewellery, luxury goods and accessories category, which jumped 25 per cent and was accessed by 2.1 million internet users.
