• by Tameka Kee , November 1, 2007

The Australian unit of Yahoo will now sell and serve display ads for social networking site Bebo in Australia, under a new deal between the companies.

The agreement, announced Wednesday, also calls for the integration of Yahoo Answers and the embedding of Yahoo's video player on the Bebo site. Yahoo previously forged a similar deal in the UK and Ireland with Bebo, a social network that boasts 39 million members worldwide. In Australia, the site reached more than 1.4 million users in September, making it the second-largest social networking property in that country.

The deal is just one piece of Yahoo's strategy for building a "premium partnership network that will offer advertisers and users the greatest online experience," said Markus Barnikel, head of strategic partnerships at Yahoo7 (a joint venture between Yahoo and Australian media giant Seven Network Limited). "In working together, Yahoo7 and Bebo will be able to offer advertisers a highly engaged audience in the youth market," he said.

Barnikel added that Yahoo7 would also be able to leverage the Right Media ad exchange and its behavioral targeting technology with Bebo advertisers.