Yahoo! JAPAN, SOFTBANK Group AND SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT FORMALLIANCE TO OFFER BROADBAND NETWORK SERVICES

December 20, 2001

Yahoo Japan Corporation (Yahoo! JAPAN), SOFTBANK Group, and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that they had entered into an agreement to provide broadband network services on the PlayStation®2 platform.

1. Purpose of alliance

A variety of network services become available on Yahoo! BB, a broadband network service provided by SOFTBANK Group, to PlayStation 2 users through SCEI’s proprietary authentication and copy management system, Dynamic Network Authentication System(DNAS). Among these services are broadband network services including Yahoo! BB communication tools, together with the delivery of the entire network content currently available by Yahoo! JAPAN, such as auctions, financing, and on-line news and sports. Also, PlayStation 2 disks will be provided together with SOFTBANK Group publications to offer new entertainment made possible by combining disk of 2002. Through this alliance, it becomes possible for Yahoo! BB to offer its services to over 7 million PlayStation 2 owners in Japan. PlayStation 2 users will be able to enjoy a rich source of network content provided by Yahoo! JAPAN and SOFTBANK Group in a high speed and always-on DSL environment, in addition to the already available game and DVD content.

2. Outline of alliance

(1) Broadband content portal site provided to PlayStation 2 users (B2C)

PlayStation 2 users are able to enjoy broadband content, broadband communication and broadband commerce provide by Yahoo! JAPAN and BB Technologies Corporation, a SOFTBANK Group company that structures, provides and manages the ADSL infrastructure.

(2) Broadband content delivery services (B2B)

High quality content delivery services are provided on the billing/collection platform offered by Yahoo! BB and secured by SCEI’s DNAS.

(3) Broadband communication services (C2C)

Communication services with video images are provided through the “BB Phone” platform, a broadband Internet telephone service offered by Yahoo! BB.

(4) Broadband commerce services (B2B2C)

Combination of commerce services provided by Yahoo! JAPAN with SCEI’s DNAS is sought for to provide new commerce services including voice and video product presentation.

(5) Publication business for PlayStation 2 on Broadband (B2C)

New distribution business becomes available by combining the network with disk media attached to publications, and secured by SCEI’s DNAS.

(6) Broadband Unit for PlayStation 2 provided (B2B2C)

Broadband Unit for PlayStation 2 (40Gbyte hard disk drive with 100M bit/sec ether-net) is added to the subscription package with the ADSL modem provide by Yahoo! BB to its subscribers.

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