BuzzFeed has signed a partnership with Yahoo Japan to launch a Japanese language version of its news website, as part of its overseas expansion strategy.

While BuzzFeed is available in several countries outside its US heartland, the Yahoo Japan deal marks the first time it has partnered with a local media owner. It typically launches overseas as wholly-owned ventures.

BuzzFeed will tap into Yahoo’s knowledge of Japanese language and culture, while the partnership will also give the news site an immediate audience.

Yahoo Japan, itself a joint venture between Yahoo and Japanese company Softbank, claims it reaches 88% of the country’s population, generates 1.8bn page views per day and 56bn page views per month.

BuzzFeed will own the majority stake in the partnership, with Yahoo Japan – which claims it is the “first choice of ad placement for marketers” and has grown the number of advertisers by 150% in five years – owning the BuzzFeed Japan sales channel.

BuzzFeed was founded in the US 2006 by Huffington Post co-founder Jonah Peretti and is available in the UK, Brazil, France, Australia, India, Germany, Mexico and Canada.

Greg Coleman, BuzzFeed’s president, said: “We’ve been really successful with the wholly owned and operated, organic-growth model we’ve used for launches in other countries, but in Japan we want to open with a partner who can help accelerate our growth.

“This is why a joint venture makes the most sense. We put a lot of thought into finding the right partner. Beyond looking at pure reach, we wanted to find a team that has local cultural knowledge, established clients and strong revenue numbers.”