UPDATE:India key market for us, focus on mobile platform: Yahoo!

I / Singapore June 16, 2009, 17:57 IST

Internet search giant Yahoo! today said India is a key market for the company and it will launch a host of new features for its mobile application to expand its userbase.

"India was one of the first markets where we launched our mobile application and is a key market for us given the huge mobile base... We plan to launch a series of products for such mobile users that will help us increase userbase," Yahoo! Mobile Senior Vice-President David Ko told reporters here.

Yahoo! also launched a new homepage which can be customised by users who access the website through their mobile handsets. The new interface allows users to customise his/her landing page and provides localised content, he added.

Yahoo! Mobile is now available in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Spain, along with United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Ko said the focus in India would be on presenting localised content that would help Yahoo! Mobile to build its user base in the country.

He, however, declined to comment on the number of Indian users who access Yahoo! through their mobile."The growth of mobile phones (in India) has been great and we expect a good number of people to access Internet in the coming days from their handsets," Ko said.

Yahoo! has already said India is one of the 'top emerging markets' for the company and that it would now focus on further consolidating its position in the country.

It plans to launch a host of new products, developed in the Indian lab and centres abroad, on the PC and mobile platform to help it grow its userbase in the Indian market.

Yahoo! Mobile offers various services for mobile users through the internet.

"We are in India for 7-8 years. As a investment destination, we rate India among the Tier I countries. As we are well positioned in terms of subscriber base, we would increase the market share gradually," Kunze said.

Besides, the company has products specially for India, like Yahoo! Cricket and Bollywood, and plans to come up with more localised content which are of interest to Indians.

"We are currently working out on search platforms that would click like the way it did in the case of cricket," Kunze added.

Yahoo! Mobile services is now available in 17 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico and Brazil.