Yahoo signs six Asian operators for mobile search

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 21 June 2007 08:30

Your IT - Mobility

Six mobile phone operators in Asia have agreed to use Yahoo's oneSearch mobile search engine.

The operators are Globe Telecom (Philippines), Idea Cellular (India), LG Telecom (South Korea), Maxis Communications (Malaysia), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Indonesia) and Taiwan Mobile (you guessed it, Taiwan). Together, they have nearly 100 million subscribers.

"These partnerships with leading operators in Asia help extend Yahoo's clear leadership in the mobile space," said David Ko, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo.

No specific financial details of the agreements were revealed, but Yahoo officials did indicate that the carriers will receive a share of the revenue (predominantly from advertising) that accrues from their subscribers' use of the service.

oneSearch provides access to to news, Web images, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr, and web and mobile web sites. Yahoo claims "It’s all about getting instant answers with just one click" rather than making the user "sift through a bunch of links like on the PC."

The service is already available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

In related news, Yahoo announced Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 in the US plus beta versions for 13 other countries. Features include increased speed, improved email (including the ability to view PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel files) and more powerful mapping (including driving directions and - on certain devices - GPS integration).

Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 will be available for more than 200 phones in the US by the end of July, and more than 400 by the end of the year, company officials claimed.

"People want easy access to the Internet on their mobile phones, and Yahoo! Go 2.0 offers content, access and answers wherever you are," said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life Division, Yahoo.