Yahoo! to Reach Over 15 Million Subscribers through This New Partnership, Taking a Leadership Position in Mobile Search in India
Mumbai — Internet major Yahoo announced on Wednesday that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with mobile service provider Idea Cellular in India representing a subscriber base of over 15 million.
This new partnership focuses on distribution of Yahoo!’s popular mobile search service, Yahoo! oneSearch, which was launched in Asia in May of this year.
The service will make it easier for people to search and find better results on their mobile handsets. Yahoo! oneSearch gives consumers access to news, Web images, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr and Web and mobile Web sites, as well as making it easy to navigate to other web sites.
“Yahoo!oneSearch provides Idea with a competitive advantage by offering a reliable and easy-to-use mobile search offer to consumers in India,” Pradeep Shrivastava, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular Limited, said in a statement.
“Our subscribers are increasingly looking for the quickest way to access services on the open Internet and the mobile device has now become a tool to get instant answers,” Shrivastava added.
For example, if someone wants to look for the latest information on a city they just need to type “Mumbai” into the search box to receive relevant results based on their search queries such as weather, Flickr photos, web images, latest news articles and more.
Based on the strategic partnership with Idea clearly demonstrates Yahoo!’s commitment to become number one player in mobile services and establish a strong early leadership position in mobile audience reach, mobile search services and mobile monetization.
“Our partnership with Idea Cellular is helping to extend Yahoo!’s clear leadership in search for mobile users in India,” said David Ko, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo!.
“Yahoo! is committed to innovation that provides value to operators and consumers and our mobile partnership strategy will continue to evolve and add value to our respective customers,” Ko added.
Idea Cellular has over 15-million subscribers and through this partnership, Yahoo is in a position to take a leadership position in mobile search in the country.
Idea Cellular, which is a part of the $12 billion Aditya Birla Group, operates in over 18 countries, employing about 88,000 people.
Yahoo! oneSearch is now available in 14 countries around the world, including India. Yahoo! oneSearch first launched in the United States in January 2007.
Information on Yahoo! oneSearch in India is available at: http://in.mobile.yahoo.com/.