Sunnyvale, California — Barely days after Yahoo’s futile attempt to snaffle New York-based Foursquare for more than $100 million, and just a day after announcing a new mapping alliance with Nokia, Yahoo on Tuesday announced that it has acquired Koprol, an Indonesian Internet service that lets people use mobile telephones to instantly connect with nearby people and places.
Using Koprol, Indonesian mobile phone users will be better able to communicate and distribute information about their community in a way that is specifically designed for mobile phones. For example, people can use Koprol to “check in” to their current location and see where others are and what they are doing. Or, they can use the service to help find local businesses, such as eateries — and if the food is superb, they can tell the world by posting a “thumbs-up” feature.
“Users are increasingly depending on mobile devices to communicate and access the Internet and they are looking for seamless integration between those devices and PCs. This is especially true in many emerging markets where we are introducing the Yahoo brand to many new-to-Net users,” said Rose Tsou, senior vice president, Asia Region at Yahoo.
“Koprol was uniquely configured for mobile phones and within a year has already built a strong user base. Yahoo provides the global scale and technology to accelerate growth in Indonesia as well as introduce the service to new markets.”
(Credit: Koprol)
“Headquartered in Jakarta, Koprol is a provider of online consumer experiences that aggregates social, mobile and location based services,” a post on Yahoo’s corporate blog read. “Koprol empowers people to connect and share photos, reviews and additional information about locations in real-time using just their mobile phone browser, making the service accessible to a larger percentage of mobile users. The addition of Koprol to the Yahoo! family will extend Yahoo!’s social and mobile offering in this emerging market,” the post added.
While there are great deal of similarities with Foursquare, including the “check in” feature, Koprol is much more appropriate for the market it is in. Being a web app, it works on any mobile phone, not just smartphones, and it also has a more developed social aspect.
“We are excited to join Yahoo! and look forward to the opportunities being part of a global Internet leader presents,” said Koprol co-founder Fajar Budiprasetyo.
“This is a great success story for the online community in Indonesia and demonstrates that innovation is recognized wherever it occurs.”
Eying the latest craze of location-based social networks for mobile users, Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz has been hunting to buy such business to reap the booming benefits of that market. As part of the acquisition agreement, Yahoo! will continue to invest in evolving Koprol’s service, such as the new BlackBerry application introduced today, and expects to announce new mobile applications for both local and global mobile platforms in the future.
The price tag and other financial details of the Koprol purchase were not disclosed. Below, Yahoo talks with Koprol’s founders about the service: