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Yahoo targets ‘social’ connections among its Filipino users

MANILA, Philippines–Yahoo says it wants to take advantage of its user base in the Philippines while making its core e-mail and instant messaging tools more “social” and relevant for both users and advertisers.

Yahoo executives discussed new versions of Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger in a media briefing during a visit to Manila.

Yahoo last month opened a local office to bolster its goal of taking advantage of its large user base in the Philippines. Yahoo claims that more than 80 percent of the 22 million estimated Internet users in the country use its web applications.

In response to changing user habits, particularly the popularity of social networking, Yahoo is introducing new features in Mail and Messenger designed to allow users to share and communicate better.

The new Yahoo Messenger (YM version 9.0 released end of May) is designed for Microsoft’s Windows Vista and carries new “voice visualizations” for doing web-based phone calls.

A new feature also allows users view a YouTube video, for example, while chatting without having to open a separate browser window. “This makes the conversation a lot richer for the users,” said Sabrina Ellis, vice president for Yahoo Messenger.

For Yahoo Mail, meanwhile, Yahoo is introducing what the company refers to as a “smart inbox” that displays relevant information from a user’s “social connections” and likewise integrates Messenger.

These social connections are derived from the other applications, including social networking sites like Facebook that the end-user often uses or visits.

Yahoo expects these new features to enhance collaboration–especially communication–while allowing Yahoo to push local and relevant content. Ellis, for example, said Yahoo plans to localize Messenger in terms of content and even language translations.

“As we are able to gather more information, it becomes a win-win proposition for both users and local advertisers,” Ellis said.

John Kremer, vice president for Yahoo Mail, meanwhile, expects Yahoo’s services to become significantly more local as it opens core applications to third-party developers.

“As we are able to know more about the connections made by users, we can direct content not only based on which market they are part of but what user segment they belong to,” Kremer said.

Source:newsinfo.inquirer.net

Yahoo seeks local partners to boost internet users

The regional unit of top internet portal Yahoo! is looking for new Indonesian partners to help expand its market in the country.

Pontus Sonnerstedt, senior director of business development at Yahoo! Southeast Asia, said in Jakarta on Friday the company needed new partners to lure more internet users to boost revenue from advertisement.

“Indonesia is a promising market thanks to its large population,” he told a media briefing.

The Singapore-based unit of the Internet giant has been working on improving its content in conjunction with several local players, including news, mobile phone and advertisement companies, Sonnerstedt said.

“We are cooperating with news providers ‘Kompas’ and ‘Detik’ to provide local news for users of Yahoo! in Indonesia,” he said.

He said his company had also been collaborating with local mobile phone partners Telkomsel, Indosat, Excelcomindo and Hutch 3 to provide news and messaging services on cellular phones.

“Any companies interested in posting their advertisements on the Yahoo! website can contact our partners Admax and Yellow Brick Road,” he said.

Senior manager of communications for Southeast Asia Jason Coates said the search-engine division of the company had recently been focusing on improving its home page display.

“This year we have launched new products, including Yahoo! Messenger for mobile phone users, Yahoo! GO 3G for mobiles and Yahoo! toolbar,” he said.

The company offers a number of products at its local domain www.yahoo.co.id.

In 2005, the regional unit launched Indonesian versions of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Search.

In 2006, the company revamped its local home page and made improvements to its Indonesian-language variants of Yahoo! Messenger and Web Messenger.

“We will create more innovative products to attract new users in line with the increasing number of local internet users,” he said.

Indonesia has seen a rapid growth in the number of its internet users.

According to data from the Indonesian Association of Internet Service Providers, at the end of last year there were 25 million users in the country, up from 20 million in 2006 and 16 million in 2005

Source:old.thejakartapost.com