The Hindu Business Line : Yahoo keen to partner with entrepreneurs

Yahoo India is keen to grow a partner ecosystem in India so as to have a presence in new areas that it currently does not have a footing. “We are interested in partnering with entrepreneurs who would develop some applications that can be leveraged through Yahoo,” said Mr Sharad Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Yahoo Software Development India Pvt Ltd.

For instance, if one wants to build a portal on Indian food, health and nutrition, Yahoo would be willing to provide that person with its tools and technology. “This is because we do not want to develop everything ourselves,” Mr Sharma told Business Line. Such a portal can be listed on Yahoo’s home page so that users may be directed to it by clicking on its link. Yahoo has similar partnerships with Bharatmatrimony.com and Makemytrip.com.

“We are also open to the idea of investing in such businesses”, he said.

Yahoo is strengthening its focus on search, e-mail and front page and is making significant investments in making them stand out from competition, Mr Sharma said without disclosing investment figures.

“We are deepening our partnerships on e-mail. Our front page is opening up to widgets. Widgets are interface elements that users can interact with such as a window or a text box.”

The company is also working on local innovations in the area of search and other applications that can be customised to emerging markets. The company will soon launch a new product that will be test marketed first in India .

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When asked if this was a local search capability, Mr Sharma did not share any details.

Yahoo’s text-based search development happens in the US while its Bangalore operations cater to global non-text search (audio, video, mobile, image) development. Yahoo recent applications, India Maps and Our City, were also entirely developed in India. India Maps currently covers over 45 cities and landmark-based map directions were recently added to the application. “The Our City application is seeing traction in Australia,” Mr Sharma said adding that India was Yahoo’s primary centre for global development and not a satellite centre.

The mobile version of Our City and Maps will be available as a widget once Yahoo’s mobile platform Yahoo Go 3.0 is launched in India.

The company is also progressing with the development of its advertising platform for businesses in India. “We did significant development in the latter half of last year and are now planning to launch similar applications in other emerging markets,” Mr Sharma said. Over the next few months, Yahoo will move its global advertising applications development to India so as facilitate faster entry into emerging markets.

Unlike Google’s platform Ad Sense, Yahoo’s applications focus on small advertisers who can advertise for their clients on Yahoo search and associated pages.

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