Yahoo! announced new mobile initiatives for the Asia Pacific region, including new Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships with five new mobile operators, including Indian Mahanagar Telephon Nigam Limited, Hong Kong CSL Limited, Philippines-based Smart Communications and Digital Mobile Phlis and Taiwan-based Vibo Telecom. The company said that with these announcements, it has signed more than 60 mobile search deals in the last 18 months.
“Sixty signed Yahoo! oneSearch partner deals is a great milestone, putting us on our way to our goal of ultimately connecting the billions of mobile consumers around the globe with the best possible Internet experience,” Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo!’s Connected Life, said in a statement.
Yahoo! also announced localized versions of Yahoo! Go 3.0 for India, Australia and Southeast Asia, including a local language version for Indonesia, and an English version of Yahoo! oneSearch with voice that recognizes regional accents. The company also announced the launch of new mobile widgets for the Asia Pacific region, including Yahoo! Cricket, Yahoo! Answers and Showtimes (Yahoo! India Movies), as well as an MTV Asia mobile widget featuring news updates and music charts.
Along with its new oneSearch products and partners, Yahoo! announced strategic mobile advertising partnerships with Idea Cellular in India and Maxis Communications in Malaysia. Under the terms of the deals, the two mobile operators plan to carry a variety of graphical advertisements, sold and served by Yahoo!.
Yahoo!’s advertising partners already include AT&T, T-Mobile International and Vodafone UK.