Yahoo, America Movil Partner On Mobile Search In Latin America
- by Mark Walsh @markfwal, December 21, 2007
Under the multi-year agreement, Yahoo's oneSearch will be the default search provider on America Movil cell phone decks. Yahoo plans to create custom versions of oneSearch geared to each of the 16 countries where America Movil provides service.
Tailored to the mobile screen, oneSearch is designed to reduce the number of clicks needed to find information by interpreting a user's intent and delivering results accordingly. More general Web links, like those returned in typical Internet searches, are de-emphasized.
Yahoo said the America Movil pact was the largest of 21 mobile search deals it has completed this year with wireless carriers worldwide. In November, it reached a similar agreement with Telefonica to provide its search service to the carrier's 100 million mobile subscribers in Latin America and Europe.
Yahoo will begin rolling out oneSearch with America Movil in the key markets of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in the coming months before moving onto other Latin American countries. Search results on America Movil phones will include links to online content offered by the wireless operator such as ringtones and wallpapers.
A Yahoo spokesperson said the company would discuss providing additional mobile services to America Movil in the weeks and months ahead. Through its Yahoo Mobile and Yahoo Go services, the Web portal offers mobile versions of its Internet applications including e-mail, Flickr, instant messaging and news.
Unlike Google, which plans to build its own open mobile platform, Yahoo is aggressively pursuing partnerships with carriers and handset makers to put its content and services on cell phone menus. While Google dominates Internet search, mobile search is still viewed as wide-open territory. Market research firm Kelsey Group predicts that mobile search will grow to $1.4 billion in 2012, from just $33 million in 2007.
