Internet media giant Yahoo Inc, which largely depends on online advertising for revenue, is looking to its fee-based mobile services to boost sales in India, whose wireless industry is poised for galloping growth.
Yahoo, which has more than 27 million registered accounts from India, expects domestic revenue from wireless services such as text-based news alerts, movie downloads and dating services to grow faster this year on the back of new partnerships with cellphone service providers.
Yahoo India, which expects to turn profitable by mid-2003, already has a revenue-sharing alliance with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's Indian mobile service partner.
"Mobile services continue to build and is a key revenue driver for Yahoo India," Neville Taraporewalla, who heads Yahoo's Indian operations, told Reuters in a telephone interview on Tuesday. He did not provide any financial details.
"We aim to build a Yahoo community on the mobile."
The number of mobile users as of December in India, a country of more than one billion people, nearly doubled from a year earlier to 10.5 million.
India also has about 10 million Internet users -- who generally have multiple accounts, including various ones for e-mail. Technology researcher IDC expects the number to reach 41 million by 2006.
The mobile sector is expected to grow faster this year as prices are set to fall with the launch of cut-rate telecom services by the powerful Reliance group. Analysts forecast the number of mobile users to reach 120 million by 2008.
Yahoo India faces stiff competition from Indiatimes, part of the cash-rich Times of India group, and Nasdaq-listed Rediff.com.
"As the penetration of mobile phones increases, we believe that our partnerships will flourish," Taraporewalla said.
Earlier this month, Yahoo India tied up with the Bharti group, the nation's largest cellular operator, with more than 2.5 million subscribers.
But Taraporewalla said online advertising still formed the bulk of Yahoo India's revenue, as in other regions.
Yahoo Inc, which launched its Indian portal two years ago, has been trying to promote its paid services to diversify its revenue stream and reduce dependence on online advertising, which is still in its infancy in India.
Most telecom players in India charge users as little as Rs 1.50 per message.
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