Yahoo Inc. said that it would introduce later this week a faster, enhanced version of its Internet services for U.S. mobile phone users, while expanding into key markets in Asia, Canada and Europe.
"We believe more people are going to access the Internet on their mobile devices in 10 years time than on the PC, so we have really been concentrating on this area," said Geraldine Wilson, the European head of Yahoo's Connected Life unit.
Since January, a test version of Yahoo Go 2.0 has been free to download in the United States. It will now be offered in local languages in 13 countries, including France, Germany, Spain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Yahoo Go 2.0 will be available on "tens of millions of phones" both in Europe and Asia by the end of this year, said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of the company's mobile business, officially known as Yahoo Connected Life.
At a global telecommunications industry conference in Singapore on Wednesday, Yahoo will announce deals with operators in six Asian countries who have agreed to feature Yahoo mobile search, dubbed OneSearch, on mobile phones. These deals cover nearly 100 million subscribers, Boerries said.
"In Europe and Asia we are getting very, very nice traction through carrier relationships," he said. Yahoo is talking to U.S. operators but has yet to reach deals to put Go on phones.
The enhanced version lets users download Yahoo Mail, organize e-mail into folders or read file attachments. Users can search the Web on their phones for locally relevant answers or zoom in on maps with current local U.S. traffic conditions. They can check numbers in their Yahoo Address Book.
Company officials said the service would produce better search results, such as giving details of the nearest cinema, movie times and the latest reviews when a film is searched.
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