In a move aimed at recouping ground earlier lost to competitors, Yahoo!, on Friday, launched a brand new homepage in India and five other markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The new Yahoo! homepage is more fluid and adaptable and makes it easier for the users to discover the content they seek, I. M. Swaminathan, Director, Media Product and Business Operations, India & South East Asia, Yahoo!, said while speaking to The Hindu .
“This is the starting phase of the renaissance. The idea is to make it entertaining and a daily habit”.
ContentThe new homepage is easy to use and offers an infinite stream of content offering most popular stories. The new homepage also offers a choice of ‘read, save for later or delete.
It has new utility apps such as Yahoo! Weather, Finance and Flickr. It also offers a seamless experience across desktops, tablets and smart phones.
The new homepage has been live in the U.S. for almost a year.
“The philosophy is to get it right for one market and then scale it and replicate it across markets,’’ Mr. Swaminathan said, adding that after it was launched in the U.S., it went through multiple iterations.
Yahoo! has about 800 million users globally of which mobile internet users account for half.
“In India, the growth is happening mainly from Tablets and mobile phone segments. Mobile users on Yahoo! network are increasing annually at 25 per cent and the company has 15 million such users of Yahoo! homepage.’’
The Yahoo! homepage has close to 30 million monthly users in India, and Yahoo! claims to reach 50 per cent of the Indian internet audience. At present, internet penetration was very low in India but it was going to be the largest medium here, Mr. Swaminathan said, adding that in future, India was likely to be the second largest internet user after China.
