Yahoo! announced today that it is partnering with America Movil, the largest mobile network operator in Latin America, to offer mobile web and mobile search services on its portals.
This is the largest mobile search partnership that Yahoo! has obtained since the launch of OneSearch, its new mobile search engine. With this deal, Yahoo! clearly proves itself as a strong player in the mobile search market. Google’s strategy is about focusing on its services and new mobile OS Android, but Yahoo! prefers to sign deals with large operators to gain market share in this area.
Yahoo’s OneSearch will be present on America Movil’s portals in 16 different countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, which represent more than 140 million wireless customers.
OneSearch will allow people to search for off-deck content and information, but also on-deck content such as ringtones, games, videos etc according to Greg Sterling who received this information from Yahoo!:
Yahoo will work with each AMX affiliate (regional carrier) to determine the advertising model that best supports their efforts. Yahoo will be integrating their “consumables†content (aka ringtones, wall papers etc), as well as tailoring the mobile search experience to best suit consumers in the individual countries.
That means that Yahoo will control all kind of searches made bu America Movil’s customers, and be able to monetize on-deck and off-deck searches with sponsored lists. This will be a real benefit for advertisers willing to reach more mobile users in these areas of the world (140 million potential customers!).
I am invested in the belief that mobile search, including local search, is the search trend of the very near future. Unfortunately, when it comes to mobile, there are not very many local businesses interested in being the pioneer in this opportunity.
They are missing the boat on this one. I bet they end up at the dock sooner or later.