Yahoo! Acquires Koprol; Extends Social and Mobile Strategy With
Location-Based Community
Expands Offerings in Rapidly Growing Emerging Markets
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & JAKARTA, Indonesia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yahoo! Inc.
(NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced the acquisition of Koprol.
Headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, Koprol extends Yahoo?s
social,
mobile and local offerings and focuses on the intersection of
location,
community expertise and mobile experiences that have become
important
trends around the globe. Koprol enables users to interact and
share
knowledge about their community in a way that is uniquely tailored
to
mobile phones.
?We are excited to join Yahoo! and look forward to the
opportunities
being part of a global Internet leader presents?
Koprol allows people to connect and share photos, reviews and
additional
information about locations in real-time using just their mobile
phone
browser, making the service accessible to a larger percentage of
mobile
users. Once on Koprol, people can ?check-in? to their current
location
and see where others are and what they are doing. The service
helps
people find local businesses, such as popular shops or
restaurants,
based on user ratings including a ?thumbs-up? feature to elevate
favorite places to the top of the ranking. Users can also start or
join
discussions based on particular locations and invite friends to
participate, creating a unique city-based social mobile community
resource.
?Users are increasingly relying on mobile devices to communicate
and
access the Internet and they are looking for seamless integration
between those devices and PCs. This is especially true in many
emerging
markets where we are introducing the Yahoo! brand to many
new-to-Net
users,? said Rose Tsou, senior vice president, Asia Region at
Yahoo!.
?Koprol was uniquely designed for mobile phones and within a year
has
already built a strong user base. Yahoo! provides the global scale
and
technology to accelerate growth in Indonesia as well as introduce
the
service to new markets.?
Yahoo! is focused on providing personally relevant content to its
global
users on multiple devices and access points. Koprol aggregates a
database of locations within a city, created through its
community, so
that people can find friends or discover new local businesses,
neighborhood resources and discussions that are important to them.
Yahoo! plans to leverage the rich community of information
generated by
Koprol users to make its properties and applications, including
its
homepage and media and communications products, even more locally
relevant.
?We are excited to join Yahoo! and look forward to the
opportunities
being part of a global Internet leader presents,? said Fajar
Budiprasetyo, CEO and co-founder of Koprol. ?From the beginning,
we have
leveraged Yahoo!?s open technologies to help build our business,
and it
was just six months ago when we were showcased at the Yahoo! Hack
Day
held in Indonesia. This is a great success story for the online
community in Indonesia and demonstrates that innovation is
recognized
wherever it occurs.?
Yahoo! will continue to invest in evolving Koprol?s service, such
as the
new BlackBerry? application introduced today, and expects to
announce
new mobile applications for both local and global mobile platforms
in
the future.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through
its
innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it
one
of the most visited Internet destinations and a world-class online
media
company. Yahoo!'s vision is to be the center of people's online
lives by
delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences.
Yahoo!
is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information,
visit pressroom.yahoo.com
or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).
Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc.
All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of
their
respective owners.
Yahoo! Inc.
Dana Lengkeek, 408-349-1130 (Media)
danal@yahoo-inc.comCameron
Craig, 65 9770-9875 (Media)
ccraig@yahoo-inc.comCathy
La Rocca, 408-349-5188 (Investors)
cathy@yahoo-inc.comRead more