The portal also plans to give Indian Yahoo! mail account holders the option of converting their e-mail ids from @yahoo.com to @yahoo.co.in.

Jerry Yang of Yahoo! said the company had considered the growth potential of the Indian market. "We've been wanting to come to India for some time now. In fact, a lot of Yahoo's employees are Indian, and they felt it was long overdue," Yang said.

Yahoo! quoted IDC (International Data Corporation) figures that put India's Internet users at 1.6 million by the end of this year, and at 11 million by 2003. Yahoo! India will be an Internet guide designed specifically for Web users in the country and individuals with special interest in the region.

"We are planning to give the estimated three to four million Indian Yahoo! mail account holders the option of converting their e-mail ids from @yahoo.com to @yahoo.co.in," said Ross Veitch, producer of Yahoo! Asia.

"India is a rapidly growing market, and to have a greater penetration in the market we have entered into partnership with 40 other portals for content across news, finance, entertainment and sports segments," said Yahoo! senior vice-president (international) Heather Kellen.

Yahoo! has tied up content partners for news (AFP, ANI Media, Associate Press, Business Line, Business Standard, go4i.com, among others), finance (AFX News, Asia Pulse, Bombay Stock Exchange, Dow Jones Newswires, Equitymaster.com, ICICI etc.), cricket (AFP, Cricinfo, Cricketline, Cricketnext.com, Cricketx.com, Matrix and Reuters), movies (CineBlitz, Hungama.com, Indiafm.com), and greetings (Clubgreetings.com, D.greetings.com).

The Yahoo! India search will, for the first time, use the Google search engine. The company already has ten sponsors from the business world. Charter sponsors include Alibaba, Channel [V], Club Greetings, Hindustan Lever, NetPilgrim Inc, Network Solutions, Sharekhan, Contact Singapore, Startec Communications and StepStone. Yahoo! already has some 3.2 million cumulative registered users in India.

Yahoo! India, which has a local team of ten, has yet to appoint an India chief to oversee its operations, said Savio Chow, vice president and managing director, Yahoo! Asia. Chow added that the portal was looking to partner with ISPs for co-branding opportunities.

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