Yahoo announced Thursday that it has formed a partnership with America Movil, the leading wireless provider in Latin America, to deliver mobile services to 16 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
The alliance will make its oneSearch product the default mobile search application for America Movil’s 143 million wireless subscribers, its largest partnership with a mobile carrier to date.
In October, Yahoo reached an agreement with Telefonica SA to deliver its mobile services to its customers in some European and Latin American markets.
Once Yahoo gets the service up and running with America Movil and its subsidiaries, it will have the dominant share in the Latin American mobile-search market, according Yahoo spokesman Cory Pforzheimer.
“We’re continuously expanding our global presence for mobile search, Pforzheimer told InternetNews.com.
“Our goal is to connect a billion people to Yahoo services through their mobile phone.”
Last month, Yahoo made oneSearch available for download to mobile subscribers in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, irrespective of their carrier.
Yahoo bills its oneSearch as a smarter way to retrieve information on the mobile device. Search results are presented with the limitations of the small screen in mind, so users do not have to wade through a series of PC links to access content.
Results are refined for location, so a search for New York City will retrieve information about local traffic, weather and news, in addition to a link to explore the Web with the search term. It also provides quick access to Mobile Web sites, Yahoo’s Flickr photo-sharing service and other content.
“We will be working with each country to customize the product for mobile search,” Pforzheimer said, adding that Yahoo will work with America Movil’s subsidiaries to tailor the oneSearch application to deliver content that conforms to the linguistic nuances of the countries throughout Latin America.
The deal with America Movil may be the largest partnership with a mobile carrier it has ever reached, but it is by no means the first. The company said that it has signed similar agreements with 20 other wireless carriers around the world.
Yahoo struck 16 of those 20 partnerships with wireless carriers operating in the Asia Pacific region, Pforzheimer said.
Yahoo unveiled oneSearch in the United States in January; it is currently available in 19 countries, with more coming through Thursday’s partnership.
Yahoo is in active talks with all the major U.S. carriers, but has yet to reach an agreement with any to deliver oneSearch as a default setting.
The terms of the America Movil deal were not disclosed, but Pforzheimer said that it is structured as a multi-year revenue-sharing agreement between the two companies.
