14 DAY TRIAL // A new beta version of Yahoo's Instant Messenger was announced today in Manila, Philippines' capital and it was the perfect location to deliver the news as the new feature implemented is exactly the native language.
Yahoo! Southeast Asia Business Development Head Jojo Anonuevo said that the enhancements in YM were necessary to get more Filipinos to use it as well as find it easier to access and send files and photos with their families and friends anywhere, according to Alexander Villafania of Inquirer.net.
Apart from the usual features introduced in the YM 9.0 beta, like the integrated media player, unlimited file transfer, the call forwarding feature wherein voice-over-IP calls can be recorded then sent as voicemail to a mobile phone and landline and several other personalization tools it also brings new to the table the scanning of the files as Yahoo! has integrated the Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 2007 software into YM.
"As Yahoo! had also acquired Flickr, the company also integrated the photo-sharing feature of Flickr to YM, allowing multiple users to access photos from another Flickr owner's account," says Villafania. "The company has been enhancing its services for Southeast Asia, which it sees as a major market for user-generated content. Among the new services is Yahoo! Answers, an online question and answer forum for users and by users," he continued.
Yahoo president Susan Decker said that "Internet users in Asia-Pacific were growing at the fastest compared to other parts of the world, and in 2010, the global market could expect to see 1.8 billion users, with Asia-Pacific taking up 36% of the pie. In 2000, there were 390 million internet users globally, with Asia counting for 20%." Hence, an expansion towards that market seems only logical.
The South Asian deal also involved several mobile carriers and manufacturers, among which I could mention LG Telecom, Maxis Communications Berhad and Taiwan mobile.