Telefonica Deal Goes Yahoo! Way

Madrid based, Telefonica have come to an agreement with Yahoo! for providing “global mobile services” to its customers.

Telefonica, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world providing services in 24 countries and having a customer base that amounts more than 212 million around the world, today announced a global agreement with Yahoo!, a leading global Internet company, for providing a framework for making OneSearch, Yahoo!'s mobile search product, the main search service on Telefonica's mobile portals in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America, potentially reaching more than 100 million consumers worldwide.

The deal will double Yahoo!’s OneSearch product's potential customers and the battle with Google Inc. to bring Internet searching to wireless devices has gone Yahoo!’s way.

The launch of OneSearch service of Yahoo! will make it easier for the customers of Telefonica to find relevant results on their mobile devices.

Yahoo! OneSearch is specifically designed for mobile devices, delivering results directly in the first screen, removing the need for consumers to navigate through a sea of links to PC Web sites to find the information they want. Yahoo! OneSearch gives consumers access to news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos, Web images, as well as Web and Mobile Web sites.

Together, Telefonica and Yahoo! are augmenting the search experience for consumers on mobile phones, while providing both companies with new revenue streams through mobile advertising.

Bruce Stewart, a vice president at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! said, "Advertisers are very interested in how they reach their customers through our Yahoo services."

"Yahoo!'s new partnership with Telefonica furthers our leadership in mobile and demonstrates our commitment to working with partners to enhance the Internet experience for customers on their mobile phone," said Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo!'s Connected Life Division. "Together we can grow usage of mobile Internet services and create new revenue streams through mobile advertising."

Julio Linares, Telefonica's general manager for Coordination Business Development and Synergies, said, "Partners are essential to our mobile strategy and these key relationships, like the one we are announcing today with Yahoo!, will continue to evolve and deliver state of the art Internet experiences to our customers at home or on the go."

Services for mobile-phones are intensifying as these devices eclipse personal computers in popularity. According to research firm Gartner Inc., Wireless phones outsold PCs 4-to-1 last year.

According to research firm M:Metrics, Yahoo! attracted 1.32 million visitors to its mobile Web site in March, compared with 1.89 million for Google. These figures are expected to change drastically with the inking of this deal.