Yahoo Inc. is seeking to reassure carriers that it isn’t trying to cut them out of the loop with its mobile content services, even as it rolls out new mobile services for customers.
“Yahoo wants to work with operators for an optimized experience,” David Ko, vice- president and general manager of Yahoo’s mobile and broadband business in Asia, said last month at the CommunicAsia Summit.
He made his remarks just before Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 launched in beta for consumers in the Canada and 12 other countries around the world.
Mobile operators are increasingly nervous that companies like Yahoo and Google Inc. will go direct to users with mobile content services, using their networks to offer so-called “over-the-top services” that don’t give operators a cut of the revenue. These concerns have grown as content companies refine their mobile offerings and look for ways to make them available to users.
During his speech, Ko announced that six Asian operators will use Yahoo’s mobile search