US Internet portal Yahoo India is going to provide various online services, like e-mail and instant messaging in Hindi and other regional languages.

Yahoo mail in Hindi is relevant to the 200 million Indians who are expected to come online in the next few years. This will also be an attractive product for a large section of our advertisers, who want to reach out to the non-English speaking Indian population.

Presently, a user would require a Hindi font to access the new services offered by Yahoo. The company would soon provide an upgraded version of its new service which would integrate Hindi software to provide a customer ease of access. Yahoo have already launched Yahoo! messenger service in nine regional languages including Hindi.

In India Hindi is the most important language. Internet is becoming increasingly popular in tier II and III cities as well and there is big shift in the market towards providing localised products. Yahoo is likely to grow its users by penetrating Yahoo Mail in Hindi speaking regions as well in other regions, when the Yahoo service in other languages is launched. In addition, this will also be an attractive product for a large section of its advertisers, who want to reach out to the non-English speaking Indian population.

The new mail would include similar information as is carried in the English version. The company is also looking at launching a social networking site called ‘mash’ in the near future.

Written by Mahesh Chawla in News