VIVAnews - Yahoo! would reportedly open its representative office in Indonesia. However, the internet pioneer company has not given any words as to when it will take place.
When asked about the rumored plan, Senior Director Business Development and Indonesia Country Lead of Yahoo! Southeast Asia, Pontus Sonnerstedt, did not give a straight answer.
“We’ll be giving updates on that in next year’s first quarter,” Sonnerstedt said, answering VIVAnews’ question on Yahoo! Open Hack Day on Saturday, November 21.
Yahoo! has indeed been attracted to Indonesian online market. Over the year, Yahoo! has also been trying to open their market to Indonesian users. This year, Yahoo! held two major events in Indonesia which are Yahoo! Mobile Developer Award in May and Yahoo! Open Hack Day that was held on Saturday and Monday.
Yahoo!’s plan to step into Indonesia started to unfold when Yahoo! recruited Budi Putra as Yahoo Indonesia’s Country Editor. The story immediately spread among bloggers.
As Putra explained on his blog, he will be working in Singapore for six to twelve months after he was recruited in late September while waiting for Yahoo!’s office in Indonesia to open.
Based on the information, Yahoo!’s Indonesian office will at least open around March 2010. But, according to Satya Witoelar, the founder of location-based social networking site, Koprol.com, the office would start operating early next year.
“I heard they’re pushing their plan forward to the beginning of the year,“ Witoelar said while attending Yahoo! Open Hack Day at Balai Kartini, Jakarta on Saturday, November 21.
The distribution of pamphlets announcing vacancies at Yahoo! to the developers who were participating in the event’s competition has also supported the speculation.
The pamphlets with a large-sized headline saying “Yahoo! is Hiring” lists 20 vacant positions at the company without including office areas.
The vacant positions include Yahoo! Developer Network, Software Engineer, Mobile Product Manager, Mobile Engineer, Quality Assurance Lead, Regional Project Manager, Site Operation Engineer, Mobile Engineer, and IT helpdesk Manager.
Yahoo! is likely optimistic about the progress of online market in Indonesia. Sonnerstedt said the total amount of internet users in Indonesia is pretty much the same with Vietnam and the Philippines’. However, Indonesia has more populations than the two countries.
“I’ve been to Indonesia since last year and Yahoo! knows exactly how fast the current development of the internet in Indonesia is. There are still a lot of spaces to grow in Indonesia,” Sonnerstedt said.
He also jokingly said that he would not let Budi Putra wait any longer in Singapore.” We’re going to Jakarta soon,” he said.
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Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
