Larry Jordan, the Product Management Director of Yahoo! for Southeast Asia, arrived in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday to prepare for entering the Vietnamese market. Tuổi Trẻ had a discussion surrounding the plans of this “giant” in the virtual world.
* Vietnamese users often prefer Google’s information search services. What do you think about this?
– We are continuously developing and improving our search tools. To reach the Vietnamese market, we have launched a Vietnamese-language search page at vn.search.yahoo.com.
We are very clear that 1 billion future Internet users will come from non-English speaking countries, with Southeast Asia being a crucial focal point, and Vietnam being significantly important.
* The number of Vietnamese using Yahoo Messenger is substantial, with unofficial statistics indicating it ranks second only to the US. What will Yahoo do for this vast market?
– In the near future, we will modify Yahoo services to provide an email service in Vietnamese, a Vietnamese homepage for Yahoo, Vietnamese news on Yahoo, and all other content will also be available in Vietnamese.
At this point, we consider Vietnam a very important market and are focusing our resources to introduce new products specifically for Vietnam. Our five-year plan for Yahoo in Vietnam has been meticulously researched.
* Vietnamese users are complaining about the increasingly slow speed of Yahoo email services…
– We have also heard about this and are doing everything possible to improve the access speed of Yahoo Mail. During this visit to Vietnam, we also want to work more concretely with Vietnamese internet service providers to upgrade Yahoo’s services.
* Vietnamese youth are quite capable in the field of information technology. Do you plan to recruit them?
13% of the total hundreds of millions of hours spent on the Internet daily worldwide are using Yahoo services. LARRY JORDAN |
– Of course. Please send me your resume to the email address [email protected]. We need talented people from all over the world. Diversity is a top priority for Yahoo.
Therefore, we do not discriminate based on nationality. However, among the 9,660 global employees at Yahoo, there will certainly be many Vietnamese.
* Is your visit to Vietnam aimed at finding partners? What must a local company do to become a partner of Yahoo?
– We already have several beneficial partners in Vietnam, such as Tuổi Trẻ newspaper. However, to further develop the service system in Vietnam, we are looking for more local partners. We are ready to discuss with any companies interested in cooperation at [email protected].
* What final message would you like to send to Yahoo users in Vietnam?
– Your country is developing rapidly. This is a very exciting time. Media and information are two key issues for Vietnam’s current development. Yahoo wants to be a part of this. Please help us bring the best services to the people of Vietnam.
TRẦN NGUYÊN – TIẾN HÙNG conducted the interview
