Foursquare Was Too Big, So Yahoo Bought Koprol

Posted by Geronimo Boosh on June 1, 2010 · Leave a Comment

As mobile software becomes more useful, bigger transfers of money seem to be taking place. Just as youtube was bought by google for over a billion dollars there are other deals taking place with “big players”. The latest is a social network named Koprol bought out by Yahoo. Read on to find out more.

The growing site “Foursquare” was too big for Yahoo to buy, so they settled for second best, the large and also growing Koprol.com. It has a database keyed especially to the Asian mindset. For all intents and purposes, it is an Asian copy of Foursquare. Specifically, Koprol allows those with the right type of cell phone to find and read reviews of local businesses. But it does not stop there. Those on the network can see the location of others on the network, but does not rely totally on GPS. Conversations can be started and passed around concerning the various businesses under their range.

As Yahoo takes a look at the burgeoning Asian population and their resultant mobile opportunities, it seems they can not resist getting involved. Other of the major American players online have had some successes, and a failure here and there. The dollar value of the transaction for Koprol has not yet been revealed. The past may be a pointer to the amount of the transaction. Yahoo has been offering Foursquare amounts in the 100 million ballpark without any success. If you are one who keeps up with past news, Yahoo personnel are not known for making a quick deal, monetarily speaking. Microsoft eventually was turned down when they wanted to take Yahoo in a story that lasted for what seemed like years.

Some are saying that Yahoo should just bite the bullet and pony up the money for Foursquare. This would put them into the good graces with the “cool crowd” that will give them income for years to come. Koprol may have been a step in the right direction in this sense. Indonesia by itself has a population of 205,843,000 ( as of the 2000 census ) and puts it squarely in fourth place in the world´s most populous countries. Any social networking deals done in the counry are likely going to be profitable. Good on Yahoo for making the deal for Koprol.

What exactly will Yahoo do with Koprol ? Many ideas can be realized after having access to those all-important databases under the radar of Koprol. As Koprol aggregates information about cities, the chance to market products also adds up. The Yahoo homepage can reflect user interest based on user location, the applications can be created for special situations in every city. Truly personal software can be created for the world using personally identifiable information.

Look for more deals in the future, not only with Yahoo, but with Google and other of the grandfathers of the internet. Indonesia has around forty million cell phone users. About eighty percent of adults in the United States use a cell phone. With billions of cell phones being made every year the status of mobile social networks is only going up. Mobile is here to stay, supported by the needs and wants of the world.