Yahoo and Google both appear dedicated to growing their presence in the Indian market, and to this end, Yahoo recently announced that it had bought a stake in Tyroo Media. Call this one a “significant investment” (as Yahoo does) – it’s equal to about 35% of the company’s value.
For those who haven’t heard of Tyroo, an official press release does a decent job of filling in the details. “Tyroo, a part of Smile Interactive Technologies Group (Smile Group), is a completely self-serve ad-network offering best of breed advertising solutions for both advertisers and publishers. Today, Tyroo boasts of over 1200 registered publishers across the country.”
And that’s not bad, although, given Yahoo’s financial state, now might not be the best time for the search engine company to make this announcement. Details of the deal remain unknown, however, so it’s hard to say exactly what was exchanged; even The Hindu, which is often especially well-informed about Indian developments, remains in the dark.
In any event, “The cash infusion by Yahoo! will be used to invest aggressively in technology and sales network to reach out to the vast number of small and medium sized advertisers and publishers in India,” according to the release.
George Zacharias, the managing director of Yahoo India, adds, “Through this investment, Yahoo! will act as a catalyst for the entire ad-network industry, which is still in a nascent stage, in India.”
