Yahoo to start six portals in Indian languages

[bill]

Yahoo to start six portals in Indian languages [hindustantimes.com]
"The company is planning to launch new portals in about 2-6 Indian regional languages and an announcement to this effect is expected in the next few weeks," a company spokesperson said.

Yahoo would add 200 software engineers at its R&D centre at Bangalore, taking the total headcount to 1,000 by the end of the year, the official said.

The spokesperson said Yahoo is in discussions with various Indian companies for partnerships and acquisitions and a decision to this effect is expected in the next 6-10 months.

[redstorm]

The company is planning to launch new portals in about 2-6 Indian regional languages

anyone know how many regional languages India has? What are their names?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

Well over 100 by some measures I think, starting with the biggies such as Hindi, Gujerati, Bengali, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, ... but I am no expert!

Note this from Wikipedia:

The Indian constitution recognises 23 official languages. Hindi and English are used by the Union Government of India for official purposes, wherein Hindi has a de jure priority.

from [en.wikipedia.org...]

Rgds

Damon

[caran1]

In India, most verbal communication is in Indian languages, documentation is usually in English. The market may be too small for some languages

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I'm really hoping that this is so... My Mumbai mirror goes live (mainly in English) in about a week. Virtually the only Indic text I have on it is the original of "Diwali"!

Rgds

Damon

[Green_Grass]

"documentation is usually in English"

Correct, except maybe the states of Bihar and Uttar-Pradesh where official Govt. work is done in Hindi. Do I have a tough time!

Hindi is widely read. There are many popular magazines and newspapers solely in the Hindi language. Many South Indian states, prefer to use their vernacular language in official communications and local vernacular magazines and newspapers are also quite popular both in cities and in the rural areas.

It is a mixed bag. Although English has always been popular and is gaining in popularity as semi urban and middle class urban populace seeks jobs in the popular Business Outsourcing area ( The hated BPO's!).

[caran1]

Govt. work is in Marathi is Maharashtra too , but most correspondence in the private sector is in English, especially if you work across different states. For example , if I am doing some work for someone in Kolkatta or Chennai, I cannot understand the local script or language there, English is the default. There are a lot of local newspapers in Indian languages, but that segment will not be using the internet soon.

[redstorm]

Thanks for all informative threads! It maybe an unique phenomenon for indian only: i am also curious to learn is there any connections among these languages? Also want to know, why Yahoo wants to expand their services to these regional languages, will them bring yahoo with lots of traffic, or potential traffic?

[caran1]

I doubt whether it will bring them a lot of traffic, most of the people are out of touch. Today I was paying the electricity bill , the form was printed in Marathi and the actual figures (the monthly consumption, etc) was in English. If even printers are not easily available, developing content in Indian languages (other than Hindi) may be a waste.

[Green_Grass]

I guess they need to actually put up a few sites to understand the potential. There are milions of people who use regional languages but the potential has not really been tapped.

[caran1]

There are millions of even more affluent people who understand English, but even their potential is not tapped in India.

[DamonHD]

Hi caran1,

I am working on (gently) tapping the potential of the affluent English speakers, I promise! B^>

Rgds

Damon