Had an interesting chat with Yahoo's Larry Jordan at Greenbelt the other day. Among other things, we talked about Yahoo Asia's new mobile client, how Yahoo's knack for community-building appeals to Filipino bayanihan (bayahoonihan?), and the barrier of low Philippine credit card penetration (4%).
To sell premium services in this country, Yahoo Philippines should ride on the prepaid electronic metacurrencies emerging in the Philippines, like Smart Money, G-Cash, and MOLePoints. I know at least one guy who regrets signing on exclusivity with G-Cash, but Yahoo should have the clout to avoid such silliness. Larry was off to meet with local online game publisher Level Up after our chat; their COO Ben is clued in on the metacurrency concept.
Oh, and Yahoo's new DVR software could find a market with 80,000 computer-literate time-displaced disposable-income Filipino call center workers. Too bad its branding is confusingly similar to that of the Asian mobile product: they're both called "Yahoo! Go".
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