Yahoo hopes to be in the black by 2011

The Hanoi Times - Yahoo eyes profits from its Vietnamese operation by 2011 and plans to roll out a slew of Vietnam-focused products to boost growth.Vu Minh Tri, its general director in this country, said Monday that Vietnam’s o­nline market is growing as more and more young users surfed the Internet for fun, studies and information. “Users will enjoy o­nline products targeted at them much more than international products,” he said.The Internet giant would launch o­nline services and programs to attract school students, he said.Yahoo is looking at 270,000 high school students in the country’s major cities and is collaborating with schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to introduce a program connecting studies with the Internet, he said.The program would end next quarter and the company would then look for partners to expand it to other places around the country, he said.Yahoo has introduced products in Vietnamese like SearchMonkey, a search engine with more detailed information, and Developer, a software development website for local engineers. It has also launched Vietnamese-version o­nline services like mail, messenger, search, blog, and Hoi va Dap (Ask and Answer) since coming into the country in 2006.Tri told Thanh Nien Daily that Yahoo sees Vietnam as among its strongest growth markets by 2010 after it achieved three-digit growth in the country last year.