Yahoo! launches service in Bengali

Yahoo! India and Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP) Wednesday announced a partnership to deliver premium digital content in Bengali to the Indian Internet audience.

The co-branded property bengali.yahoo.com will leverage the combined editorial strengths of ABP and Yahoo! India, a company statement said.

Bengali content is the latest in language offerings from Yahoo! in India after Hindi, Tamil and Marathi. It offers fresh news ranging from politics, sports, entertainment from across the world, as well as local news from in and around Kolkata.

Select articles from ABP's supplements such as Pustak Porichoy (book review), Kolkatar Korcha (snippets from Kolkata), Baracharcha (celebrity interviews), Natyo Samalochana (theatre review), Probondho (essays), and weekend specials will also be showcased on the site, the statement said.

Commenting on the launch, Arun Tadanki, managing director of Yahoo! India and Southeast Asia said: 'The launch of Bengali on Yahoo! India is another milestone in our journey to expand language portfolio with a view to make our content relevant for new Internet users who seek to consume content in their own language.'

'Yahoo!'s reach, combined with ABP's vast experience in generating and serving Bengali content, will provide a superior digital content experience to Bengalis around the world,' Tadanki added.

Elaborating on the partnership Kaushik Banerjee, vice President, ABP & Digital, said: 'Ananda Bazar is an undisputed leader of the Bengali domain while Yahoo! commands a great online reach. Together, we will deliver a superior digital content experience to 220 million people who speak Bengali the world over.'

The site has been built on the Yahoo! Publishing Platform and is jointly managed by Yahoo! and My Ananda Bazar Patrika.

As per the ICube report by IAMAI, the Indian language audience is growing at a rate of nearly 40 percent per year and the next wave of digital audience in India is expected to emerge from the non-English speaking population.