Yahoo buys Foursquare rival Koprol

Yahoo has announced plans to acquire location-based social network Koprol for an undisclosed sum.

The Indonesian startup is similar to Foursquare, which Yahoo reportedly attempted to buy for US$100 million (A$120 million).

Koprol allows users to share information about locations in real time using their mobile phone browsers, and to 'check in' to their current location to share ratings and reviews with friends.

The purchase furthers Yahoo's strategy of fleshing out its mobile offerings, and follows yesterday's announcement of a web services alliance with Nokia designed to promote the use of Yahoo email and chat functionality on mobile phones.

"Users are increasingly relying on mobile devices to communicate and access the internet, and they are looking for seamless integration between those devices and PCs," said Rose Tsou, senior vice president of Yahoo Asia.

"Koprol was uniquely designed for mobile phones and within a year has built a strong user base. Yahoo provides the global scale and technology to accelerate growth in Indonesia as well as introduce the service to new markets."

Yahoo said that it is interested in Koprol because it can provide personally relevant content to its global users on multiple devices.

Koprol uses the web community to aggregate a locations database within a city. The database can be used by people to find friends or discover new local businesses or neighbourhood resources.

Yahoo said that it will use the information generated by Koprol users to make its properties and applications, including its homepage and media and communications products, more locally relevant.

Koprol today introduced a BlackBerry application, and Yahoo said that it will soon launch more mobile applications.

The deal is Yahoo's second this month, following the acquisition of Associated Content aimed at increasing the amount of original content Yahoo produces on the web.