First came a report from TechCrunch that Yahoo would be shutting down offices and sales teams across Europe and Asia. Rumours that the cuts would include Indonesia were included in the article, but at the time Yahoo wouldn’t confirm or deny them.
Then yesterday, DailySocial posted an article with news from a “trusted informant” who said that Yahoo’s Indonesia office was expected to close in the near future, with operations moving to the company’s regional headquarters in Singapore by next year.
In an update to the story, Yahoo confirmed that they would indeed be closing their Indonesian office, stating: “To make sure that Yahoo remains being on a continuous growth path, we will keep our eyes on a number of areas of our business in order to reach better efficiency, collaboration, and innovation by downsizing our operation. Indonesia remains a fundamental market for Yahoo, that’s our commitment. We will keep providing quality products and captivating experience for our users and advertisers there.”
The move seems at odd with other Internet giants like Facebook who are working to strengthen their operations in the burgeoning Southeast Asian market. But it seems the decision is part of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s overall strategy to turnaround the floundering company’s profitability.
Should analysts take Yahoo’s pullout as a bad sign for the country’s tech sector? In another DailySocial article asking the opinion of several tech leaders, including former Yahooers, the consensus seems to be Mayer is doing this to quickly increase the company’s overall efficiency, not because she thinks the Indonesia’s Internet industry is unattractive.
There’s no doubt that other tech companies are still enamored with us. With Facebook having just set up its office here and Twitter opening up shop soon, Yahoo may end up regretting pulling out of Indonesia in the not too distant future.
