Yulop : Location based search application on Mobile Phone

Mobile search is a wee thing when compared with its full-fledged PC-based equivalent.

But it’s growing. Yulop, a Bangalore, India-based location-based startup.

Highlighted by Om Malik of GigaOM, and previously by K. Raghu and Vishwanath Kulkarni of LiveMint.com, the Indian company is making do with standard cellular technologies to offer mobile phone users in India in a number of Indian cities a way to find local businesses. Rather than rely on GPS data, which some companies in regions elsewhere are, it functions through cellular network triangulation.

Yulop plans to offer service in six cities in addition to its current market of Bangalore. By offering its downloadable app, Yulop seems to have beat a lot of its big competitors to the punch in what will be a very competitive market. Google, Microsoft and Nokia are chasing the same opportunity.

Whether Yulop makes it to the big time remains to be seen, but its approach makes a lot of sense. While in the Western economies, the easy availability of mapping and local data makes its easier for companies to think about building LBS apps; Yulop is taking a more pragmatic approach: Triangulation is the only option in this market. Similarly, having a properly tagged information database helps the tiny company offer up more accurate results in the local market.

  I think we will see more of this trend, where local companies adapt some of the “overseas” concepts to meet the needs of Indian wireless subscribers. In my opinion, Yulop has done an awesome job of collating information and services that no other player is doing (with a strong local flavor).

And at the same time, they need to probably strike a balance between being too local vs. staying glocal.

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