Yahoo Inc. is banking on rapidly growing demand for mobile Internet access in Asia's emerging markets to boost user figures, as it rolls out localized services which let Web users look up local information on the go.

Yahoo, keen to get the upper hand on Google Inc., on Tuesday launched Yahoo Answers -- a free service which allows users to exchange information on local topics in the local language -- in Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Sunnyvale, California-headquartered company hopes to tap local users for knowledge which may not be easy to find via straight online search, Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's vice president of advanced development, said in an interview on Thursday.

"If you have a question like, 'where can I get a good pastrami sandwich in the middle of Hong Kong at noon without waiting?' there's probably not a Web page that has that answer," Horowitz said over the telephone.

"But I would venture to guess that there are about 100,000 users in Hong Kong that probably know that answer," he added.

Yahoo Answers has over 90 million unique monthly users -- with over 15 million in the United States -- and is available in 20 countries and in nine languages.

Yahoo has over 500 million users worldwide.

"Social search" -- a broad effort to enhance computerized Web search tools with insights gained from mining the collective knowledge of its users -- is the linchpin of Yahoo's strategy to compete with rival Google, which has focused heavily on advances in computerized search.

In its drive to make Web services widely available not only on computers, Yahoo recently added cellphones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile software to a growing list of handsets from device makers.

"More people are going to be reaching our services through things like mobile devices than they will be through browsers," said Horowitz.

Yahoo is partnering with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., StarHub Ltd., Globe Telecom Holdings and Maxis Communications, among others, in Asia, he added.

Emerging markets in Asia are expected to be the largest market for mobile handsets and account for nearly 36 percent of the global market this year, up from 32 percent in 2006, according to research by Merrill Lynch.

Horowitz declined to comment on the China market. Yahoo's China unit was absorbed by top Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba in 2005 and Yahoo Inc. bought a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.

Yahoo said on Tuesday it had agreed to partner with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp., a major maker of mobile phones running on Windows Mobile software, to place Yahoo on virtually all recent and new models HTC makes.

Earlier this year, Yahoo said it had signed deals with four of the top five mobile handset makers in the world: Nokia, Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc.

Besides Yahoo Answers, the company's services that centre on human contribution include photo-sharing Web site Flickr, Del.icio.us, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Groups.