Google, Yahoo eye investing in Indonesia

JAKARTA, INDONESIA: Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and miner Peabody Energy are eyeing investments in Indonesia, the country's investment chief Gita Wirjawan was quoted as saying by a newspaper on Wednesday.

Wirjawan did not elaborate on the details or size of the possible investments, the Bisnis Indonesia newspaper said.

Yahoo last year acquired Indonesia's Koprol, a location based social media platform similar to Foursquare. Google plans to open an office in Jakarta, a stock exchange executive said via Twitter on Tuesday after meeting Google executives.

Indonesia has the world's fourth largest population, and 45 percent of its 240 million people is under 25. The country has the second highest number of users of Facebook.

Foreign direct investment has surged in Southeast Asia's biggest economy this year, driven by a booming consumer market, abundant resources and political stability, though so far U.S. firms have lagged investment from Asian manufacturing companies