media

 

Yahoo!, the US-based search engine,  yesterday confirmed it had bought Maktoob.com, one of the biggest online community web sites in the Arab world. Yahoo! is the second most popular search engine in the US and, with 16 million users, Maktoob is one of the most popular web sites in the Gulf. Yahoo! is hoping to use the acquisition to potentially tap into the 320 million strong online Arab community. "Yahoo! sees tremendous growth opportunities in the region," Keith Nilsson, the company's head of emerging markets said yesterday at a press conference in Dubai. "Maktoob is a terrific local brand. Yahoo! will be combining its global technology and Maktoob's local Arabic content," he added. Maktoob.com is accessed by users in the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Yahoo! plans to offer Arabic-language content and services, including Arabic versions of Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail. Set up in 2000 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury, Maktoob.com was conceived  as the world's first free Arabic and English web-based email service, and since then has grown to be one of the leading Arab online sites. In 2007, Abraaj Capital, the Dubai-based buyout company which manages more than $6 billion, sold its 40 per cent stake in Maktoob.com to Tiger Global Management, a US-based investment company. Internet usage in the Middle East has grown more than tenfold since 2000, however the World Bank estimated that less than one per cent of all online content is in Arabic. Maktoob.com is currently ranked the 156th most-popular web site in the world and is used by 0.47 per cent of global internet users, according to Amazon.com's web traffic monitoring company. However, spending on online advertising in the region is expected to rise by 35 to 40 per cent this year, according to Madar Research.