'Maktoob From Yahoo' focuses on building sales, monetisation

Maktoob From Yahoo will be the transitional branding for the acquired Arabic portal, until the Yahoo-Maktoob brand is finalised in the first half of 2010.

This was revealed by Ahmad Nassef, Vice-President of Maktoob Group and General Manager of Maktoob.com, who was announcing details of the most talked about deal between regional portal and an international web leader.

The Yahoo-Maktoob deal was celebrated last Thursday following a regional tour lead by Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo. The tour, according to Nassef, comprised high-calibre meeting with His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and King Abdullah of Jordan.

Nassef said: "Having closed the deal, the key areas we are currently focusing on are building our sales organisation and monetisation.

"We are aiming at a Yahoo-Maktoob brand, but we are keen on having all the Arabic content in place, in terms of Arabising the Yahoo services including its homepage, Yahoo mail, which is the largest e-mail platform in the world and instant messaging."

He said: "We currently have two sites in the Middle East – the Yahoo English and Maktoob from Yahoo for Arabic. We have already started working on the Arabisation efforts and I believe that users will start to see the additions gradually within the next few months.

"In terms of business development, we are working on building our editorial team and we are forging partnerships with a lot of the regional Arabic content providers including traditional media and video publishers.

The Yahoo-Maktoob deal was expected to be finalised in the last quarter of 2009, that is October, according to officials who spoke to Emirates Business earlier.

Nassef said: "We are currently expanding in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab World, mainly in the editorial arenas, targeting the fast-growing online Arab community, which will provide 50 million new users to the web globally.

"It is a challenge and an opportunity for us to tap into an area where Arabic content only comprises one per cent of the global content available and exchanged on the web. We hope to play a key role in changing this situation."

A statement released by Yahoo and Maktoob last week said the new structure will count 200 employees of 300 working for the Maktoob Group. The rest are being accommodated within Jabbar Internet Group, a new venture started by Maktoob's founder Samih Toukan.

The $20 million (Dh73.4m) Jabbar Internet Group houses cashU.com, an online payments company; Tahadi.com, the Arab World's first MMO online games destination; Araby.com, the first Arabic search engine and E-marketing, the region's leading online advertising network.

About possible layoffs due to the acquisition, Nassef said: "With acquisitions, some restructuring do take place. The vast majority of the employees will continue under Yahoo. We are looking at the same staffing positions, in addition to seeking new employees for other positions."

Maktoob.com had 35 employees in Dubai before the deal, in addition to about 150 in Jordan.

Nassef expected the advertising revenue to continue at the same soaring levels that were witnessed by Maktoob before the deal.

"We had 65 per cent growth in ad revenue compared to 2008, by the time we had made the deal with Yahoo, in line with the average of 60 per cent year-on-year growth that we have been seeing over the past years," he said.

"Knowing that the average growth of online advertising in this market is 30 per cent, and ours being twice the market average, we are expecting this momentum to be maintained," said Nassef.

He said: "We have already seen a growth in number of unique users recently reaching 18 million. With the 22 million users already on Yahoo in the region, we are planning to grow more aggressively, utilising the technical and global resources of Yahoo."

"I believe that the Yahoo deal in itself is a sign that the online advertising market has reached a critical mass that would offer a great opportunity to us, advertisers and competitors. This means we are on the right track to attract more advertisers in the region to the web," he said. "What we have been doing now is collating the ad sales platform under Yahoo."

The monetisation aspect, however, will include several other components and platforms, said Nassef. "Online advertising consists of 70 per cent of our revenue."

Other components will include search products, Maktoob Search being part of the acquisition package.

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