Dec 01 2010 |
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Yahoo! launches front page in Arabic
By By SHAHID ALI KHAN The Yahoo! front page in Arabic. The company will open its office in Riyadh soon. (Saudi Gazette photo)RIYADH: Yahoo! Middle East announced the launch of an Arabic front page for Saudi and Arab users of Yahoo.com and the website will soon open an office in the Saudi capital, Rich Riley, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Yahoo! for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) told a press conference here, Tuesday.Ahmed Nassef, Vice President and Managing Director for Yahoo! Middle East was also present.
Riley said Yahoo! got serious about the Middle East when it acquired Maktoob a year ago. Since Maktoob's acquisition at $100 million, Yahoo! has continued to invest heavily in the business by opening additional offices in the region and hiring personnel, he said.
Riley said he has been holding meetings with concerned Saudi officials, and that there was a strong possibility that Yahoo! would open an office in Riyadh first, and then in other cities of the Kingdom. "We will start with a modest beginning in Saudi Arabia and hire at least five to 10 people to work for us who have a passion for the digital world," said Riley.
The launching of an Arabic homepage for Saudi users is just one of the many things that Yahoo! is planning for the Kingdom, he said, adding that about one-third of Yahoo! Maktoob users are Saudis. "Obviously, Yahoo! 's business is advertising and the Saudi market is the key advertising market in the region and in the world," said Riley.
The online advertising market in Saudi Arabia is growing by over 30 percent per year, which Riley said is one of the fastest growing markets in the world.
Noting that advertising practices are shifting from traditional print and electronic media to the digital medium, Yahoo! sees a great potential for online advertising in Saudi Arabia, he said. Besides, Yahoo! has a huge user base accounting for 30 to 35 percent of online penetration. There is a lot of potential for growth during the next five to 10 years, he said.
Nassef said the Internet penetration rate in Saudi Arabia is around 10 to 11 million users. Out of this number, about six million use Yahoo! . Moreover, Yahoo! never presented Arabic language services until a week ago. So, for many years, he said, Saudi users of Yahoo! were using English services. "Saudi Arabia is an incredibly attractive market for us both in terms of user base and revenues. For the first time ever Yahoo! users will find a new homepage in Arabic and also in English," he said.
Earlier, he said users in Saudi Arabia who visited Yahoo.com would find the US front page and those visiting Maktoob.com got the Yahoo! Maktoob front page in Arabic. Over the past one year, Yahoo! has started re-directing the traffic in a unified format to give users an entirely new front page in Arabic and English.
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