This deal is part of Yahoo!’s broader strategy to grow our international business, particularly in emerging markets. In many countries, vast populations — and advertisers — are just starting to come online. The potential is tremendous. Yahoo! has a large and growing audience in these markets today, and our acquisition of Maktoob represents the kind of investment we’re making to cater to the needs of these promising regions.

We plan to join forces with the Maktoob team, the strongest in the region, to create locally relevant content, services, and programming. That’s no easy task when you consider the differences between countries like UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But we’re committed to literally translating our winning formula for this growing market in many ways, including through locally-based editorial teams.

Initially, we’ll plan to introduce Arabic versions of Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Search, and our homepage and then eventually local versions of properties like News, Sports, and Finance. We’ll also focus on creating content and services tailored to the region. No other global company has made this kind of investment in local relevance for the Arab world.

Arabs are vastly underserved by today’s Internet offerings. The World Bank estimates that there are 320 million Arabic speakers around the globe, yet less than one per cent of online content is written in their language (despite a vibrant Arabic blogosphere). We have a big opportunity to meet this growing demand, and we think Yahoo!, building on Maktoob’s local expertise, brings the scale and heft to draw many more people online in the region –- and we plan to give them compelling reasons to log on.

We also recognize the Middle East is deeply complex, a complexity mirrored in the online world, and that it will present certain challenges. As an Internet pioneer in the emerging markets, we’ve learned important lessons and we’re committed to responsible global engagement. This means being sensitive to local laws, customs, and norms while also protecting and promoting the rights of our users. We believe our engagement in the Middle East can be a positive force for people by increasing access to information, supporting a thriving marketplace for the exchange of ideas, and bridging local, regional, and international communities.

It’s easy to forget the fastest growing Internet audiences are in the emerging markets. That’s not lost on us. We’re passionate about growing our presence in places like Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, and Africa. And we can’t wait to yodel in the Middle East.

In an effort to keep things brief here on Yodel, we have provided a link to the press release and we have also created an informational site that should answer many of your questions.

Keith Nilsson
Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets

It’s an important visit for me — as head of Emerging Markets, I spend a lot of time in Singapore (and am moving there later this month). Singapore is a critical gateway to countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, where Internet adoption is accelerating, and where Yahoo! has a strong and growing presence. It’s also the second-fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia after Vietnam.

While many Internet and social media companies are rushing to Singapore, Yahoo! has actually been there for 10 years. We worked early on with the Singaporean government to grow the Internet industry there through investment in training and infrastructure, understanding the unique needs of the market and developing locally relevant products. So, we were happy to host the prime minister today and continue this partnership.

Prior to the traditional gift exchange, Terry, Jerry, and I sat down with PM Lee to talk about three things: innovation in online and mobile technologies, education, and the evolving digital media industry in Singapore. Education is a top priority for the prime minister, as he sees its potential to drive his country’s continued development. And an increase in usage of online and mobile services naturally follows that development. In fact, emerging markets such as Indonesia and India are expected to make up 90% of new mobile subscribers this year. Mobile communications is part of daily life in Singapore and Yahoo! has been developing some cool search and Internet tools such as oneSearch and Yahoo! Go, which we’ll be bringing to Southeast Asia soon.

On a tour of the campus, we gave PM Lee a demo of many of these tools, including the new Web-based Yahoo! Instant Messenger that we released last week. Products like these are designed for users in developing markets like Vietnam, where not everyone owns a PC but they still have access to the Internet. Many people there have to share a PC at home or work, or rely on their local Internet café. The prime minister truly enjoyed his visit to Yahoo! as he was very interested in learning about new technologies and taking this Silicon Valley perspective back to his country.

After more technology demos and a stop at the Network Operations Center, the PM’s motorcade rolled off to its next destination and I went back to my plans for the emerging markets, even more energized. It was a great day and a great honor to have a head of state visiting Yahoo!.

I’d better start packing for my big move — look for future posts on the cool things we’ll be doing in Southeast Asia and India.

Keith Nilsson
Vice President of International Emerging Markets

Photo from Maximum Mitch