His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday met with the founders of Maktoob.com, Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury, to congratulate them on the recent sale of the company to US Internet giant Yahoo!
Yahoo! acquired the Amman-based Arabic web portal in late August, giving the company access to Maktoob's approximately 16.5-million-strong audience across the Arabic-speaking world. Through the deal, Yahoo! will offer Arabic-language content for the first time and versions of its products and services, including instant messaging and e-mail, in Arabic.
During his meeting with Toukan and Khoury, King Abdullah expressed pride in their accomplishment, which he said reflects development of the IT sector in Jordan.
In recognition of their achievement, the King conferred the Hussein Medal for Distinguished Performance of the First Order on both Toukan and Khoury.
At the meeting, King Abdullah reiterated the importance of continuing to support this sector, in light of its strong development prospects and positive contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).
Currently, the IT sector represents around 12 per cent of the Kingdom's GDP.
King Abdullah has rigorously supported the IT sector in a bid to make Jordan a regional technology hub that can attract multinational companies to the region.
During the meeting, attended by Royal Court Chief Nasser Lozi and King's Adviser Ayman Safadi, King Abdullah commended the efforts of Maktoob's founders and staff for making Maktoob one of the leading websites in the Arab world.
Discussions also focused on steps that can be taken to open new paths for further IT investments and to upgrade the sector's human resources.
Toukan and Khoury thanked the Monarch for his support for the IT sector and said their first encounter with Yahoo! representatives was at an event in the US a few years ago, which the King also attended.
In a statement to Jordan TV Wednesday, Toukan said: “The meeting is part of the King's continued support for the IT sector in Jordan, as the sector has been able to achieve distinguished accomplishments over the past years, through its trained and qualified human resources.”
“The agreement signed with Yahoo! underlines Jordan's ability to compete with global mega-companies in the sector,” he added.
Founded in 2000 as the first website to offer free mail services in Arabic and English, Maktoob has emerged as a leading online community in the Arab world, offering diverse services including a search engine, social networking, and online auctions and payments.
According to World Bank figures, although there are more than 320 million Arabic speakers around the world, less than 1 per cent of all online content is in Arabic.
At a recent press conference on the deal's announcement, Keith Nilsson, senior vice president for Emerging Markets at Yahoo!, said: “Yahoo! is acquiring Maktoob.com for the strong brand and audience it has built over the last nine years and the passionate team they have assembled, which we believe is the strongest in the region.”
“We see great growth potential in both audience and advertising in the Arab world and combining with Maktoob.com will allow us to quickly build our presence there with high quality products. This is a big win for publishers, advertisers and consumers in the region,” he added.
Nilsson said Yahoo! expects to launch its Arabic content in early 2010.
The acquisition is part of Yahoo!'s larger strategy to grow its business throughout the world's emerging markets by connecting consumers with the content and services that matter most to them in their local language.