After finalizing the search engine deal with Microsoft, Yahoo! seems to be ready to focus again: being the biggest worldwide internet portal. According to the latest news Yahoo! is finally entering into the Arabic world. Yesterday they announced the acquisition of the Jordan based Maktoob.com – one of the most popular online communities in the Middle East.

Yahoo!’s managed to find new market potential

It looks like Yahoo! has shown again they know exactly where to dig in order to discover market potential. This investment is a big step forward into the realization of their emerging markets strategy. Maktoob.com adds immediately 16.5 million potential users of Yahoo! services. Yahoo! is to expand online advertising income by 35-40 percent and expects immediate growth of its business. Executives of the company believe their communication tools they’ll provide to Arabic societies will occur to be very successful.

Merging applications into Arabic language

What makes Yahoo!’s investment such exceptional is the opportunity to quickly merge all the Yahoo! services into Arabic language, including regional versions of Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail. They seem to be fully aware that they must be tailored to local needs. Though Yahoo!’s expansion will combine “local expertise and global scale”. It will bring two-sided benefits – access to worldwide information and universal services for Middle East’s inhabitants and a big number of new consumers for Yahoo!