Bringing our Third Largest Homepage in the World onto Mobile Devices

Posted June 16th, 2011 at 9:12 am by Yahoo! Mobile
Categories: General

Since we launched the Arabic Yahoo! Maktoob homepage last November, it has quickly become the third most popular Yahoo! homepage in the world today. Now, we’re going mobile and launching Yahoo! Maktoob in Arabic and English in 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates and Morocco. Mobile Internet usage in this region continues to grow at break-neck speed, surging by more than 1,000 percent during the last decade, yet consider this: only one percent of online content is in Arabic today, but five percent of the world’s online population speaks Arabic. With more than 50 million people expected to come online in this region in the next two to three years, it’s one of the fastest growing markets in the world AND one of the fastest growing languages on the Internet.

The new Yahoo! Maktoob mobile homepage brings together the best of the Web with the best of Yahoo! Maktoob, in a single mobile destination. Initially, consumers in the region will have access to the Arabic and English versions of the Yahoo! Maktoob homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Search, and Maktoob News and then eventually localized versions of properties like Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Finance. As more and more people come online in this region, we’ll be looking to create content and other services tailored for this vibrant and emerging part of the world.

As the premier digital media company, we see a huge opportunity in the growth of the Web in the Middle East and North Africa through more locally relevant Arabic content, products and advertising. We’re passionate about growing our mobile presence in the Middle East and in other emerging markets, where new to net users are coming online primarily through mobile devices.

Below are two screenshots of the Maktoob Mobile homepage in Arabic. Click on this link to see what it looks like on your mobile device: http://m.yahoo.com/?.intl=xa