Meet the Chief Yahoo! of the Arab World
| By Rima Abdelkader,
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| Samih Toukan’s life motto, “It’s better to try and fail than to fail to try,” has made him the globe’s largest Arab entrepreneur success story. When the world’s major Internet portal, Yahoo! signed a multi-million dollar deal with the biggest Arab online community in the world called Maktoob.com on August 25, CEO Samih Toukan was proud, not only for the company, his country of Jordan but for the entire Arab world. This is the first time an international media giant has acquired an Arab Internet portal in the Middle East. It’s a more than decade’s long journey from creating the first Arabic email to the world’s largest Arab online community for Toukan and his partner Ahmed Nassef. |  Samih Toukan, Founder, Maktoob.com |
Arab entrepreneurship is vital for job creation in the Arab world, a goal Arab entrepreneur Toukan has persistently pushed for in his work. Toukan hopes that this deal will send a strong message to the Arab world: to invest “in the brain power and talent of the Arab people and not in real estate projects.”
MAKTOOB KEY FACTS | |||||||||||
Source: Maktoob Website |
Aug 25th 2009 official announcement: Maktoob.com, including Maktoob Research, will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo! once the acquisition is completed later this year. (Unofficial estimates of size of deal: $75-$100 million.) Group’s other entities - Souq.com, CashU.com, Araby.com and Tahady.com - will be part of a new company called Jabbar Internet Group that will have a focus on e-commerce and be managed by Maktoob founder Samih Toukan. | ||||||||||
We interviewed Maktoob.com’s CEO Samih Toukan about his career and accomplishments, and what this deal means for America, the Arab world and Arabic-language online users around the world.
1. How did you get involved in the Internet sector? Is this what you envisioned yourself doing at an early age?
The first business I started along with Hussam Khoury was a management and technology consulting business. That evolved into web and Internet development and then the idea of Maktoob came along; to create the first Arabic email which then became the largest Arab online community. I really wanted to create an Arab success story and I found the Internet a great medium to be able to reach Arabs all over the world.
2. Who has been your biggest inspiration?
One special mentor that I remember and that shares this success story is Fadi Ghandour, CEO of Aramex (see our 2006 article on Mr. Fadi Ghandour). Aramex was our first client as management consultants and then Fadi became a founder of Maktoob. Aramex is a true story of success and entrepreneurship in the Arab World. It was the first Arabic and only company to be listed on NASDAQ.
3. How did you come up with the idea for Maktoob.com? What does it stand for? Tell us more about it.
Maktoob has several meanings. It means ‘letter’ or ‘written’ or ‘destiny’ if you like. The idea was to build the first Arabic email and spread the usage of Arabic language on the net. This core then became the largest Arab Online Community with over 16.5 Million users and with full fledged services ranging from news to sports to blogs to entertainment etc...
4. What does Yahoo!’s recent acquisition of Maktoob.com mean to Arabic-language speakers, and to online users around the world? What was your initial reaction when the deal went through?
When the deal went through, I was proud. Proud for Maktoob, proud for Jordan and proud for the Arab world. It’s the first time a global media company is interested to partner is such a way with an Arab homegrown technology and media company. This is a turning point for the industry and its going to mean more investment and growth for Arabic content and services in the region. It’s a message to all entrepreneurs that it’s possible to make it in the Arab world with hard work and innovation and a message to investors that the Arab world is a promising investment environment.
5. What percentage of online content on the Web is in Arabic? How many online users are there in the Middle East? in the Arab world? Which countries carry Maktoob.com? How many users does Maktoob.com serve?
We serve 16.5 million users out of a total of maybe 45 million users. It’s still the beginning for Internet in the Arab world but the future is very promising. Although Maktoob was a pioneer in developing Arabic content but that still represents only 1% of content in the world while the Arab population is 320 million people. This deal is going to be a turning point for Arabic content in the region and with no doubt will spur innovation and growth. For the users, it will only mean more and better content and services.
As for Maktoob, it serves users from all the Arab World and Arabs from around the world in addition to expats living in the Arab World or anybody interested in the region.
6. What are some of your favorite websites, and why?
The Huffington Post is certainly among the top of the list. I am also a heavy user of Facebook and Twitter as they are at the core of the social media revolution. I also use many local and regional sites.
7. When conducting business in the Middle East, what local laws do you have to comply with, and for which countries?
The Arab World is made of 22 countries. There are similarities between the laws and culture in each country, but there are also a lot of differences and sensitivities. The Maktoob team has learnt to deal with these situations and understand the local environments very well and that is one of our major differentiators. The Yahoo Maktoob deal brings the best of both worlds, global presence and reach combined with our local understanding and knowledge.
8. Can you give a specific example of where in the Middle East it has been difficult to carry Maktoob.com, and how you were able to work with that country to have Maktoob.com up and running there?
Countries of the region differ in terms of conservatism and liberalism. For example Saudi society could be considered more conservative than others and we have to be careful for example when we show banner advertising to make sure the banners don’t contain any graphics that could be considered not acceptable in Saudi. These same banners could be acceptable in Dubai for example so we have to sometime localize the site in terms of content and presentation depending on the country.
Maktoob is available in all Arab countries as Internet is already available everywhere.
8. What role will you and your colleague Ahmed Nassef play in the company now?
Ahmed will now become VP and head of Yahoo! Middle East and Africa.
9. What is the Jabbar Internet Group? What services do you provide to Arabic-language users?
Maktoob Group was made of several other companies other than maktoob.com. Yahoo chose to buy maktoob.com so we formed a new group called Jabbar Internet Group (jabbar.com) that has several interesting businesses. Souq.com is the Arab World’s Ebay if you like, cashu.com the Arab World’s Paypal, Araby.com the first Arabic search engine, ikoo.com the Arab World’s advertising network and Tahadi.com the Arab Worlds online games provider.
10. What’s next for the Jabbar Internet Group? What’s next for you?
I will be joining Jabbar Internet Group as chairman and CEO. We are very excited and think this business can create new success stories for the Arab World in ecommerce and other areas.
11. What’s your best advice for someone looking to make a career move to the Internet sector? What life advice do you live by?
Just do it. This is my advice to entrepreneurs in the region. You have an idea, go for it and risk. Don’t worry about failing because without failure you will not succeed. Its better to try and fail than to fail to try. The Arab world needs entrepreneurs because they are job creators and we have a long way to create jobs for our population and this will only work by investing in the brain power and talent of the Arab people and not in real estate projects.
12. Who is one person you would like to meet that you haven’t already met?
Difficult question. In technology, probably Steve Jobs and in politics, probably Mandela.
13. What are some of your hobbies? Do you like to play sports? If so, who’s your favorite player, and your favorite team?
I enjoy soccer and tennis. I used to play much more but the Internet has taken me away. I guess that’s one downside of the Internet.
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Author can be reached at rima.abdelkader@gmail.com and via Twitter @rimakader.
Source: http://www.dinarstandard.com/management/MaktoobCEO100509.html
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