How Yahoo! Maktoob Revolutionized the Arab Web before Shutting Down

Yahoo! Maktoob was once touted as a bridge between Arabic and English digital communication. This left an indelible mark in the Middle East’s online landscape. It was born in 1999, revolutionizing email services by providing the first bilingual platform for Arabic-speaking people. Acquired by Yahoo! in the year 2009, Maktoob’s story became one of ambition, growth, and then eventual decline with its shutdown in 2023. But how does such a regional powerhouse rise to prominence, and why does it fall? Let’s delve deeper into the evolution of Yahoo! Maktoob.

As the number of users kept on growing, Maktoob soon became the favourite choice of millions of users throughout the Middle East, who enjoyed-for the first time-the feeling of an online space personalized to their needs.

Maktoob’s success did not go unnoticed. In June 2005, Abraaj Capital, a leading UAE-based private equity firm, took a 40 percent stake in the company for $5 million. This strategic move was rooted in the growing user base, currently over 4 million users. Besides, Maktoob is diversifying its offerings beyond email into services like cashU, a popular online payment system in the region, and Souq.com, the first Arabic online auction site. These businesses sealed the position of Maktoob as one of the region’s key online players, and in 2006, the company continued to extend its reach with an 80% stake in Sport4ever.com, one of the most popular Arab sports websites. Finally, in 2007, Abraaj Capital cashed out at a return on investment of 75%, selling to Tiger Global Management.

The year 2009 was when Maktoob went through a paradigm shift in the form of an acquisition by Yahoo! for $164 million. Indeed, the acquisition marked not just the largest investment ever by Yahoo! in the MENA region but also one of the biggest landmarks in the Arab world of digitization. This acquisition gave Yahoo! a chance to reach the rapidly growing Arabic-speaking population and allowed various services such as Yahoo! Maktoob News, Yahoo! Maktoob Sports, Yahoo! Maktoob Blog, and many others. All these were possible only because of the support of Yahoo!, and this subsequently enabled Maktoob’s offshoot, Souq.com, to grow to a valuation of $1 billion. This acquisition marked a new and rapid growth in the Middle East digital market, putting Yahoo! Maktoob at the head of the global tech world. The euphoria from the acquisition was short-lived, however, as Yahoo! started to encounter many stumbling blocks to further and expand its operations within the region. In 2014, Yahoo! announced it would scale down the operations in Dubai by laying off half the staff to streamline international operations.

By 2015, Yahoo! had closed its last office in the MENA region, citing that it needed to pay more attention to core markets. That heralded the gradual retreat of Yahoo! in the Middle East and saw the final closure of Yahoo! Maktoob on 31 January 2023. The closure marked the end of an era, but the legacy of Maktoob lives on as the first Arabic-English email service and a pioneering digital platform for the Arab world. Yahoo! Maktoob wasn’t just a website; it was a cultural reference point-a standard by which millions of Arabs interacted online. It gave them tools no other platform could at the time, birthed Souq.com, now Amazon’s Middle Eastern outpost, and smoothed the way for regional digital endeavours