It's about the people

[Nadine Toukan]

Yahoo!Maktoob. Remarkable success story.

دمج الخبرة المحلية بالمعايير العالمية لتوفير أفضل تجربة إنترنت للمستهلكين ومنصة للمعلنين في كافة أرجاء العالم العربي


About an hour ago I noticed breaking tweets about the Yahoo!Maktoob deal. Yahoo! acquires Maktoob for an undisclosed amount and a deal to be concluded in Q4 this year. Their online community of 20mil/Yahoo! and 16mil/Maktoob get the best of both worlds, as content and cutting edge tech converge, driven by some of the best talent there is!

And it's the outcome of the amazing online community synergies and evolving lifestyles. What you do online matters a lot and in so many ways. People matter. The talent, hard workers who made Maktoob happen over the years, and the engaged, passionate people who make up the growing motion of online action.

The amazing journey of Maktoob is the result of outstanding talent and acumen, very hard work, failures and adjustments, successes and opportunities. Real determination. Fantastic entrepreneurship story from the heart of Jordan across the world. The result of a viable explosion of creativity & tech, and a real knack for community. If you don't know the Maktoob story since 1998, you should. Beautiful story driven by remarkable talent, Samih Toukan and Husam Khoury and the outstanding teams they've been leading as they surfed through interesting and troubled dot com times. They set out to build Maktoob to last, and it has. Now a new innovative phase of the journey continues with Yahoo! on solid foundation.

MaktoobBusiness is tweeting live covering the press conference on now in Dubai. And ArabCrunch has been regularly updating it's story since breaking it earlier.

Whatever the exact amount, this is remarkable news. Two serious, outstanding and complementary businesses join forces . They will improve on the products they now share, and each will continue growth and strength in other supporting products. The benefits are enormous, and the challenges are exciting.

Choice. Quality. Reach.

And the timing is simply perfect. Everyone needs feel good news!

At a time when our economy and general attitudes have been in a low lull, this industry news is just what the world needs. Solid endorsement of potential in the region, of growth prospects, and talent. Opens new possibilities for online & multiplatform business - a playground for content creators and applications designers :) Online advertising will evolve in format and grow significantly over the coming two years. (Yahoo! release) New business opportunities for anyone interested in the zone. This is a very needed demo of confidence in the industry - the creative industry. The industry built on and nurtured by people, their talent and remarkable skill, and that which they create. Our most interesting and important natural resource.

As a founding investor, @fadig tweeted "The future for Arab entrepreneurship will be known as Before Maktoob-Yahoo (BMY) and After Maktoob-Yahoo (AMY). Yes we can"

A true, home-grown story of entrepreneurial spirit, growing steadily and at the right time takes that quantum leap. This news is a much needed positive boost for the general mood. Maktoob - congratulations on this fantastic development. Thanks for leading.

Related on MaktoobBusiness Yahoo! VP Keith Nilsson on why Maktoob and emerging markets.

ياهو! توسع شبكتها لتضم الملايين من المستهلكين في العالم العربي وتوقع اتفاقية نهائية للاستحواذ على موقع مكتوب.كوم

It's about the people. People make history.

What history do you want to make?



UPDATES

All about Yahoo! Maktoob.

Maktoob Yahoo! microsite

Samih Toukan launches Jabbar

Yahoo!Maktoob - what are the numbers of that community?

Yahoo! wll soon speak Arabic - by Keith Nilsson

Q&A with Ahmad Nassef, Maktoob GM

Samih Toukan Q&A and about Jabbar

On FT.com Yahoo buys Arabic language portal

Maktoob buy to spur media online on MaktoobBusiness

[Yusuf Mansur]

The success story is an inspiration to all. The more Maktoub owners receive the better off we all are, simply because they will not set idle after the sale and go on to create even larger investments in Jordan and elsewhere; hopefully only Jordan
One should not think of such sales as terminal, the same creative mindsets and formulas can be applied to other ventures, the mobility of capital and talent is important for building a thriving creative economy. This time they have more funds than when they started and, thgus, can do even better and bigger projects. One cannot imagine the power and drive in an entrepreneur’s mind unless one is involved herself in such a process. I am very proud of our guys and their formula, I learned a lot from them, just wish I had the same courage they had

[Nadine Toukan]

UPDATE, FEB 27, 2010:
PaidContent reports: According to reports from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Yahoo acquired Maktoob for $164 million in cash —almost double the amount that had previously been widely reported, according to the company’s 10K, which was just filed with the SEC. (via MediaME)

[Nadine Toukan]

[Led Zeppelin]

Indeed an inspiration,and a great success for cashing money into the country!

To put in some of my downside thoughts into this..
If there is a downside to the deal of course, it is to Yahoo exclusively, why? because IMO they are in for a surprise in this "emerging market"..it will take a Very long way to reach a lucrative/paying internet population in this part of the world, we're just not used to the concept..cannot easily accept it, how many users in this part of the world would use a credit card online? or do online payments to whatever purpose. For example,the government initiated an online payment method to some of its service..you know how many payments are done per month? and I know this first hand..Zero payments! we're still willing to take a leave,go through the heat of traffic,stand in line and pay by hand because the whole concept model is rejected by our brains.

Speaking of the government,with the booming of internet users here over the past few years,what did it do to support and expose those users? not much,on the other hand it did raise some internal government alarms with the increased online purchases made from Jordan,that is by increasing customs awareness...yeah..an amazon parcel is distinguished in lightspeed..and no box is released until its value+shipping fees is customed,even if it contained feathers mind you..content make no difference and everything has a value which has to be customed..no more good ol electric/selective items rules are subject to fees nope! that's outdated policy!...yeah I'm getting off topic here although its all related..

E-Marketing is targeted to large populated traffic, but I don't think that's enough to count in as a lucrative business creator and I hardly doubt that the Marketing companies would have other mentalities than the regular folks here..they're still the same mentality.
E-Commerce does not take place,and the bits and pieces in this segment cannot be even put together,world known payment processors do not even acknowledge this part of the world,and I'd really like to see a single reputable offline merchant to use online services properly.

Mind you I'm not giving a grim perspective here, I know this is all to change, but how? do we wait for Yahoo the big brother to Arabatize its content and to godfather us into the right direction?

Is the inspiration by a deal such as (Maktoob-Yahoo) is to create online content,gather as much unique visitors as we can and then sell it to the larger internet companies? If that was the core of the online business world out there..the internet would have diminished a long time ago!

We need a real online presence in this part of the world,online businesses,services and content that are successful and lucrative on their own without the need for acquisition.

[Nadine Toukan]

good reads in today's AlGhad:

فعلها الاردنيون - مكتوب العرب - احمد جميل عذم

الاستعمارية في صفقة مكتوب - يلسر ابو هلالة

[Deena Dajani]

“There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height.”
– Victor Hugo

[Yusuf Mansur]

You are right Nadine, it is about the people. Moving against all odds, not listening to the voices of dispair, sticking with it at all costs, are the lessons we learn from these talented people. I recall visiting Maktoob in the 1990s and being very impressed with the enthusiasm and intellect that flowed; the experience made me believe that we in Jordan can make it as long as such dissenters from main stream exist and can network a dream into greatness.

[Nadine Toukan]

Thanks Carrington! Here's a fantastic blog from Ahmad Humeid on the beginnings in the 90s. Important read!

I believe this will provide a lot of inspiration. It's important to keep momentum now. People with great ideas and abilities need to step up and come together. Good thinking, real talent, hard work, no fear. That's what it takes. Everything else, we can create.

[Carrington Malin]

Nice post Nadine! Let's hope that the Yahoo!-Maktoob deal provides inspiration for many other entrepreneurs in the region (and investors in the region for that matter).