Yahoo! to ramp global spending, hiring -Yang

November 21st, 2009 in Online Marketing- Middle East

DUBAI - Global internet giant Yahoo! Inc plans to ramp up spending globally as it looks to hire more staff to take advantage of a recovery in the economy, its co-founder and former CEO told Maktoob Business on Thursday.

“Globally, we are hiring … We are planning so that whenever the economy recovers we will be able to take advantage of it,” Jerry Yang said in Dubai, without going into further detail.

Yang said spending will mostly come in the form of new hires as Yahoo! beefs up its presence in emerging markets, where internet penetration and technology take-up are in their infancy.

Yahoo! has been expanding into high-growth emerging markets in recent years to compensate for declining advertising revenues in developed markets.

Advertising in emerging markets, meanwhile, continues to witness double-digit growth and online advertising remains relatively untapped.

“The Middle East and other emerging markets are a big focus for Yahoo!,” Yang said.

Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, who joined in January, said last week the company wants to triple its operating margin to 15-20 percent over the next three years, from around 6 percent currently, and expand its business in India.

MAKTOOB AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Yahoo!’s emerging markets focus saw it last week complete the takeover of Maktoob.com, the Arab world’s largest online community. Maktoob Business is part of Maktoob.com.

The deal was sealed about 10 weeks after Yahoo! announced the acquisition in August.  

Yang described the purchase of Jordan-based Maktoob, first major investment by a U.S. technology company in the Middle East, as a “watershed moment” for the companies and the region.

He said Yahoo! plans to invest further in the Middle East, without elaborating.

“Everyone believes that Arabic content will take off,” he said.

The Maktoob acquisition will allow Yahoo! to offer Arabic-language content for the first time as well as Arabic versions of its key products and services such as Messenger, E-mail and Yahoo! front page.

Yang’s visit to Dubai is part of a regional tour following the closure of the Maktoob deal that has included stops in Egypt and Jordan to meet with heads of state and senior business figures.

Yang has met Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Jordan’s King Abdullah and is scheduled to meet Dubai’s Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum later on Thursday.