| Kippreport.com

d1g.com appoints Yahoo vice president as executive chairman

June 6, 2009 12:00 by Aarti Nagraj

Release Date (6/6/2009) Social Networking and video portal site d1g.com, which allows users to share, discuss, and distribute rich online content, has tapped into the knowledge and expertise of online data mining and data strategist, Dr. Usama Fayyad, to help catalyze the company into its next stage of growth.

 

Dr. Usama Fayyad served as Yahoo!’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Research & Strategic Data Solution.  Dr. Fayyad was responsible for Yahoo!’s overall data strategy, architecting Yahoos data policies and systems, prioritizing data investments, and managing Yahoos data process infrastructure which processed and mined over 25 Terabytes of data per day resulting from Yahoo!’s over 500 million users globally.  

 

Dr. Fayyad was also responsible for the advanced technology arm of Yahoo! in Yahoo! Research — the group that is driving innovation in social systems is Search Technology, in Microeconomics and in monetization technologies. He was also responsible for user targeting and grew ad targeting at Yahoo! by 20-fold from when his company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2004 till he left Yahoo! in later 2008.

 

Dr. Fayyad invested into d1g.com, and has become the company’s new Executive Chairman.  With d1g.com growing regional audience of more than 3 million unique monthly visitors viewing more than 20 million monthly pages and an excess of 15 million online monthly videos — making it the leading video streaming site in the Middle East, Dr. Fayyad’s entry into the company provides great value in helping scale the company’s infrastructure to accommodate the increased users’ activity and to grow the business to the next level  

 

 “Arab audiences are really thirsty for new-generation rich content and social media represented by the Web 2.0 offerings of d1g.com. I am very excited about d1g.com.  I have been informally advising the firm since its early days, and I am very bullish about their potential to grow and provide some of the most dynamic experiences for their audiences and marketers alike.” said Dr. Fayyad.  “Since my departure from Yahoo! in the autumn of 2008, I have been evaluating various investment opportunities in the regional online space, and I was very impressed with the skills, expertise and dedication of the company’s leadership.” added Dr. Fayyad.

 

Dr. Fayyad will play a particularly crucial role in helping the d1g.com management team better monetize the company’s inventory through more targeted ad offerings that allows marketers to dynamically generate ads that target various audience criteria such as geography, demography, and browsing behaviour. He will also help expand the offering to our rapidly growing user base across the entire Arabic speaking world.

 

 “We are very excited to have Dr. Fayyad on board.  His hands-on approach to the company and the team has already proved to be of enormous value to the business.”  said Majied Qasem, d1g.com Co-founder, “Dr. Fayyad will be instrumental in helping us capture a larger share of the rapidly growing on-line advertising market as all companies realize the effectiveness and value of this new medium, especially in reaching the youth and high-value audiences across the Middle East, including especially the GCC and North Africa.”

 

Mr. Rudain Kawar, d1g.com Co-founder and primary investor so far added “I am looking forward to working with Dr. Fayyad.  His involvement will put d1g.com in the forefront of online innovation and provide globally and regionally relevant insights into the industry.”

 

d1g.com has successfully attracted some of the leading regional telecom, technology, and consumer brands.  This includes Nokia, Coke, Mobily, Orange, and many more. It is one of the fastest growing on-line portals and has quickly become the leading video streaming and sharing web portal for Arabic content.

 

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