MONACO – One of the profound impacts of the Arab Spring has been the transformation of the Internet from an entertainment medium to an essential information source, says Rich Riley, SVP/MD of EMEA for Yahoo!

With its acquisition of the big Arabic language portal Maktoob, Yahoo! has the largest footprint in the Arab speaking world. Riley calls the Middle East one of the most exciting markets in the world.

We spoke with him last week at the Monaco Media Forum where he was a speaker.

Andy Plesser