Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does this activity cover?
This activity covers managing websites that use a search engine to create and maintain large databases of internet addresses and content, organised so that users can find the information they need quickly through keyword or query-based search.
2. Who are the typical users?
Typical users are end users searching the web for information, products, or services, and advertisers paying to place sponsored results next to organic listings on the search results page where intent-driven traffic converts.
3. Does this include search advertising?
Yes, search advertising is the primary revenue model for a search portal. Sponsored placements displayed alongside organic results, paid clicks, and shopping ad units are all monetisation paths that sit naturally within this activity.
4. Is this the same as a media or content portal?
No, this is the search-engine variant of a web portal. Media and content portals that publish periodically updated articles, news, or other editorial content fall under a separate activity within the broader web portals group.
5. Does the search portal need to index the entire web?
No. The activity covers any search portal that maintains an extensive searchable database, whether general-purpose covering the open web or vertical search focused on a specific category such as travel, property, jobs, or local services.
How to Start a Search Engine Portal Business with Meydan Free Zone
A resident in JLT searches for a "gym near me". A new arrival hunts for a tailor in Karama. A gold buyer in Deira checks the live rate. A tourist in Marina searches for the nearest brunch. Each search query is met by a ranked page of results in milliseconds. Behind every answer sits a search engine portal, and somebody runs it.
Search engine portals sit at the centre of how the internet is used. The global internet search portals market reached USD 341.73 billion in 2025 and is forecast to grow to USD 552.3 billion by 2029, at a compound annual growth rate of around 14.6 percent, according to The Business Research Company¹. The UAE shows the same momentum on the ground: search advertising spend, the revenue model that funds search portals, is set to grow from USD 326.5 million in 2024 to USD 484.7 million by 2028, at a CAGR of 10.38 percent, according to Statista². For a search portal, that is a market that pays well for relevance and rewards the operators who get the user to the answer fastest.
A search portal business plugs into a UAE ad market on a steady climb, sitting on top of a global market many times its size. Here is the scale of both, side by side.
Source: The Business Research Company Internet Search Portals Global Market Report 2025 and Statista Search Advertising United Arab Emirates 2024, via Statista
Picture a search engine portal, a query comes in: "flights to Mumbai", "cardiologist in Dubai", "AED to INR rate today". The engine has already crawled and indexed billions of pages. It ranks the matches against signals from location, intent, and history, and returns a page of results before the user has lifted their hand off the keyboard. Sponsored placements sit beside the organic results. Every click, scroll, and back-button is logged and fed into the next rank. The portal earns on the searches that lead to a clickout, and grows on the relevance of what it surfaces.
Whether the query is "gold rate", "visa renewal", or "restaurants nearby", a search portal is what turns a question into an answer.
Who is this for?
- General search engine operators: Businesses running broad search portals indexing the open web across pages, images, videos, and news.
- Vertical search operators: Operators running search portals focused on a specific category, such as travel, property, jobs, or local services.
- Regional and language-specific search providers: Firms running search portals built for Arabic, MENA-specific, or other localised audiences.
Meydan Free Zone offers 100% foreign ownership, zero percent corporate tax on qualifying income, full profit repatriation, and a fully digital licensing process, providing a regulated and cost-efficient base from which to operate a search portal in a market where almost the entire population is online and search advertising spend is climbing year on year.
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6312.01 - Operation of Web Sites That Use a Search Engine to Generate and Maintain Extensive Databases of Internet Addresses and Content in an Easily Searchable Format
Under this activity, your business is licensed to operate websites that use a search engine to generate and maintain extensive, searchable databases of internet addresses and content.
A search portal business runs websites built around a search engine. The work is to index large databases of internet addresses and content, organise them, and make them searchable, so a user typing a keyword or query gets the right page back fast. The audience is mixed: end users hunting for an answer, and advertisers paying to sit next to those answers. It is an attention and intent business. The portal earns on the searches it routes and grows on how fast and accurately it surfaces what the user came for.
This activity is specifically for operating the search portal itself. Running a media or content portal that publishes periodically updated content, providing the underlying hosting infrastructure, publishing original content as a publisher, or building search websites for clients as a service all fall under separate activities.
If your business operates a search portal as defined here, you are in. If you run a media or news portal, host other people's sites, or build search products for clients, a different activity applies.
Third-Party Approval
No third-party approval is required for this business activity.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance
This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.
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Footnotes
¹ The Business Research Company. Internet Search Portals Global Market Report. The Business Research Company, 2025.
² Statista. Search Advertising - United Arab Emirates. Statista, 2024.
