Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported today that Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad (TSE:2193) will acquire Beirut-based NetSila SAL, the company behind community recipe board Shahiya. The acquisition will be closed by the beginning of next year. Cookpad will acquire a whole stake in the Lebanese company. Shahiya has acquired more than four million monthly visitors, and their sales reached $400,000 as of December 2013, mainly from advertising. In the Middle East, people have prefer to cook and dine at home. As the population of internet users grows, Cookpad sees great demand for recipe content in the region. The Shahiya service is free, but Cookpad is considering adding a premium membership to the service. With the acquisitions of Shahiya and other recipe sites around the world, Cookpad aims to grow the consolidated monthly user base from the company’s affiliated sites to 100 million visitors in a few years, which is 60 million visitors worldwide. See also: Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad makes two key international acquisitions Japan’s Cookpad acquires Indonesia’s Dapur Masak