Isn't it a great feeling to be wanted? In the fast-paced world of the internet, Latinos(and their money) are the latest group to be targeted. Here's a look at some of the contenders fighting to be known as THE Latino portal.
LatinoLink has been around since 1995, so is the old timer of the bunch. It recently did a major redesign of its site and is now repositioning itself from a news site to a portal in its new incarnation as Latino.com. From the beginning, this site has focused on U.S. Latinos and has content in both Spanish and English. Unfortunately, one victim of its site redesign was its archives, so the site is not quite the treasure trove of information that it once was. Mexican singer/actress Thalia was just signed on as their new celebrity spokesperson.
Star Media and its founder Fernando Espuelas are the darlings of New York's Silicon Alley. This probably has something to do with the fact that the company is evaluated at somewhere around 2-3 BILLION dollars, although in true internet company fashion the company has actually lost over $70 million since its launch. Even though it's based in New York, the site is predominately focused on Latin America users, with content in Spanish and Portuguese. In the past year, it has started to target the U.S. Latino market, which has grown from 1% to 11% of its users. In general, Star Media seems to offer the most of the Latino portals and it is constantly building alliances to offer more.
Que Pasa made headlines this past week with their new alliance with Gateway Computers. Other recent moves include appointing Gloria Estefan as its spokesperson and acquiring several smaller sites including Realestateespanol.com, Credito.com, and etrato.com(an auctions site). Based out of Phoenix, it focuses on U.S. Latinos who make up 90% of its users, and has content in both English and Spanish.
Yupi is based in Miami and was founded by Columbian-American Carlos Cordona in 1996. Sony has a minority stake in the company so it has the security of big company sponsorship(and possible potential for crossover from Sony's Latin music labels---can we say Ricky Martin?). The site is only in Spanish and has a "Yahoo" feel to it with its simple design and prominent search directory.
El Sitio is based out of Argentina, so comes with the disadvantage of trying to break into a foreign market. It's taken on the challenge though and its U.S. page offers regionalized content(at the time of writing, a report on "Selena Forever" and Oscars Night) in both English and Spanish. In a press release, CEO Roberto Cibrian-Campo alluded to this, saying that El Sitio's strength was in its ability to recognize distinctions between the various groups making up the Latino community in the U.S.
Picosito is probably the newest of the bunch, but its snazzy colors and Flash animation introduction get my vote for best design. It recently formed partnerships with free internet service 1stup.com and financial site On the horizon, Terra.com, Europe's biggest internet company, has ambitious plans to expand its base to include the U.S. Hispanic community. Microsoft recently announced that it is teaming up with Telmex to start a major Latin American portal which also targets U.S. Latinos. At this stage of the game, these giants will probably spend an incredible amount of money in an effort to catch up with the other sites.
That's not all. Following the recent success of women's portals such as Oxygen and ivillage, Latina women are the next target. Star Media recently teamed up with Loreal to release the women's site CadaMujer.com almost the same time that Yupi.com announced its new women's site Mujerfutura. Cybergrrl Alicia Sherman recently announced her upcoming site Eviva.net and SoloElla.com and Connectadas.com round out this list with sites expected to be up very soon.
[Additional breaking news added on 04/03/00]
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