Populis, the Dublin-headquartered Internet publishing company, has acquired Cidade Internet, one of Brazil’s oldest web portals, to further drive its presence in South America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Despite not having physical offices in South America until now, Populis’ blogo network has already generated 2.6 million unique monthly users and 10 million page views in Brazil. The acquisition allows the company with two offices located in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, plus an additional staff of 30 by the end of 2012.
“The country’s economy is bucking the global recession trend and the population of 195 million provides a huge domestic marketplace with spending power,” said Luca Ascani, Co Founder and Chairman of Populis. “We will be investing significantly into our Brazilian operations during the coming year and expect the market to quickly become a key revenue stream for the group.”
Cidade Internet has provided Brazil with news, entertainment and other information for more than 12 years. The acquisition provides Populis with an additional 10 Web properties and an extensive vertical network to its Brazilian operations. Including such popular blogs as FofocandoBlog, AutomovelBlog and DasmariasBlog, Cidade Internet attracts 120 million pageviews and over 30 million visits a month.
Populis currently runs and operates over 600 websites through media brands that include Excite Europe, Blogo, Blogosfere, and Cidade Internet as well as 700,000 websites in the mokono network, driving over 35 million monthly unique users with content that includes 35,000 new items every month.
Brazil has become its own target market, overtaking the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy at the end of 2011. Its growing online population spent $6.5 billion in 2010, growing 40 percent year on year.
“Brazil is experiencing tremendous growth and the population is excited by the opportunities offered by the digital economy,” said Rodrigo Tigre, Country Manager Brazil, Populis, who joined the Group from the digital media company Bolsa de Mulher. “The acquisition provides the group with a key asset in South America, and by integrating Cidade Internet fully under the Populis umbrella, we benefit from unrivalled digital publishing expertise – both in content production, distribution and monetisation,”