Yupi

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This article is about the internet portal. For other uses, see Yupi (disambiguation).

Latin Internet portal founded in 1997 by Carlos Cardona*[1], a young web developer from South Florida. Yupi was one of a handful of the first major sites for Hispanics on the Internet in the late 1990s Dot-com bubble. Yupi.com was a major force in Silicon Beach*[2] "the prime Internet hub for Latin America"*[3]

[edit] Company History

Yupi Internet Inc. was founded in May 1996. Its flagship portal site, Yupi.com, was created in response to the great need for high-quality Spanish-language content and services in a user-friendly format on the World Wide Web. In 1999, Yupi enhanced its offering through the acquisition of CiudadFutura, one of the world's first Spanish-language online communities, which at the time was supported by over 200 webmasters from around the world. Yupi was committed to bringing the best that the World Wide Web had to offer to Spanish-speaking Internet users and to providing marketers with unique and effective opportunities to reach targeted audiences. The Yupi portfolio featured MujerFutura.com[4][5], a specialized site catering to the interests and needs of Spanish-speaking women. Yupi also offered a fast-growing selection of sites dedicated to localized news, content and services; including pioneer multimedia site YupiTV*[6]. Yupi.com and its network of sites was headquartered in Miami Beach, Fla. and had offices in Madrid, and Barcelona (Spain); in Mexico City (Mexico); in Buenos Aires (Argentina); and in Quito (Ecuador).

The company's Senior Executive staff included: Oscar Coën (President and CEO), Marlena Delgado (COO), and Gustavo Morles*[7] (Sr. VP Business Development and Content), Carlos A Cardona (CTO and Founder).

By 1999 the company had raised as much as $150 million from venture capitalists including Sony, Comcast and News Corp.. It was planning an initial public offering in the spring of 2000 when the Nasdaq market crashed. Quickly running out of cash and without enough revenue to support its business, Yupi cut staff by 66% a few days before Christmas (12/19) in 2000.

In 2001, Yupi was acquired in a joint venture between Microsoft and Telmex (Teléfonos de México)*[8]. Although MSN and Telmex never disclosed the price they paid in acquiring Yupi, analysts had estimated that it might have been about $50 million, much less than investors had poured in.

In 2003, YupiMSN's operations were moved to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. As per standard Microsoft practices, the unique nature and community feel of Yupi was disintegrated in favor of just redirecting traffic towards MSN community sites.

[edit] External links

  • www.yupimsn.com
  • Measuring the Internet Economy, June 6, 2000. Report prepared by The University of Texas for Cisco Systems. See page 31 [9]
  • True Believer, January 2001, Latin Trade. [10]
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