| Type | Public (AMEX: QPSA) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder(s) | Jeffrey Peterson |
| Area served | USA , Latin America |
| Industry | Social media |
| Website | quepasa.com |
| Alexa rank | 2,977 (January 2012[update])[1] |
| Registration | Free |
| Available in | Spanish English Portuguese |
| Industry | Social Media |
|---|---|
| Founded | Phoenix, Arizona (1997) |
| Headquarters | West Palm Beach, Florida |
| Key people | John Abbott CEO Michael Matte, CFO Louis Bardov, CTO |
| Employees | ~75 (2006) |
Quepasa Corporation is a US-based social media technology company catering to Latin Audiences worldwide. Quepasa owns and operates Quepasa.com, a social network, Quepasa Games (formerly Techfront),[2] a social game development studio, and Quepasa Contests, a social media advertising solution (formerly Quepasa DSM)
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Headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida (with offices in Scottsdale, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico), Quepasa Corporation owns Quepasa.com, one of the world's largest, bicultural & bilingual Latino Social Networks on-line. Quepasa.com, and sister site Corazones.com serves users in the U.S., Mexico, Latin America and the world in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. In July, 2011, the company merged with teen social network myYearbook[3]
Quepasa Corporation was founded by Jeffrey Peterson in 1997. The Company is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In 1998 Quepasa raised US$20 million from private investors, including television broadcaster Telemundo and Phoenix sports businessman Jerry Colangelo. Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres and former CNBC Chief Business Commentator William Siedman joined the Board of Directors.
Quepasa had its Initial Public Offering on the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 24, 1999, selling 4.6 million shares at $12 per share. By July 1999, Quepasa had raised over $100 million. Quepasa shares registered billions of dollars per month in trading volume on Nasdaq during the dot-com Internet boom.
In July 2011, the company led a merger with myYearbook a teen focused social network.[3]
In 1999 Quepasa invested tens of millions of dollars in thousands of outdoor Spanish-language billboard advertisements, network radio promotions and various national television brand-building campaigns featuring the music of its corporate spokesperson and investor, Gloria Estefan.
At the peak of the Internet boom in the year 2000, market research firm Cheskin Research ranked Quepasa as the most popular destination for U.S. Hispanics, despite costly marketing campaigns by Starmedia and Terra. Shares of Quepasa rose on Nasdaq to a market value of $400 million at their peak.
In 2011 Quepasa announced a partnership with PRISA Digital,[4] a Spanish media conglomerate. The agreement designates PRISA as a reseller of Quepasa advertising products.
In 2011, Quepasa also acquired XtFt Games, owner of Brazil-based social game development studio TechFront. In May 2011 Quepasa launched its first social gaming title after the acquisition, Wonderful City - Rio, on Quepasa.com and Orkut. Quepasa launched the game in partnership with Mentez, a Latin American-focused social network game publisher based in Miami.
Shortly after Quepasa went public in late 1999, Quepasa founder Jeffrey Peterson was ousted by a new CEO.
During the .com bust of 2001, Quepasa shares lost practically all of their value on Nasdaq. When existing management attempted to liquidate company assets, Peterson gained control of Quepasa through a successful hostile takeover and proxy fight. He was reinstated in 2002 as Chairman and CEO.