Luca Ascani, co-founder and chairman of Populis
Dublin-headquartered Populis has expanded into the Brazilian content production sector with the acquisition of Cidade Internet, one of Brazil’s largest web portals.
Populis, which is one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital media companies, now owns and operates more than 600 websites through media brands Excite Europe, Blogo, Blogosfere and now Cidade Internet, as well as 700,000 websites in the Mokono network.
The acquisition will include two additional offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and an additional 30 staff by year’s end.
Populis already generates more than 2.6m unique monthly users in Brazil and its Blogo network has 10m page views.
The acquisition of Cidade, which is one of Brazil’s oldest web portals, includes a further 10 web properties and some of Brazil’s top blogs.
Brazil, which is the world’s sixth-largest economy, has an online population that spends US$6.5bn a year and is growing annually by 40pc year on year.
Populis, which recently reported €58m revenues, has been named one of Europe’s 25 fastest-growing digital media companies. It is growing its workforce in Dublin from 58 to 80 people.
Populis’ properties collectively drive more than 35m monthly unique users and its content sees more than 35,000 items added every month.
“We are very excited by the acquisition of Cidade Internet in Brazil,” explained Luca Ascani, co-founder and chairman of Populis.
“The country’s economy is bucking the global recession trend and the population of 195m provides a huge domestic marketplace with spending power. 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,” Ascani said.
