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 Technology News | August 2007 
Mexico's Televisa Debuts in Social Networking
 Cyntia Barrera Diaz - Reuters
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| | Televisa will pipe exclusive videos and interviews with talent from its hit television shows into its newly created Gyggs.com, aiming for users aged 13 to 24. |
Mexico City - Mexican broadcaster Televisa has jumped into the fast-growing online social networking market, competing for Latin American visitors against heavyweights MySpace and hi5.
Televisa, the world's biggest producer of Spanish-language content, will pipe exclusive videos and interviews with talent from its hit television shows into its newly created Gyggs.com, aiming for users aged 13 to 24.
Televisa wants to attract teenagers who will chat online about their favorite shows, soap operas and pop singers.
The site has lined up 50,000 registrations since its launch three weeks ago. Most of its Spanish-only content is Mexico-specific, but visitors from anywhere in the world can create a profile.
"We are growing at a fast pace. I think that we could reach between 250,000 and 300,000 registrations" after 12 months, Juan Saldivar, chief executive of Televisa's online businesses, said in an interview on Friday.
Online social networks, which allow users to share images, video, text and music among friends, are one of the hottest trends online.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought social networking site MySpace.com, one of the Web's fastest growing properties, for about $580 million in 2005. It is now considered to be worth about $10 billion by some Wall Street analysts.
In January, MySpace launched a Web site tailored to the Mexican market, and as of July it had more than 1.5 million active users per month.
Almost a fifth of Mexico's 103 million people use the Internet, the government believes.
Televisa has gained international recognition for its tear-jerking soap operas, which are often translated into other languages and broadcast abroad.
In recent years, Televisa has notched record ratings with shows for young viewers, such as "Rebelde," a trend-setting remake about fashionable teenagers, and "La Fea Mas Bella," Televisa's take on a Colombian TV phenomenon that spun off versions from India to Germany.
Saldivar said Televisa's knowledge of the local market will give it an edge on rivals.
"We have a platform that is 100 percent Mexican, focusing on local premium content," he said. "Unlike others ... we are going to focus on the Mexican and Hispanic culture. We will have all the official sites for (Televisa) talent and brands."
Gyggs.com will be available to users in the United States, where Televisa's plan to expand among the Hispanic community stalled in recent years due to legal fights with Univision Communications Inc, its main partner there.
Televisa has invested at least $2.5 million in the Gyggs.com development and advertising, Saldivar said. |
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