I was going to write something about the new Pew Hispanic Center release on US population trends over the next 40 years, but FH Hispania Plaza did a pretty good job, so I won’t reinvent the wheel. To read it, go here.
Secondly, QuieroLatino is having some troubles today that might help explain Microsoft’s continuing troubles against Google in paid search. To read about that, go here.
Our friends over at QuieroLatino launched recently. It’s a big step for them and we wish them the very best of luck.
QuieroLatino.com Launches Upscale Dating Site for Latinos in the US
National rollout begins today; the first 1,000 individuals to register by Valentine’s Day will receive a 3 month freetrial membership
San Francisco, CA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – PR Newswire)–February 7, 2008–QuieroLatino.com, an exclusive new dating site for Latinos in the United States, announced today the launch of its nationwide rollout. Beginning today, singles can visit QuieroLatino.com, create a free profile, and start meeting other singles.
Designed as the premier online dating site for Latinos in the United States, QuieroLatino is offering the first 1,000 individuals who register on QuieroLatino.com by Valentine’s Day a 3 Month Free Trial Membership. QuieroLatino is offering the limited time promotion to celebrate the Beta launch of its website.
Visitors to QuieroLatino will find a website that has been specifically targeted towards Latinos in the UnitedStates. “QuieroLatino has worked with several Latino marketers to create a website that is culturally relevant for Latinos in the U.S.,” said Joe Spector, Co-Founder.
“QuieroLatino is the first dating site I have seen that creates the perfect atmosphere for Latinos; it’s a place where they can find a great date instead of being frustrated with a generic website,” said Juan Guillermo Tornoe, an expert Latino marketer and author of the Hispanic Trending blog.
It is estimated that over two million Latinos currently use online dating. “Our goal is to become the go-to dating website for the large and growing Latino population,” said Ariel Oxman, Co-Founder.
In case you didn’t notice, Batanga is building a juggernaut down in Miami and is looking to take on Univision.com as the go-to source for Hispanic online content.
Most recently, Batanga confirmed that it is acquiring HispanoClick, a Hispanic online ad network. In addition to strategic moves, Batanga is advertising like crazy. They recently hired a new ad agency and have gradually started advertising in a big way.
Normally that isn’t interesting. If I had a nickel for every Hispanic website that started up with a lot of buzz, PR, and advertising, I would have a lot of nickels. But what’s interesting is that Batanga is getting some traction. You can tell that Batanga’s making some headway not only by the numbers that they’re trumpeting everywhere, but by the fact that they’ve woken the sleeping giant. That’s right, Univision sat up and is paying attention.
Univision is traditionally very conservative. They never advertise, other than cross-advertising on their own properties, because they don’t have to. But if you look inside this month’s Portada Magazine, you’ll see a full page ad for Univision.com, positioning it as the biggest and best website for reaching Hispanic web users. A few pages over there’s an ad for Batanga saying basically the same thing.
Generally accepted economic wisdom is that as markets mature, they naturally consolidate and move toward a duopoly state, with two big players dominating the market (think Coke/Pepsi, or Microsoft/Google). For a long time, the Hispanic online market has been highly fragmented, with one big fish (Univision.com) and lots of little fish (everybody else). This market is by no means mature, and is probably more fragmented than ever, but at the same time, it’s natural for there to be a couple of big leaders in the market ,fighting it out. It seems that for now that battle will be between Batanga and Univision.com. It should be fun to watch. Stay tuned.