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For other uses, see Que pasa (disambiguation).
Quepasa Corporation
Type of businessPublic
Previous Stock Symbol (NYSE: QPSA)
Available inSpanish
English
Portuguese
Founded1997 (1997)
Area servedUSA , Latin America
Founder(s)Jeffrey Peterson
Key peopleJohn Abbott, CEO
Michael Matte, CFO
Louis Bardov, CTO
IndustrySocial media
Employees~75 (2006)
URLquepasa.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationFree
UsersIncrease 32 million (March 3, 2011)[1]

Quepasa Corporation was a US-based social media technology company catering to Latin Audiences worldwide. Quepasa owned and operated Quepasa.com, a social network, Quepasa Games (formerly Techfront),[3] a social game development studio, and Quepasa Contests, a social media advertising solution (formerly Quepasa DSM). Initially founded as a Hispanic web portal and later revived by its founder[4] as a Social Network that grew to over 30 million users,[1] Quepasa was the first publicly traded company focused on the bilingual English/Spanish language U.S. Hispanic internet demographic.[5]

In 2012, Quepasa suspended operations after a $100 million[6] acquisition, name change and sale to MeetMe.[7]

About

Founded in Phoenix, Arizona and later with headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida (with offices in Scottsdale, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico), Quepasa Corporation owned Quepasa.com, one of the world's largest, bicultural & bilingual Latino Social Networks on-line. Quepasa.com, and sister site Corazones.com served 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[8]

History

Quepasa Corporation was founded by Jeffrey Peterson in 1997. The Company was headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with offices in Los Angeles, California and 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.[8]

Growth

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.[9]

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.[citation needed]

In 2010, an article published by Adweek noted "record setting numbers for Quepasa" in a "fierce latin social networking climate" with Facebook, Hi5, Tagged.com, Sonico and others.[10]

In 2011 Quepasa announced a partnership with PRISA Digital,[11] 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.

Management controversy

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.

Events

  • June, 1997: Quepasa is incorporated as Internet Century Inc. The business is initially operated as a high end web applications developer, with offices in Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California.
  • December 18, 1998: Changes name to Quepasa.com, Inc.
  • June 24, 1999: Quepasa goes public on Nasdaq, selling 4 million shares at $12. [1]
  • August 2, 1999: New Quepasa CEO Gary Trujillo fires founder Peterson, accusing him of starting a competing venture. [2]
  • September, 1999: Quepasa signs Gloria Estefan as its spokesperson, partner, and investor [3]
  • March, 2000: Gateway Computer invests $10 million in Quepasa [4]
  • April 17, 2000: Cheskin Research ranks Quepasa as #1 for U.S. Hispanics online
  • June, 2002: Founder Jeffrey Peterson again gains control of Quepasa through a takeover, reorganizing the business [5]
  • August, 2005: Quepasa launches its social network site, allowing users to switch between its news portal and the social site, formerly named w1 because it used to reside in subdomain (www1.quepasa.com).
  • March, 2006: Billionaire investor Richard Scott acquires stake in Quepasa [6]

First Publicly Traded Social Network

In 2010 and 2011, several media publications reported that Quepasa was the "only publicly traded social network,"[12] [13] meaning Quepasa was the only Social Network trading on a Stock Exchange at that time. This is especially noteworthy as the Initial Public Offering for the best known Social Network in history, Facebook, was several years later on Friday, May 18, 2012. If these historical dates prove correct, Quepasa may have been the first publicly traded Social Network.

References

  1. ^ a b "Quepasa.com Membership Reaches Record 31.7 Million Users in February". marketwired.com. P. Mar 3, 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  2. ^ "Quepasa.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  3. ^ Techcrunch Quepasa, The Facebook for Latinos, buys Social Game developr XtFT for $4 Million
  4. ^ Hernandez, Ruben (Feb 1, 2004). "Quepasa.com regroups after difficult times". bizjournals.com. Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  5. ^ Romney, Lee (28 December 2000). "QuePasa Becomes First Big Latino 'Dot-Com' Flop". latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  6. ^ Shontell, Alyson (20 July 2011). "This 21-Year-Old Just Sold Her Startup For $100 Million". businessinsider.com. Business Insider. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  7. ^ "Quepasa And MyYearbook Rebrand As MeetMe". techcrunch. April 3, 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  8. ^ a b http://allthingsd.com/20110720/here-to-make-friends-why-quepasa-is-paying-100m-for-myyearbook/
  9. ^ Quepasa.com. "Gloria Estefan and Quepasa.com to Celebrate National Latino Internet Month". PR Newswire. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  10. ^ Azam Khan. "Why Is The Quepasa Social Network Growing So Fast?". Adweek. Social Times. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  11. ^ Quepasa and Prisa Digital Announce Partnership Archived May 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Cassel, Ian (26 April 2010). "Quepasa: The Only Publicly Traded Social Network". seekingalpha.com. Seeking Alpha Ltd. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  13. ^ "Quepasa Corp. is Today's Focus Stock". nbcnews.com. Globe Newswire. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
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