AOL Latino -

A Move to Tap the Latin American Market

[martinibuster]

About time.

I know a lot of people in the US who would be more avid surfers if only the content related to them. For instance, a typical sports page can hold little interest unless there's a soccer section. AOL aims to cross the cultural divide.

From the article [bayarea.com]:

(AOL)...wants to make sure that AOL Latino can never be called a lesser or second-class product to the English version of AOL. But that's exactly the impression AOL Latino leaves -- on the home page, no less.

On the upside, the company did a great job of taking the content that matters -- news, sports, entertainment -- and customizing it not only for the language, but also the culture of Spanish-speakers in the United States.

The Deportes, or Sports, page doesn't highlight hockey, baseball or American football. Instead, you'll find news, video clips and photos for fútbol, béisbol and boxeo -- the sports that tend to generate greater interest from Spanish-speaking communities in the United States.

This is cool because it potentially opens the door on more surfers which means more opportunities to market to yet another demographic. In light of AdSense being available in other languages, this is great news.

[msgraph]

I guess because of their failings to grab the Latin America market, they are trying to grab some of the spanish-speaking prospectives in the US. At times I feel sorry for AOL, they're trying hard but they are either too late or can't grasp the concepts they need to grasp.