Lycos Debuts Country Versions Throughout Latin America

Lycos Inc. Tuesday hopped on the the train south, entering the Latin American market with the launch of 12 sites throughout the region.

Country-specific versions of Lycos Network properties Lycos.com and Tripod.com were rolled out in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela. Lycos en Espanol and Tripod Americas were also launched to target the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S.

The country sites have made local content and marketing deals, and Lycos (LCOS) has opened an office in Miami to support its Latin America expansion.

“Latin America is poised to become the next great growth center for
Internet services,” said Bob Davis, Lycos president and chief executive officer.

“In the U.S., the Spanish-speaking population is the fastest growing
population segment. We are now positioned to meet the demand of these
high-growth markets with the launch today of 14 targeted sites in Spanish and Portuguese.”

The move follows the success of the Tripod rollout in Europe. The Asia market is next; Lycos last month signed a $50 million deal with Singapore Telecom to create new portals in 10 new Asian markets, aside from Lycos’ current joint venture operations in Korea and Japan.