ADDITIONAL $2 MILLION TO BE INVESTED IN KONTEXTUA FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW DIGITAL ADVERTISING PLATFORMS AND TO PROPEL ITS EXPANSION IN THE U.S. AND LATIN AMERICA
RedMas, the digital advertising unit of the Cisneros Group of Companies, today announced the acquisition of Kontextua, an online advertising company with an expansive network in Latin America and Spain that will strengthen the Group’s digital presence in the region. In addition, RedMas will invest $2 million in Kontextua to develop new digital advertising platforms and extend the online network’s reach in Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and in the U.S. Hispanic market.
“Latin America’s $2.5 billion digital advertising market is growing at an accelerated rate of 15 to 20 percent annually. With Internet penetration at only 35% in the region, this market holds vast potential for RedMas,” says Cisneros Group’s Chief Digital Officer Victor Kong. “The acquisition will not only contribute revenue to the Cisneros Group’s other sites, such as www.venevision.com, www.noticierovenevision.com, and www.missvenezuela.com, but it will also complement its business strategy of focusing on digital advertising, e-commerce, and social gaming.”
Kontextua was founded two years ago by German Herebia and Carlos Cordoba and developed into an innovative online advertising platform for the creation and commercialization of unexploited online advertising real estate, generating a new source of income for its more than 12,000 Spanish- and Portuguese-language affiliated sites, reaching over 60 million unique viewers. Kontextua’s technology scans website content, recognizing texts and images that can serve as anchors for contextual advertising. Advertisers can then select from a variety of content categories or key words related to their products or services, and advertise with various audience segments.
With the acquisition,Mr. Herebia, co-founder of InZearch, and Mr. Cordoba, co-founder of ePlanning, join the Cisneros Group’s digital management team.
“We are pleased to be part of an organization with a clear digital vision, and to be at the forefront of the expansion of its online advertising businesses in the region as part of the RedMas brand,” says Mr. Herebia.
Separately, Mr. Cordoba says, “We continue to focus on technological innovations in digital advertising services, and now with RedMas’ support, we are certain to accelerate the developmental process, enabling us to introduce several new innovations in the coming months.”
