In this week's LATAM Roundup: Terra Networks terminates business in seven countries in Latin America, keeping only Brazilian operations and closing offices in Miami; Criteo launches Direct Bidder in Brazil, looking to take advantage of the consolidation of the supply-side market in the country expected in the coming years; and Shazam chooses US Media Consulting to represent its commercial operations in Latin America for the next three years.

Terra Networks terminates business in LATAM, keeps Brazilian operations only

The publisher and internet services company Terra Networks terminated its operations and closed down its websites in seven countries last Friday, 30 June: Argentina, Chile, Colômbia, Estados Unidos, Espanha, México, and Peru. The company’s headquarters in Miami, which was responsible for LATAM operations, was also closed down and the team was dismissed or transferred back to Brazil.

No other activities in their product portfolio, which included websites, email, and a web chat, remain. When trying to access those services, the user is redirected to the telco part of Telefonica group in each country. The news was unexpected to the media industry in Latin America, even though in the past few months the offices have been shrinking, with several employees being dismissed.

Operations in the small and medium business department, which work on small websites and mobile services, including SMS services, are still operating. It’s worth mentioning that mobile represents more than 45% of Terra audiences in Latin America; and the company has registered 25 million unique mobile users of their paid services in the region.

Terra used to be one of the biggest digital publishers in Latin America, in the 31st position of the ranking of the most popular websites on the internet with 80 million unique visitors monthly. The end of the Spanish-speaking website is an end of 18 years of their story, with strong difficulties of monetising the audiences.

Terra Brazil, on the other hand, keeps its operations with no forecast of closing. According to sources heard by ExchangeWire Brazil, there is an optimism around the team, despite the closures, especially because the company has recovered positive numbers in the last year after several quarters of losses.

Criteo launches Direct Bidder in Brazil

Market analysts expect a consolidation of the supply side of the ad-tech chain in Brazil this year, with an expansion of ad-server solutions to execute unified bidding. With this scenario, Criteo has made available its header bidding solution in the country: Direct Bidder.

The solution connects publishers' native display inventory to the demand side of the Criteo network, promising a revenue increase by 20%. On the publisher side, the companies receive bids in real time, cutting off third-party fees. Advertisers, on the other hand, have expanded access to inventory and more efficiency in media purchases.

Criteo claims to have 250 publishers as early adopters of the solution, which is in an initial stage. Among them there are traditional news websites such as NewsCorp, The Telegraph, and IDC.

Shazam appoints US Media Consulting to represent its operations in Latin America

Shazam has chosen US Media Consulting (USMC) to represent its commercial operations in Latin America, starting in June. The company has its headquarters in Miami, and offices in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. The media company has its focus the audiences in Latin America and the hispanic market in the United States.

USMC is led by its founder and CEO, Bruno Almeida, and will offer the solutions portfolio for engaging audiences to advertisers. The company will dedicate an internal team to offer the solutions to local brands and agencies. The contract is valid for three years.