Microsoft, Telmex launch Latin web portal
By Michael Connor
MIAMI, March 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and
Mexican phone giant Telmex (MEX:TELMEXL) on Tuesday launched the
Spanish language web portal T1msn, the first of a series of
portals the partners plan for Latin America's hot Internet
markets.
StarMedia (NASDAQ:STRM), Terra Networks (NASDAQ:TRRA), Yahoo!
(NASDAQ:YHOO) and others already compete for Latin America's small
but promising Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking online
audiences, which Microsoft chairman Bill Gates predicted will
explode to 30 million by 2003.
"We are incredibly optimistic about the future of Latin
America, because its countries are rapidly increasing their
investments in the technologies and infrastructure needed to
connect businesses, governments and education," Gates told a
conference of Microsoft software users in Miami.
Gates and Carlos Slim, chairman of Telmex, Mexico's
dominant phone carrier, said at a news conference T1msn was the
fruit of an alliance put in place last year and would be a
gateway to the Spanish-language Internet.
The executives said they aimed to knock aside start-ups
such as StarMedia to become the preeminent Spanish-language
portal and were beginning with substantial advantages.
Microsoft's Hotmail e-mail service already has more than 5
million users from Latin America and T1msn homepage would
appear prominently on new computers sold in the region,
according to executives.
The service will produce little original editorial content
and will instead provide links to news, sports, shopping and
other services. E-mail, online chatting and a search engine
will be among the services offered, the companies said.
T1msn, located at www.t1msn.com, will initially offer
services aimed at Mexico and Spanish speakers throughout the
Americas and plans to launch other country-specific web portals
during the coming year, the companies said.
Executives said a stock quotation or offering from T1msn
would come eventually but that the companies had the money and
other resources to sustain start-up costs.
Gates declined to discuss financials, other than to say
each company was making a "substantial investment."
T1msn will be based in Mexico and will be led by Gerardo
Villarreal, a Mexican national and a veteran Microsoft
executive in Latin America.
Telmex, last week began offering high speed Internet
service in 27 Mexican cities, just weeks after Terra Networks,
the Internet unit of Spain's Telefonica SA, and IFX Corp
(NASDAQ:FUTR), began offering free Internet access in Mexico.
Microsoft executives said they were considering a similar
alliance to start an Internet portal in Brazil, the single
largest Internet marketplace in Latin America, but gave no
details.
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