Latin America and Spain are hot this summer. Three big digital media operators on Thursday announced moves in to the regions.
Latin America’s improving economy is creating a new middle class of “digital Latino”, according to these slides from Terra Internet co-founder Fernando Madeira.
Huffington Post to Spain
AOL’s content efforts have launched in Madrid as, yes, El Huffington Post, in partnership with Prisa’s El Pais newspaper.
Spain is next in its global roll-out after UK, Canada, Quebec and France, which also came via a partnership with newspaper Le Monde.
Editorial director is Cadena SER radio presenter Montserrat Domínguez, who got the job after interviewing Arianna Huffington, the latter writes.
Deezer to Latin America
The unlimited-music subscription service, which is rolling out to over 200 countries in a race with rivals in the nascent segment, has opened to 35 countries in the region.
iTunes’ recent emergence there helped grow 2011 global digital music sales.
But charging in local currencies is tricky due to bank challenges. Deezer is pricing its offering to Latin Americans in U.S. dollars or British pounds – $4.25/£3.49 per month for premium (unlimited desktop streaming), $8.49/£6.99 for premium+ (mobile, tablet and IPTV streaming). That is except for Mexico, where the service will cost $69.50 and $139 respectively.
A spokesperson tells paidContent: “Deezer’s payment solution provided currently only accepts payment in USD for all those territories except Mexico.”
Deezer is also not launching in Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela.
Yahoo Shine for Latinas
Yahoo has unveiled a version of its women’s lifestyle content site, Shine, in English for “bicultural” Hispanic women in the U.S.
The site was previously reaching 3.57 million U.S. Hispanics monthly, Yahoo says, adding: “Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S., accounting for 16 percent of the nation’s total population with more than 50.5 million Latinos in the country” (release).