IG Portal

The iG portal – at first an acronym for “Internet Grátis” ('free internet'), then “Internet Group”, then “Internet Generation” – is the fifth most visited news website in Brazil. According to Amazon Alexa’s Top 500 Ranking, iG had 74,703 single visitors in July, 2017 and a total of 233.359 views. In the general ranking the portal occupies the 68th position.

IG was founded by the group GP Investimentos and Opportunity, having as founding partners Nizan Guanaes, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Aleksandar Mandic and Matinas Suzuki Jr., with participations from Demi Getschko and Carla Sá. They began operating in January 2000, within an intense advertisement campaign.

In 2004, the internet access provider was bought by BrasilTelecom and merged with the portals iBest and BrTurbo, which already belonged to the telephone company. In 2008, Oi Telecomunicações bought Brasil Telecom along with iG. In April 2012, the portal was bought by the Portuguese group Ongoing, which, on its turn, after a financial crisis, in 2015, passed its management to the enterpreneur Mario Cuesta, owner of the newspaper Diário de S. Paulo and the website Cereja Digital. Cuesta gave the portal’s management back to Ongoing in June, 2016.

iG became famous in Brazil for offering free dialed access to the internet, a service that remained in operation until February 2016. In March, during Mario Cuesta’s management, iG began charging for existing and new e-mail accounts. Users who wished to keep their accounts were forced to adhere to an annual payment plan.

Among the various sites hosted on the iG portal are Último Segundo (news), TV iG, iG Gente, iG Esportes, iG Economia, Canal do Pet, Delas, Deles and iGay. The portal is a Google partner, using their search system and keyword advertisement in a regional format.

Último Segundo had a special impact when the portal first came online as it was the first online only news company. Other news websites at that time - and in most cases still today - were related to traditional outlets, mostly newspapers and news agencies.

Key facts

Audience Share

68 (Alexa Ranking)

Ownership Type

private

Geographic Coverage

International

Content Type

free content

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Media Companies / Groups

Grupo Ongoing – Ejesa

Ownership

Ownership Structure

IG belongs to Ejesa (company of Grupo Ongoing). Grupo Ongoing – Ejesa is owned by Maria Alexandra and Nuno Almeida e Vasconcelos.

Group / Individual Owner

Grupo Ongoing – Ejesa

100%

Media Companies / Groups

Grupo Ongoing – Ejesa

Facts

General Information

Founding Year

2000

Founder

Nizan Guanaes, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Aleksandar Mandic, Matinas Suzuki Jr., Demi Getschko and Carla Sá.

Ceo

Nuno Vasconcelos

Other Important People

The founders:
- Nizan Guanaes - businessman and publicist. He is partner and co-founder of Grupo ABC de Comunicação, a holding that gathers 18 companies in the areas of advertising, marketing, content and entertainment;
- Jorge Paulo Lemann - entrepreneur, he holds a degree in Economics from Harvard University;
- Aleksandar Mandic - entrepreneur, pioneer in telecommunications and Internet providers in Brazil;
- Matinas Suzuki Jr. - journalist and publisher;
- Demi Getschko - computer scientist, he is considered one of the pioneers of the Internet in Brazil. He is the chairman of the Executive Board of the Brazilian Network Information Centre (NIC.br);
- Carla Sá - she is currently the Communications Strategy Director at Rede Globo.