UOL

UOL (uol.com.br) is Brazil’s most accessed news portal in terms of unique visitors. It is controlled by the Folha Group, and conveys its own content, besides content from the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper and from several other local and regional newspapers as well as from other thematic sub-portals.

UOL went live in 1996, offering an online chat service, the daily editions of Folha de S. Paulo, Folha da Tarde and of Notícias Populares, files from Folha archives with around 250 thousand texts, The New York Times reports translated to Portuguese, Ads, Guides, Health, the IstoÉ magazine and the UOL TV, the first in Brazil specially made for the internet.

Several business by the Folha Group for the internet are linked to UOL, such as UOL Host (website hosting services) and UOLDIVEO (infrastructure and outsourcing solutions for information technology). UOL also offers services like Shopping UOL, Emprego Certo (a job vacancy portal), Go4Gold (digital games) and UOL PlayKids (children’s content). They created several similar websites as a business strategy, as well as other existing services on the internet, such as MetadeIdeal (relationship website), UOLK/UOLKut (social network similar to Orkut) and Bate Papo UOL (chatrooms).

In 2007, they launched PagSeguro, a service directed to the e-commerce market. Linked to UOL, PagSeguro is the leader among online paying methods in Brazil. Some years earlier, in 2002, UOL had broadcast the first game of Brazil’s National Football Team on the internet, exclusively for its subscribers. Later, in 2010, it produced the first internet-exclusive presidential debate in the history of the country. Over 1,4 million people in 127 countries watched the show.

UOL competes with Globo.com for the leadership in audience reach of Brazilian portals. While it wins on unique visitors - 654.797 against Globo.com’s 526.935 in July 2017 –, both change positions when total number of visits a month is accounted for: 8.744.710 accesses at Globo.com, and 6.349.834 visits to UOL. The two portals occupy, respectively, the fifth and sixth positions among all websites, no matter the category.