Populis, formerly known as GoAdv, was an online publishing company producing content for 550

websites A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...

and

blogs A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

across eight European languages. It "collapsed" and was put into liquidation in 2016. During its period of operation, Populis produced over 35,000 articles and videos in English,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. As of 2011, they reputedly received 26.1 million monthly unique visitors across their websites and blogs. In 2010, they had revenues of 58 million euros. Populis specialized in writing content for different audiences and sectors including women's interests,

personal finance Personal finance is the financial management which an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future life events. When planning personal fi ...

, automobile, travel and fashion. The company was active in several different countries, including

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, Italy, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, Sweden, US,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Co-founded by Luca Ascani, chairman of the company, and CEO Salvatore Esposito, Populis had offices in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

.John Kennedy
"Dublin-based Populis one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital media firms"
''Silicon Republic'', May 20, 2011 Headquartered in Dublin, as of 2011 the company employed 58 staff. Its website brands included Excite Europe, Better Deals, Nanopublishing, Blogosfere and Blogo.

Early history

GoAdv was launched in

on July 1, 2004 by Luca Ascani and Salvatore Esposito. In October 2010, GoAdv rebranded to Populis to reflect the company's increasing focus on the European production of multilingual online content.

Management

Members of the Populis Board of Directors include co-founder and Chairman Luca Ascani, co-founder and CEO Salvatore Esposito and Bernard-Louis Roques at Truffle Capital. Luca Ascani has spoken at the eG8 Forum on issues facing

start-ups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

in the current business climate. In 2000, he launched buycentral.it as an Italian

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of a French shopping comparison site. The company was sold to the German group

Lycos Lycos, Inc., is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company is based in Walth ...

in 2004. In 2002, he launched ADVance SRL, subsequently selling it to Netbooster in 2007.

Media Brands and Acquisitions

Populis has acquired several

web portals A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

. After adding Better Deals, a European network of shopping guides, to their network in February 2006,

Excite Excitation, excite, exciting, or excitement may refer to: * Excitation (magnetic), provided with an electrical generator or alternator * Excite Ballpark, located in San Jose, California * Excite (web portal), web portal owned by IAC * Electron ex ...

Excite Europe was acquired in October 2007. Nanopublishing was acquired in June 2009, followed by the acquisition of Blogosfere, Italy's largest blog network, in January 2010. Blogo was bought in January 2011.

Revenues

From 2006 to 2010, Populis' revenues grew by an average of 43 percent annually, reaching revenues of 58 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s in 2010. In June 2010, Populis announced its delisting from the Alternext of NYSE Euronext.

Awards

Populis has won four awards for its growth and revenues, including the 2010 Red Herring Europe 100 award. In 2010 Populis was announced as the 4th fastest growing larger

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

company in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

by the 2010 GP Bullhound Media Momentum awards. The Group was also nominated again as one of Europe's top 20 fastest growing digital media companies in the Media Momentum Awards 2011. GP Bullhound Media Momentum awards official website

References

{{Reflist

External links

www.populis.com

StrategyEye

Blog Network Blogosfere

Blog Network Blogo
Mass media companies of Europe Companies based in Dublin (city)