U.S.-based AdStar, a leading application service provider for the classified advertising industry, announced that it has entered into an international licensing agreement with Associados, one of Brazil’s largest media organizations.
As part of the agreement, Associados has purchased the internationalization of AdStar’s platform into Portuguese, and will host AdStar’s XML Gateway Platform and market the technology to publishers throughout Brazil.
In addition to representing AdStar in Brazil, Associados will implement AdStar’s XML Gateway Platform as a key component of its own initiative to build the market-leading advertising and e-commerce system in Brazil.
AdStar’s Web-based technology will power ad transactions for Associados’ 12 newspapers, which include Correio Braziliense in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil; Estado de Minas in Belo Horizonte, the third largest city in Brazil; and O Diário de Pernambuco, the oldest newspaper in Latin America.
“We undertook an extensive search to find the elements necessary for a successful web presence, and we decided to use AdStar as the e-commerce engine for our advertising solution,” stated Geraldo Teixeira da Costa Neto, director of Internet services for Associados Group.
“We were particularly impressed with AdStar’s ability to reverse publish our web ads back into print, which is of critical importance in Brazil. AdStar’s XML Gateway Platform will be installed alongside vertical advertising solutions for automotive and real estate advertisements from Morris DigitalWorks, and its ability to handle complex integrations was key to our selection of AdStar’s technology.”
“Associados offers us a great opportunity to expand the deployment of our e-commerce platform outside of the United States into South America’s largest media market and the fifth largest country in the world,” said Leslie Bernhard, president and chief executive officer of AdStar.
“Associados has an impressive media presence throughout Brazil, including the ownership of several ISPs, and is ideally positioned to serve as a regional host and marketing agent for our technology.
“The agreement demonstrates continued growth of Internet use in global newspaper markets, as well as interest from international publishers in integrating third-party Web applications using our AdStar e-commerce platform.
“We look forward to working with Associados and their newspapers to enhance their advertising offerings with AdStar’s ad transaction technology and to market our business solutions to publishers throughout Brazil.”
AdStar’s technology allows advertisers to use the Internet to create, schedule and pay for their classified ads for publication in print and online versions of the newspapers through a single online transaction.
AdStar manages the entire ad transaction, from formatting to payment processing, and offers several value-added services to help advertisers enhance their ads’ look, feel and reach.
Based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Associados is an 80 year-old media group with more than 4,600 employees that owns and operates 12 newspapers, seven television stations, 13 radio stations and three Internet Service Providers.
AdStar’s ad transaction infrastructure powers classified ad sales for more than 40 of the largest newspapers in the United States, the Newspaper Association of America’s bonafideclassifieds.com, CareerBuilder and a growing number of other online and print media companies. The company is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California.
AdStar – www.adstar.com
Associados – www.uai.com.br
