Popego

Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Popego emerged in 2007 as a laboratory for big data research, co-founded by entrepreneurs Santiago Siri and Emiliano Kargieman. Siri, a programmer by trade, had previously established the Argentine Game Developers Association, while Kargieman had a background in building technology companies like Core Security Technologies and investing in Latin American high-tech startups through Aconcagua Ventures. Their combined experience in software development and venture capital shaped Popego's direction in the burgeoning social media landscape.

The company's core offering was a customizable widget that website and blog publishers could embed to provide a richer, more personalized user experience. This tool functioned by aggregating a visitor's activities across various social networks, creating a consolidated profile of their digital footprint. From this data, Popego generated an "Interest Feed," which algorithmically curated content from other users on the network that matched the individual's inferred interests. This approach aimed to cut through the noise of disorganized social media feeds and deliver relevant content to users, effectively creating a personalized "autoblog" and providing publishers with valuable demographic data about their audience.

Popego's business model was centered on leveraging the user interest data it collected. By analyzing the aggregated content and social activities, the company could build detailed interest graphs. This data was then utilized to power interest-based advertising, offering a more targeted and potentially more effective channel for advertisers than traditional methods. The company gained early visibility by launching at the prestigious TechCrunch50 conference. It secured a seed funding round in September 2008 with investors including Monashees Capital, Intel Capital, and Aconcagua Ventures. This investment fueled its development as a data-focused enterprise until its strategic acquisition by Grupo 42 (specifically, the Brazilian ad network boo-box) in December 2011, a move that integrated Popego's data analysis capabilities into a larger advertising technology framework.

Keywords: social media aggregation, user interest analysis, data research lab, interest-based advertising, content personalization, social widget, digital profile, demographic data, ad tech, data monetization, social network analysis, content curation, behavior analysis, Santiago Siri, Emiliano Kargieman, big data, user engagement, online identity, data-driven content, interest graph, boo-box, Grupo 42