| Universo Online (Portuguese for "Online Universe") (known by the acronym UOL) is a Brazilian web content, products and services company. It belongs to Grupo Folha enterprise.
UOL was established by Grupo Folha on April 28, 1996. After 7 months, UOL joined portal Brasil Online (BOL) from Editora Abril. However Editora Abril does not own shares in BOL anymore. Portugal Telecom had 29% of UOL, but sold its shares to Folhapar, a company controlled by businessman João Alves de Queiroz Filho of Hypermarcas holding in 2010. Grupo Folha and Folhapar are UOL’s main shareholders. UOL won more than 100 awards as one of Brazil’s largest online portal since 1996.
In 1997, UOL created a series of forums, focus groups and surveys, as well as the online version of ”Nova Enciclopédia Ilustrada Folha’’ encyclopedia. UOL also launched TV UOL (their Video Sharing Platform), with content based on music videos, interviews and movie trailers, and AcessoNet, a company that provides larger Internet access in Brazil’s major cities. UOL also expanded its connection capability to 20 megabits and received the award of best web provider and Internet users favorite’s website of Informática Exame magazine in 1997.
In 2012, UOL was the fifth most visited website in Brazil, below only Google portals (Google Brasil, Google USA, YouTube) and Facebook. According to Ibope Nielsen Online, UOL is Brazil’s largest internet portal with more than 50 million unique visitors and 6.7 billion page views every month.
In 2014, UOL launched a mobile app for its chat and was appointed by a research of Ibope Conecta the website that most helps São Paulo Internet Users to find information. In the same year, partnerships were established with Rede TV in order to host its website and with Clarín, one of Argentina’s largest newspapers, to disclose UOL’s content in its own Portuguese language portal.
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