Spain’s Telefónica Moves into Social Networking, Buys Tuenti

By Emily Williams

Spanish telecom giant Telefónica, which took its first steps into the ebook market a month ago (as we reported here), last week laid down $70 million to acquire a 90% interest in Tuenti, Spain’s biggest homegrown social networking site. Tuenti has 8 million users and is especially popular among the young 14-20 age group. The move injects needed capital into the networking site, which has been outpaced in recent years by Facebook, and for Telefónica opens a major inroad into social networking, as well as the potential to draw higher ad revenue based on a combined user base of 14.2 million users, putting the group in fourth place overall in the Spanish market behind Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.