Hernán Botbol

Hernán Botbol (born October 18, 1981) is an Argentine entrepreneur and current director^[1] of Taringa!. This 10-year-old website is the largest social network in Latin America. Botbol currently lives in Silicon Valley where he is leading the company's expansion to the region.^[2] In addition to Taringa!, Hernán directs Wiroos Internet Hosting, a company he cofounded in 2005.

Bio

Botbol is a technology and internet enthusiast. He attended high school at Hapnot Collegiate High School in Manitoba, Canada and later pursued a degree in Business Administration at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His entrepreneurial endeavors date back to 2005 when he co-founded his first Company, Wiroos Internet Hosting, alongside his brother, Matías Botbol, and associate, Alberto Nakayama. This company provides web hosting services, and has positioned itself as an example of quality and excellence. Botbol received international recognition when Taringa.net was acquired in 2006,^[3] and then relaunched in 2007. It became one of the most successful Spanish-speaking web pages before the emergence of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Taringa! established itself as one of the most-visited Spanish-language websites with its user base of over 75 million unique users per month and its presence in 18 countries in Latin America,^[4] Spain, and the United States. Behind Facebook, Taringa! is the second most popular social media platform in Latin America (according to data from comScore).

Awards and recognition

In 2010, Taringa! received the award Premio Oscarlos Argentina, or Argentine Creative Award. This award from the Círculo de Creativos Argentinos (the Argentine Creative Circle) distinguishes the creative work of professionals in various fields. Taringa! received the award not only for being one of the most visited Latin-American sites in the world, but also for its community of unique users with its own rules, protocols, and unique identity. In 2012, Taringa! received the “Web del año” award, which recognized it as the best social network of the year. The European online research company Metrix Lab has been organizing this award for 10 years Taringa! was the only Latin American business nominated. Even though it faced competition from websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in the Communities and Social Networks category, Taringa! was chosen by the users to be the winner.^[5]

Personally, Hernán Botbol was distinguished as one of the entrepreneurs of the year by the Universidad de Palermo in Argentina. This award is presented to the most important figures in Argentina’s entrepreneurial field.

Speaker and industry leader

Botbol is a leader of the Spanish-speaking ^[6] Internet and Digital Media industry. He has participated as a speaker at many major industry conferences including Red Innova^[7] (Madrid, June de 2012), Show me the money (2012), Premio estilo emprendedor Palermo 2012, Pechakucha (June 2013), Orador Cirerre del Social Media Day Montevideo (June 2013), Speaker en IAB Argentina (August 2013), Speaker IAB Uruguay, Foro Digital organized by the Ministerio de Cultura de La Nación (September 2013), CACE (Cámara Argentina de Comercio Elecrónico), session Conversando con Mirtha Legrand(September 2013).

References