SAPO logo

The Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses Online (SAPO, English: Portuguese Online Pointers Server) is a Portuguese portal and provider of products and services for the Internet. Founded in 1995 as a search engine, it is the largest internet portal in Portugal.[1] The current SAPO logo was created in 2014.[2]

SAPO is an information hub and receives over 61 million visits per month.[2]

History

SAPO was created on September 4, 1995, at the University of Aveiro by six students in the Center for Informatics of the university.[3] The name originated from the acronym of the service, S.A.P. (Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses), which later evolved into Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses Online, giving rise to the acronym SAPO.[1] Another factor in the name was Sapo Cocas, which is the European Portuguese name of Kermit the Frog.[3]

In 1997, SAPO became the property of the company Navegante and began commercial operation.[1] At some point,[specify] it became part of Altice Portugal.[citation needed]

Discontinued services

SAPO Fotos

SAPO Fotos was an online photo hosting, management, and sharing service launched by SAPO in 2005.[4] It reached approximately 200,000 users and 16 million images. Among other associated projects, it had partnerships with Agência Lusa, which made their photographic archive available on SAPO Fotos, and SAPO Panoramas, which featured the best 360-degree photographs taken in Portugal. The service was discontinued in 2017.[5]

SAPO International

SAPO expanded internationally in 2008 by opening localized portals in Angola and Cabo Verde, followed by Moçambique and Timor-Leste in 2010. These portals featured local content in partnership with local media outlets. In 2020, the service was shut down by Altice, the company that owns SAPO.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c "A história do SAPO". ajuda.sapo.pt. Archived from the original on May 21, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Pereira, João Pedro (October 1, 2014). "Portal Sapo tem nova imagem". PÚBLICO (in European Portuguese). Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Há 25 anos uma brincadeira de estudantes da Universidade de Aveiro fez nascer o SAPO". Observador (in European Portuguese). Agência Lusa. October 22, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  4. ^ "A história do SAPO". ajuda.sapo.pt. Archived from the original on May 21, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  5. ^ Web Archive - SAPO Fotos
  6. ^ "Altice encerra operações do portal Sapo fora de Portugal". www.jornaldenegocios.pt (in European Portuguese). Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
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