Virgiliowas the firstweb portalinItaly.Started in 1996 as aweb search engineandweb directorymanually edited by its own editors, based on theYahoo!model, it has gradually evolved as a general portal with different content,webmailservices, search engine, chat, and aweb community.
 | |
Type of site | Web portal |
|---|---|
| Available in | 1 languages |
List of languages it-IT | |
| Founded | 27 November 1996 |
| Country of origin | Italy |
| Area served | Italy |
| Owner | Italiaonline S.r.l. |
| Founder(s) | Matrix S.p.A. |
| Editor | Italiaonline S.r.l. |
| URL | virgilio.it |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 1996 |
| Current status | Active |
According toAlexa,it ranked among the top 100 most visited domains in Italy.[1]Before 2013, it was among the top 15.[2]
Local content is presented in over 8,100 portals, one for each Italian town. According to Audiweb in November 2015, half of all Italian web surfers visit the portal each month — over 13 million users.
History
editThe portal's name is based onVirgil,Dante's guide in theDivine Comedy.Advertising itself as, "the Italian guide to the Internet,"Virgilhad the mission to complement the search made by a computer by categorizing sites in meaningful ways for Italian Internet users.
In the years of theDot-com bubble(1999-2001), Virgilio remained in the collective imagination thanks to a successful advertising campaign: an old man wearing acoppola capwith a cigarette in his mouth, accompanied by the advertising slogan "Virgilio, the beauty of the Internet."
Today, Virgilio still provides information content organized into vertical thematic channels; with Webmail, search, chat, and community products.
In 2016, the portal adopted theMicrosoft Bingsearch engine for its search services.[3]
Corporate affairs
editThe portal was owned by Matrix S.p.A., founded in 1995 by Paolo Ainio, Carlo Gualandri and Marco Benatti, which since 1999 was controlled 66% by theSEAT Pagine Giallegroup along withDe Agostini,and then in 2001 came under the control ofTI Mediaand finally in August 2004 byTelecom Italia.
For about two years, from late 2005 to late 2007, the Virgilio portal was blocked by Telecom Italia, preferring itsAlice ADSLbrand (designed to market itsADSLoffering).
On August 9, 2012, Telecom Italia announced the sale of 100 percent of its subsidiary, Matrix, (and thus the sale of the portal) toLibero S.r.l.,a subsidiary of Weather Investment II S.à.r.l., based on an enterprise value of 88 million euros. The merger of the two companies gave birth to Italy's leading Web portal,[4]which in early 2013, will take the name ofItaliaonline S.p.a.,[5]becoming aSocietà per azioni.[6]
Disruptions
editFrom January 22 to 28, 2023, the Virgilio Mail service, in conjunction with theLibero Mailportal, also owned by Italiaonline S.p.A., was not accessible.[7][8]In the history of Virgilio and Libero, it was the longest disruption ever. The company had ruled out, via a statement on their portal, that the disruption was caused by a cyber attack on their systems.[9]
See also
edit- Libero (web portal)
- TIM Group
- Bruno, Nicola; Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis (April 2012). "Italy: Start-Ups as a Break with the Past?".Survival is Success: Journalistic Online Start-Ups in Western Europe(PDF).Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. pp. 69–73.ISBN978-1-907384-08-0.Retrieved29 June2023– via Repubblica.it.
References
edit- ^"Alexa siteinfo".Archived fromthe originalon 18 September 2013.Retrieved5 May2019.
- ^"Alexa siteinfo".18 September 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 18 September 2013.
- ^"Italiaonline sceglie Bing per i servizi di ricerca di Libero e Virgilio"[Italiaonline chooses Bing for Libero and Virgilio's search services] (in Italian). Archived fromthe originalon 1 October 2016.Retrieved11 November2016.
- ^Sara Bennewitz (9 August 2012)."Telecom ha venduto Virgilio a Libero.it Nasce il più grande player italiano del web".la Repubblica(in Italian).
- ^Andrea Biondi (7 February 2013)."Da Libero e Virgilio (ri)nasce ItaliaOnline".Il Sole 24 Ore(in Italian).
- ^"Comunicazione di avvenuta esecuzione della trasformazione della forma giuridica di Italiaonline da S.r.l. a S.p.A."ItaliaOnline.it(in Italian). 16 April 2014. Archived fromthe originalon 2 April 2016.Retrieved16 May2014.
- ^"Libero e Virgilio down, anche oggi continuano i disservizi"[Libero and Virgil down, disruptions continue today] (in Italian). 24 January 2023.
- ^"Libero e Virgilio Mail down: caselle accessibili. Nuovo comunicato ufficiale"[Libero and Virgilio Mail down: boxes accessible. New official statement] (in Italian). 24 January 2023.
- ^"Comunicato di Italiaonline S.p.A. sul disservizio"[Italiaonline S.p.A. release on the disruption] (in Italian). 24 January 2023.
External links
edit- Official website
(in Italian)