Jeffrey S. Peterson
Technology Entrepreneur, Engineer & Author
Jeffrey Peterson (Cityscape: Hong Kong)
Jeffrey S. Peterson is a technology entrepreneur, engineer, and author who was the original founder of Quepasa Corporation (Nasdaq: QPSA, NYSE Euronext: QPSA), the first nationally branded, publicly traded online community for bilingual English and Spanish speaking Hispanics in United States history.
Under Peterson's leadership commencing at the dawn of the .COM "internet boom" of the late 1990's, and in business for twenty years thereafter, Quepasa amid rapid growth became one of the top-20 social networks in American history, covered by major media (see this article) and Wall Street analysts, achieving a base of over 40 million active users and a peak stock market capitalization in excess of $450 million USD.
Key investors in Quepasa included institutional investors Sony Corp., Fidelity Investments, Telemundo, football star John Elway, Gateway Computer Company and Latin pop crossover superstar Gloria Estefan.
Quepasa was continually ranked as the #1 U.S. Hispanic online community, beating competitors Starmedia and Yahoo! en Español in competitive rankings. Peterson was the largest single shareholder of the company and held the positions of Founder, CEO, Chairman, President, and Chief Technology Officer.
Career History
Shortly after the company went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1999, Peterson was ousted as Quepasa's Chief Technology Officer by a newly hired CEO who Peterson had recently hired--ironically, to replace himself--only sixty days earlier. After the "new CEO" (Gary Trujillo) ousted Peterson and took over, Quepasa's share price lost almost the entire market value it had gained under Peterson's first term leading the company.
Although inaccurate media reports (example 1, Wired Magazine. example 2, the Wall Street Journal. example 3, TheStreet.com. example 4, Deseret News.) predicted Quepasa would "liquidate" or "go out of business" at the peak of the .com crash of 2000-2001, founder Jeffrey Peterson returned to senior management in 2002 through a series of corporate take-over transactions and announcements (example 1, example 2, example 3), saving Quepasa from failure and returning the company to viability.
As the top bilingual English/Spanish online community from 1998-2012, Quepasa was the first Social Network to trade on a national stock exchange in United States history. The second was Chinese Social Network RenRen in the year 2011, followed by Facebook in 2012.
Recent History
In 2011, Quepasa, amid continuing rapid growth, completed a corporate merger with the myYearbook company.
After several additional acquisitions (Skout acquired for $54.6 million. Tagged and hi5 acquired for $60 million, see this article) it became the corporate owner of Skout, Tagged, and hi5.
UPDATE: On March 5, 2020, it was announced that the MEET Group, formerly known as Quepasa Corp., would be acquired by NuCom Group, corporate parent of eHarmony, for $500 million USD.
It was announced that the acquisition was completed in September of 2020. The surviving business entity is called "ParshipMeet Group." The company currently employs a workforce of more than 1,100 in eight offices worldwide.
Quepasa History
Original Quepasa Website (circa 1999)
Historical Press Coverage (1999)
Quepasa Success
- • Top-20 social network in American history
- • Over 40 million active users
- • Peak market cap exceeding $450 million
- • First social network to trade on a U.S. national exchange
Key Investors
- • Sony Corporation
- • Fidelity Investments
- • Telemundo
- • Gateway Computer Company
- • Gloria Estefan
Stock Performance
Career Highlights
1998-1999
Founded Quepasa Corporation and led its successful IPO on NASDAQ
2002-2007
Returned to leadership, recovered over $150 million in market value
2011-2012
Oversaw merger with myYearbook and transition to MeetMe
2020
Company acquired by NuCom Group (parent of eHarmony) for $500 million
Company Evolution
Additional Experience
Jeff has served on the Board of Directors of privately and publicly held technology companies as an investor and in management capacities in the United States, Latin America and Asia. In connection with private and public-sector initiatives, Peterson worked with two Mexican Presidents as well as the former President of Costa Rica (Figueres) and the former President of the Philippines (Aquino).