Jeffrey S. Peterson
Technology Entrepreneur, Engineer & Author
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 1990s, Quepasa became one of the top-20 social networks in American history, achieving a base of over 40 million active users and a peak stock market capitalization in excess of $500 million USD.
Key investors included Sony Corp., Fidelity Investments, Telemundo, football star John Elway, Gateway Computer Company, and Latin pop superstar Gloria Estefan.
Quepasa was continually ranked as the #1 U.S. Hispanic online community. Peterson held the positions of Founder, CEO, Chairman, President, and Chief Technology Officer.
In August 2005, Quepasa launched its social networking platform — with a strong claim as the first publicly traded social network in U.S. history. By 2006, Quepasa shares had reached $1 billion in trading volume on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and that same year Richard L. "Rick" Scott (later Governor of Florida and U.S. Senator from Florida) led a controlling investment in the company. In 2011, Quepasa merged with myYearbook and was renamed MeetMe.com, growing past 100 million combined users. In March 2020, MeetMe was acquired for $500 million USD by NuCom Group — the German parent company of eHarmony.
The Quepasa Story
Quepasa was one of the earliest major web portals aimed at Spanish-speaking and Latino internet users. Launched in the late 1990s as a bilingual (Spanish / English) destination for U.S. Hispanics and Latin American users, it offered news, chat, email, entertainment, community forums, and Latino culture and lifestyle content — a Yahoo-style portal for Spanish speakers at a time when there were almost no large-scale Spanish-language destinations on the open web.
Alongside contemporaries like StarMedia and Terra, Quepasa helped define the early Spanish-language internet. Its original product set spanned news and entertainment, email and messaging, chat rooms and community forums, Latino culture and lifestyle content, and search and directory services.
By the mid-2000s, Quepasa pivoted into a Latino-focused social network — essentially a "Facebook for Latinos." The company officially launched its social networking platform in August 2005, before Facebook had opened beyond U.S. colleges and around the same time as early MySpace growth.
Quepasa has a strong claim as being the first publicly traded social network in the United States — it was already Nasdaq-listed when it launched its social networking platform in 2005, ahead of the LinkedIn IPO (2011), the Renren IPO (2011), and the Facebook IPO (2012).
The social platform went on to reach over 40 million users on its own, and surpassed 100 million users following the 2011 merger with myYearbook to form MeetMe.
Career History
The arc of Peterson's involvement with Quepasa, from founding to exit:
- 1997 — founded Quepasa.
- 1999 — successful IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Market, ~$80 million USD raised; subsequently forced out following an internal leadership dispute.
- 2002 — regained control of the company and returned as CEO.
- August 2005 — Quepasa launched its social networking platform under Peterson's renewed leadership.
- 2006 — Quepasa shares reached $1 billion in trading volume on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
- 2006 — Richard L. "Rick" Scott (later Governor of Florida and U.S. Senator from Florida) led a controlling investment in Quepasa; Peterson transitioned from CEO to CTO.
- 2007 — Peterson stepped off the executive team and continued in a Board of Directors role.
In 1999, Peterson recruited Gloria Estefan as Quepasa's corporate spokesperson — the only brand she ever endorsed in her entire career — and recruited José María Figueres, President of Costa Rica, to the Board of Directors.
After returning to leadership in 2002, Peterson led a recovery from near-zero market value to over 40 million users and a market capitalization exceeding $150 million.
The same founder who created the original Latino internet portal also led its transformation into a social network, with the company continuously publicly traded on Nasdaq throughout.
In 2011, Quepasa merged with myYearbook and the combined entity began operating under the MeetMe name, pushing the combined user base beyond 100 million.
- June 5, 2012 — the company officially completed the rebrand to MeetMe and began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol MEET.
- June 27, 2016 — MeetMe announced a definitive agreement to acquire Skout for approximately $54.6 million in cash and stock.
- October 3, 2016 — MeetMe officially completed its acquisition of Skout.
- March 6, 2017 — MeetMe announced an agreement to acquire if(we), the parent company of Tagged and hi5, for $60 million in cash.
- April 3, 2017 — MeetMe completed the acquisition of if(we) and simultaneously renamed its parent company to The Meet Group, which became the parent of the MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, and hi5 brands.
In March 2020, The Meet Group was acquired for $500 million USD by NuCom Group — the German parent company of eHarmony. The combined entity, ParshipMeet Group, employs over 1,100 people worldwide.
Historical Context
The early Spanish-language internet
In the late 1990s the web was overwhelmingly English-centric. Quepasa was the first bilingual English / Spanish internet company focused on the U.S. Hispanic market. StarMedia, launched around the same period, was the first major Hispanic-focused internet company aimed at Latin America. The other Spanish-language web brands of the era — Terra, Univision Online, AOL's Latino initiatives — came later, after Quepasa and StarMedia had defined the category. This founding era established that Spanish-language audiences were commercially viable and that culturally targeted online communities could reach scale.
Identity-driven social networking
When Quepasa launched its social platform in August 2005, it joined a category of early identity- and community-focused networks — hi5, Orkut, Bebo, Tagged, BlackPlanet, AsianAve — that flourished before Facebook's universal model consolidated the market.
From the portal era to social media
A 1990s Latino web portal that remained continuously publicly traded as it evolved into a social network — spanning two generations of internet companies that retrospectives usually treat as separate.
Quepasa Visual History
Quepasa Success & Key Investors
- — 40 million+ active users at peak
- — $500M+ peak stock market capitalization
- — Already Nasdaq-listed when its social network launched (2005)
- — #1 ranked U.S. Hispanic online community
- — 22-year company lifespan
- — $500M final acquisition price (2020)
Key Investors
- Sony Corporation
- Fidelity Investments
- Telemundo
- Gloria Estefan
- Gateway Computer Company
- John Elway
Stock Performance
Career Highlights
Company Evolution
Additional Experience
Peterson has held board positions in the United States, Latin America, and Asia, and has worked directly with heads of state across multiple continents. He served as Technology Advisor to Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, beginning in 2003, and to Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, 15th President of the Philippines, beginning in 2014.
He also worked with José María Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, whom he recruited to the Quepasa Board of Directors in 1999.
As a member of the U.S.-Philippines Society Board of Directors, Peterson served alongside Maurice "Hank" Greenberg (former AIG Chairman/CEO) and John Negroponte (former U.S. Director of National Intelligence).