IAR Bits and Bytes

Terra.com Taps SuperPages.com

Terra Lycos announced that Verizon Information Services’ SuperPages.com en Espanol would power the yellow-pages listings for the Spanish-language portal Terra.com.

Through a tab on the Terra.com homepage, users can search for businesses and people using Verizon’s online database geared to the U.S. Hispanic community, which Verizon touts as the first of its kind. Launched in fall 2001, the directory has content and services geared specifically for Hispanics.

In August, Verizon announced it signed up Spanish-language media giant Univision to use SuperPages.com listings on its Web sites.

“By teaming with Terra.com, we provide a directory service to a growing segment of Internet users in the language they prefer,” said Patrick Marshall, Verizon Information Services’ group vice president for marketing.

Verizon hopes to offer added services to advertisers via SuperPages.com, which boasts 9 million users a month through partnerships with MSN, AltaVista and AskJeeves. In May, SuperPages.com buffed up its offerings to include video advertisements, thanks to a deal it struck with WebcastingTV.

eUniverse Shows Profits

Web publisher eUniverse reported a profitable second quarter, returning $2 million in net income.

The Los Angeles-based company, which operates a network of ad-supported entertainment sites and newsletters, reported revenues of $12.5 million for the quarter, nearly double what it reported for the same period a year ago. Net income rose from $900,000 in last year’s second quarter.

The company hailed its results as an endorsement of its decision to spend freely on building its infrastructure and launching new products, including the August launch of a new unit to push ads from eUniverse’s clients to smallish Web publishers, in return for a cut of the revenues. The following month, the company scooped up ResponseBase, a permission-based email list broker.

eUniverse also highlighted its evolving shift from relying on advertising for the majority of its revenue. In the second quarter, eUniverse reported growing its customer base for its paid products and services to 445,000, after adding 125,000 customers in the quarter.

In line with the bullish results, eUniverse bumped up its guidance, forecasting its revenues will grow to $15.2 million next quarter and net income to $2.7 million. For the year, eUniverse now expects to take in $55.4 million in revenue and $10.9 million in net income.

Electra Promotes Missy Elliott in Text-Messaging Campaign

The Electra Entertainment Group has teamed up with wireless marketing firm not13 to hype Missy Elliott’s new album with a text-messaging promotion.

The “Missy $Million” campaign will launch tomorrow, encouraging the hip-hop star’s fans through TV, print, radio, outdoor and online media to enter a giveaway contest via their cell phones, with a text message, or their two-way pagers, with an email. Fans will have a chance to win a variety of prizes, including cash and signed Elliott CDs.

The contest will promote the Nov. 15 release of Elliott’s new album, Under Construction.

The companies said the contest would be available to approximately 65 percent of U.S. cell phone users, thanks to inter-carrier text messaging traffic handled by Inphomatch. Users will be able to use the same shortcode phone number to enter the contest on multiple carriers, including No. 1 carrier Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile.

Coke recently crowed about the success of its SMS campaign in China, which garnered 4 million messages exchanged over the 35-day campaign.