CafeMom, a social networking site for moms launched in 2006, has tapped Lucía Ballas-Traynor to run its yet to be named Latino moms site. The news was first reported by All Things Digital.
Ballas-Traynor left her post as publisher of People en Español in late April. At the time, she said she would leave to “pursue a strategic consultancy in the Hispanic marketplace,” though she did not specify what this role would be.
CafeMom announced this week it conducted a major national study of Hispanic moms, across the acculturation spectrum, and found that 92% of Hispanic moms believe there is not currently a website that clearly serves their needs.
“There is currently a huge gap online in serving Hispanic moms,” said CafeMom CEO, Michael Sanchez in a press release. “By 2014 one in four moms online will be Hispanic, and advertisers are increasingly looking for ways to reach this key segment. The site represents a tremendous opportunity, both to add value to millions of moms’ lives and to deliver unique integration possibilities to the brands that are most committed to the Hispanic market.”
Named one of the net’s fastest moving sites, by compete.com, CafeMom.com was co-founded by actor Andrew Shue, Michael Sanchez, and others. Prominent investors include Highland Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The site, which at some point attracted the interest of Yahoo!, this week said is expanding its offerings to daily deals. The deals site launched under the Mom.com URL and it will first be available in the Northern New Jersey area.
A phone call by Portada Wednesday evening was not immediately returned. Highland Partners was founded in 1988 with a focus on investing in seed, early and growth stage companies in the communications, consumer, digital media, healthcare and information technology markets.
