Estadão engages more mobile readers with geolocation, personalisation features
Ideas Blog | 15 August 2016
On May 9, 2015, Estadão in Brazil debuted its new site for mobile devices. With its design focused on reading experience and innovative resources, the new product gathers content from the estadao.com.br portal and from the print edition.
On the mobile site, readers can find news reports, op-ed articles, photo galleries, and videos. Overseen by the newspaper, the site highlights “Saiba Agora” — the headlines of the moment.

The user can also personalise navigation, choosing sections to view or picking the order in which to display the news. Marks are added to the headlines, notifying users of content they have already viewed or to give updates.
The new product, aimed at mobile phones, features real-time information on the weather and traffic, based on user geolocation. This means users are able to check road conditions in any city in the world and the weather in all capital cities. Another novelty is the presence of comic strips on this platform.
Each content item enables users to share it on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google+, LinkedIn, and e-mail.
According to Facebook, Estadão has the highest social media engagement rate among Brazilian newspapers. In other words, the 2.8 million fans of the newspaper’s Facebook page enjoy, comment, and share, on average, much more of Estadão’s news content than the fans from the competition.
According to Ricardo Gandour, content chief of Grupo Estado, the product’s concept is to combine “innovation, alignment with newspaper standards, user experience, and sharing features.”
To Roberto Gazzi, Grupo Estado’s editorial development director, the mobile site offers typical digital platform resources, not veering from its mission to inform.
Says Gazzi, “The reader can personalise the mobile site according to user preferences, and that happens without sacrificing our ability to surprise the reader by showing them something they didn’t know they wanted.”
The new Web site has free access through any mobile platform — Android, iOS, or Windows — using the smartphone browser or the app, now available on the App Store and Play Store. User devices that already have Estadão’s app running get automatic content updates.
“For several years, Estadão has diligently trialed its multi-platform strategy, which aims to serve its audience at any given time, through the most convenient devices. The new mobile site fits right into this strategy,” adds Gandour.
The launch arrived at a time when the number of users accessing news content on mobile devices practically doubled, compared to the previous year.
Here’s what the new site offers:
- Content curatorship: “Saiba Agora” brings the main headlines from Brazil and around the world, selected by Estadão’s staff, displayed in list form.
- Personalisation: Readers can choose the order in which they prefer to view content by picking their preferred sections.
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Traffic news: A partnership with Waze allows for up-to-date information about the traffic, wherever the user goes in the world.
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Weather: A partnership with Climatempo provides current temperature readings from anywhere in the country.
- Sharing features: News can be shared using the main page. One of the highlights is to share it on Facebook or on WhatsApp.
- New content: Video of the day, video gallery, photo gallery, and Olhar Estadão, are now also on mobile.
- Newsletter: Readers can subscribe and get news conveniently delivered to their e-mail accounts.
- Comic strips: Users can view comics from the print edition on their mobiles.
Focused on user experience, the mobile product allows for curatorship, personalisation, more services, and sharing capacity.