All About Orolix (In English)

As far as I know, this is the first article about Orolix in English other than Morten’s quick posts:

My Portuguese language skills are entirely the product of extrapolation from rusty French and Italian – so no guarantees.

Orolix is a new Brazilian ISP slash portal founded by Nagib Mimassi, and more recently supported by Morten Lund of Skype and LundKenner notoriety. Apparently, Nagib has done Free ISP’s before in Brazil, but Orolix goes one better – you get paid for surfing.

AllAdvantage + NetZero, in Brazil. Boom. I should really produce.

Presumably, users are required to click ads, fill out surveys, enter sweepstakes, play games, etc. in exchange for their free Internet. Orolix has webmail, photosharing, hot-model pictures, a toolbar, a ‘web-accelerator’, social networking, and comparison shopping.

All of these features, are of course, readily available, and taken as a group, certainly monetizable. The hard part is winning consumer traction – and that’s where free Internet comes in, as an ISP, Orolix can more easily be the first point of contact for a surfing session.

Orolix is an example of a great localization play tailored specifically for the Brazilian market environment. Brazil is developed enough that there is actually a reasonably functional copper telecom network (unlike, say Kenya), but not so developed that a free dial-up ISP is yesterday’s news. Plus, Orolix has a really ‘fun’ feel, that I suspect plays well with the Brazilian audience. I'm sure they will make money hand-over-fist.

I would love it if someone who actually spoke Portuguese would scan through these posts and write up something more informative.