• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 12, 2011

As part of a broader content expansion, About.com has launched its first Spanish-language channel. Over the next year, About en Español plans to grow its roster of topic sites, supported by independent subject matter experts, while doubling its cache of video content.

Influencing About.com's decision, the U.S. Hispanic population represents a growing market of online users, while interest continues to grow in video. Indeed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics will represent 45% of the overall U.S. population growth between 2010 and 2030.

"The U.S. Hispanic online market is a strong and growing space, now at 30.2 million users as of the month of January," Cella Irvine, About Group's president and CEO says, citing comScore data. "About.com had 3.5 million Hispanics visit our Web site in the month of January ... and the launch of our new About en Español channel provides a great opportunity to offer these users high-quality Spanish-language content."

About en Español already features nine topics -- including movies, music, kids, dogs, Internet for beginners, personal computers, literature, makeup and spreadsheets, with nearly 100 more expected by the end of the year.

In addition to About en Español, the About.com platform plans to increase its roster of so-called "guide sites" by approximately 25% across popular categories such as food, health, home, parenting, and automotive.

With the additional 200 new topic sites, About.com's content expansion is also expected to provide advertisers with new ways to reach search-driven users.

In particular, "About en Español ... helps advertisers reach our coveted, search-driven users in a new language, across new topics," said Irvine.

Also new to the site is a redesigned homepage, which showcases both Guides and the premium content hosted by About.com.

Nearly a year ago, About.com debuted a broad rebranding effort under the new tagline "Need. Know. Accomplish." Designed to communicate About.com's increased relevance to marketers as they place more value on intent-driven users, it underscored that About connects a brand's message and product to users in their greatest "moments of need."

In the fourth quarter of 2010, ad revenue at About reportedly fell 4%, which was partially attributed to recent changes to Google's search algorithm.