Private company

SAPO

Logo: Portal SAPO, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Portuguese portal

The Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses Online (SAPO; Portuguese for 'Portuguese Online Pointers Server') is a Portuguese portal and provider of products and services for the Internet. Founded in 1995 as a search engine, it is the largest internet portal in Portugal. The current SAPO logo was launched in 2025.2 It is part of Altice Portugal.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1995Founded1

The Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses Online (SAPO; Portuguese for 'Portuguese Online Pointers Server') is a Portuguese portal and provider of products and services for the Internet. Founded in 1995 as a search engine, it is the largest internet portal in Portugal. The current SAPO logo was launched in 2025.2

Corporate structure

SAPO is part of a group headed by Altice. 18 entities, 4 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

SAPO was created on September 4, 1995, at the University of Aveiro by six students in the Center for Informatics of the university. The name originated from the acronym of the service, S.A.P. (Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses), which later evolved into Servidor de Apontadores Portugueses Online, giving rise to the acronym SAPO. Another factor in the name was Sapo Cocas, which is the European Portuguese name of Kermit the Frog.

In 1997, SAPO became the property of the company Navegante and began commercial operation. At some point, it became part of Altice Portugal.

From Wikipedia’s article on SAPO (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

  • internet service provider

Listed on Wikidata.1

SAPO Fotos

SAPO Fotos was an online photo hosting, management, and sharing service launched by SAPO in 2005. It reached approximately 200,000 users and 16 million images. Among other associated projects, it had partnerships with Agência Lusa, which made their photographic archive available on SAPO Fotos, and SAPO Panoramas, which featured the best 360-degree photographs taken in Portugal. The service was discontinued in 2017.

SAPO International

SAPO expanded internationally in 2008 by opening localized portals in Angola and Cabo Verde, followed by Moçambique and Timor-Leste in 2010. These portals featured local content in partnership with local media outlets. In 2020, the service was shut down by Altice, the company that owns SAPO.

PTM.COM

In August 1999, PT Multimédia acquired 74.9% on SAPO and UOL and Zipnet in the Brazil. In May 2000, the company became 100% owned by PTM.com, PTM first portal..In October 2007, PT Portugal's spin-off with PT Multimédia in 2007, when it was incorporated into PTC (now MEO). Currently since 2008, the portal is not part.

From Wikipedia’s article on SAPO (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1995Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4