The Colombian website 1doc3, which allows users to ask questions about health issues and get free and confidential advice from medical specialists, has already been visited by some 100,000 people since its expansion into Mexico, co-founder Javier Cardona said.

The site, which is receiving hits from 141 countries, opened up shop in Mexico in November and has become "the place where people find the best medical answers on the Internet," Cardona said.

Once users register an e-mail address with 1doc3.com, they can submit questions without charge to specialists, who then post answers on open chat rooms without disclosing personal information other than the visitor's gender and age.

In an interview, Cardona said 25 percent of the website's traffic used to come from Mexico and the site had now expanded its audience.

The Mexican market offers "great opportunities" for the company, Cardona said, adding that the site was expected to reach 1 million users in the first quarter of 2015.

The company has signed agreements with several health-care providers in Mexico to expand the network of specialists answering questions from local users.

"Health care has low visibility on the Internet and we want to become the digital channel connecting patients with professional health-care providers," Cardona said.

1doc3 is a two-way tool that also gives doctors the option of connecting with new patients who can make appointments via the website to discuss their problems further.

The company charges between 5 percent and 15 percent for each medical consultation through 1doc3, with rates set based on the specialist requested by the patient.

Another source of income for the company comes from users who choose to receive answers via text message, a service priced at about .24 cents in Colombia.

Nearly 472,000 users have received answers to their questions through 1doc3, a website created in 2013 by Colombian entrepreneurs and supported by Wayra, a business services operation that belongs to Spain's Telefonica, Cardona said.

The company plans to launch an app for mobile devices in 2015 "since 70 percent of the traffic on the website comes from smartphones," Cardona said.