Facebook has plans to translate its Web site into foreign languages as it attempts to capture a larger share of the global market.
Facebook To Expand Globally
While MySpace remains larger in the U.S., Facebook is the most popular social network in other English speaking countries, including Canada and is closing the gap with MySpace in the UK.
Facebook’s translation plans come as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg looks to increase the site’s reach beyond it s audience of U.S. users. Facebook told MSN that “Translation at some level is definitely on our radar. International growth is one of a few things that we are very focused on right now.” The company did not say what sort of timetable it had for translating foreign language sites.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, the number of unique Facebook users in the UK last week was more than the number of unique users on MySpace. Nielsen found that 6.5 million Britons visited Facebook during August, compared to 6.4 million who visited MySpace.
comScore revealed that MySpace had 61 million unique visitors in August in the U.S., while Facebook had 30 million.
MySpace has already launched foreign language sites and has added local features in most markets outside the U.S.
Mike Murphy, vice president of media sales at Facebook said that global expansion and being able to handle it would be the company’s biggest challenge.
