Friendster launches RI version

Fri, 04/11/2008 12:32 PM  |  Business

Social networking website Friendster has launched a version in Indonesian.

Already the largest free social network in Indonesia with more than eight million registered users, Friendster is aiming to retain its dominance in Asia.

Since its Bahasa Indonesia service was launched last month, the San Francisco-based company said more than 250,000 local users had utilized the new service every day.

"Indonesia is the third biggest country in terms of population. We want to expand the members by providing localized service to overcome the language barriers," David L. Jones, the global marketing vice president of Friendster, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said more than 4,000 people had signed up for the Indonesian-language page within four weeks of its launch.

Of the total 20 million Internet users in Indonesia, more than 40 percent have an account with Friendster, according to the firm.

"Friendster is the second most popular website after Yahoo in Indonesia. More than four million Indonesians visit the site every week."

"This makes Friendster more than five times larger than its competitor Facebook, and seven times larger than MySpace," said Jones.

Friendster now has eight language options: English, Indonesia, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.

"We launch two to three Asian languages every quarter," said Jones.

Friendster, launched in 2003, is the third-largest social networking site in the world in terms of traffic.

Of its 65 million members worldwide, some 49 million are from Asia, with the Philippines accounting for the largest share.

Friendster now ranks as the eighth largest website in the world, with Google the largest. (JP/rff)

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