Friendster may no longer be the newest, coolest kid in Silicon Valley, but the company is hoping to captivate the socially un-networked in Taipei. Friendster today launched a version of its site in Traditional Chinese, the form of the language used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and many Chinese communities overseas. Sorry, mainland China.
Unlike myspace.cn, Friendster's Chinese site exists as part of its main friendster.com URL. A link in the upper right corner toggles you between English and Chinese. In other words, you can be simultaneously be friends with Bob from San Bruno and that guy on the right, whose name we regrettably can't read. (But nice hat.)
This is the second language supported by Friendster, and VP of Marketing David Jones says now it will be relatively easy to expand the site to include even more languages. He declines to reveal which languages are next, saying that consumer requests drove the decision to start with Traditional Chinese. Spanish-speaking Friendster fans might want to send Jones a "Que pasa?"
