Facebook goes live in French 11/03/2008 00:00

French-language Facebook site went online Monday hot on the heels of German and Spanish versions of the Internet social networking giant.

   PARIS, March 11, 2008  - A French-language Facebook site went online
Monday hot on the heels of German and Spanish versions of the Internet social
networking giant.
   US-based Facebook produced the site with the help of 4,000 French users,
who suggested a range of translations for common Facebook jargon -- to "poke"
a contact, for instance -- and then voted for the best choice.
   Founded in 2004 by former Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook claimed
to have 67 million active users worldwide at the beginning of March, of whom
1.4 million live in France.
   The French version follows the launch of a Spanish site last month and a
German one that went online last week.
   Members can now choose from a drop-down menu to display the framework of
the site in any one of the four languages -- although many applications, games
and software nuggets so far remain displayed in English.
   A majority of Facebook users now live outside the United States, with a
third based in Europe, and the website hopes to increase its global popularity
by making itself available in an array of languages.
   Facebook's 23-year-old founder Zuckerberg is the youngest ever self-made
billionaire according to Forbes magazine.
   The site's value has been estimated at as much as 15 billion dollars (9.75
billion euros), based on Microsoft paying 240 million dollars for a 1.6
percent stake in the company last year.

AFP