Facebook.fr: someone is looking for trouble (or money)
It is very likely that sometime soon facebook will launch a localized French version (and other languages too) just like MySpace did about a year ago. Actually Facebook is starting to be quite popular in France already, even though the interface is just in English.
Context & Ripple Effects
MySpace set the template here roughly a year ago when it shipped a localized French version, and Facebook now looks poised to follow the same playbook. What makes the French case notable is that Facebook's growth there has happened entirely on an English-only interface — the demand already exists, so localization would be about converting it, not creating it.
First-order effects
- A localized French Facebook directly attacks MySpace's year-long head start in the French market, turning a feature MySpace pioneered into a contested battleground.
- French users who adopted Facebook despite the English interface get a native-language experience, lowering the barrier for the mainstream audience that held back.
Second-order effects
- MySpace is forced to defend its French position on execution rather than first-mover advantage, since the localization play it invented is now being matched.
- If the pattern holds, every market where Facebook grows organically in English becomes a candidate for the next localized launch, stretching MySpace's localization lead across multiple countries at once.
Third-order effects
- Social-network competition shifts from product features toward language and market coverage, making localization table stakes for any US platform with cross-border organic growth — a structural pressure that follows whoever leads on adoption, not whoever localizes first.
The trend: US social networks are racing to localize behind their own organic international adoption, with MySpace's French launch as the template Facebook is now following.