Facebook German Launch Imminent?
One of my readers sent me an email pointing out a change to the Facebook German domain. The web URL http://facebook.de now displays a page that says “We’re upgrading” whereas http://www.facebook.de automatically redirects to Facebook.com. When the Spanish version of Facebook launched, they stated that German would be following up soon after so it comes as no surprise that there appears to be DNS changes taking place on the Facebook German site.
Most of the growth available to Facebook currently is abroad as it is beginning to max out on domestic growth as well as growth in a few other popular countries. ComScore statistics from the other day stated that the U.K. traffic was diminishing. While I suggested that it was a seasonal issue, the fact still remains that many of the existing countries appear to be experiencing slowing growth. As such, Facebook’s expansion timing could not be better.
My guess is that we will see the German version of Facebook launch in the next week or two and we will start seeing a number of other languages roll out soon after. For now, it appears to only be DNS issues but this may just be a sign of things to come. While I don’t speak German, I can appreciate the international appeal of Facebook as this represents their ability to become of the largest social networks on the web.
