Wall Street Journal talks with Netlog, one of Europe’s broadest and best-populated social networks by virtue of its availability in 13 different languages. Headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, the site claims 28 million members. It’s strengths – geolocalisation technology that serves up only local content across the continent and, WSJ finds out, hiring university students to do site localisations on the cheap.
WSJ: “When Netlog wants to launch in a new language, it just hires freelancers, usually foreign students at Ghent University, to translate the words. Turkey is an example of how quickly Netlog can move … (Co-founder Lorenz Bogeart) found two Turkish exchange students to translate the site. Four months later, the site has 2.5 million users. Mr. Bogaert estimates that it cost about