Yahoo will launch the Chinese version of Flickr

Yahoo plans to launch the Chinese version of its popular photo-sharing service Flickr.com .

Yahoo is going to localize and develop the most interesting services for users, such as social bookmarking service del.icio.us , Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Groups .

“The Hong Kong Flickr interface in traditional Chinese will be available later this year,” said Pauline Wong, a spokesperson for Yahoo's Hong Kong branch office, by e-mail to Reuters .
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“The new site will be focused on Hong Kong users and will offer all the same features now available in the English version,” says Paulina.

Although traditional Chinese is widely used only in Hong Kong and Taiwan, simplified Chinese is the standard in mainland China. However, the majority of Chinese from the “big land” also know traditional Chinese. The converse is also true.

Wong also said that after Flickr entered the Hong Kong market, Yahoo would focus on the Taiwan market, but Paulina was silent about mainland China.

Despite Beijing censoring the Internet, Flickr, which was banned in the United Arab Emirates, continues to operate in China, the second largest Internet market with 137 million Internet users (the United States is in first place).

In 2006, according to iResearch, Yahoo occupied 9% of the social photo hosting market in China. For several years, Yahoo has been planning to add 10 million users annually.