Odnoklassniki.ru, the second largest Russian-language social networking site, will soon be available in English. The decision was announced yesterday by Alexander Izryadnov, an executive at the Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet group that is the site’s sole owner.
“Odnoklassniki is used in 229 countries around the globe, the Pitcairn Islands being the sole exception,” the Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Izryadnov as saying.
Odnoklassniki attracts 29 million unique users monthly, according to Live Internet, and is particularly popular among the worldwide Russian diaspora. The site claims to serve 1 million users from the United States as well as 80% of the Russian-language population of Australia.
In April Odnoklassniki announced it would offer localized versions to its Uzbek, Armenian, Georgian and Moldavian audiences.
The other leading Russian social network, Vkontakte.ru, is already available in 70 languages. It was recently rebranded as VK.com in a bid to become more appealing to international users.
