AOL Europe launches AOL Belgium, a dedicated, bilingual online destination that combines safety features with interactive services such as free email, instant messaging as well as localised news in both French and Dutch.
The new site is the eighth localized AOL site to be launched in Europe this year, and also offers Belgian users access to Truveo, AOL’s video search engine.
Ariel Eckstein, Vice President Business Expansion, AOL Europe said: “We are excited to launch AOL.be, a bilingual destination that brings AOL’s products and services to Belgian consumers and advertisers. Our presence in Belgium also supports our European expansion plans and furthers our strategy of covering 95 percent of the European online market.”
The features of AOL.be (http://www.aol.be) include:
* AOL’s email service, which includes spam blocking, powerful virus protection and unlimited storage. Early adopters of AOL’s email service in Belgium can take advantage of the open name space, which makes many first name / last name combinations available
* The full integration of AIM, AOL’s leading instant messaging service, with AOL email. This allows users to have multiple conversations, and share pictures, videos, files, and folders with friends.
* Local language news and entertainment in French and Dutch.
* Winamp Media Player has unique streaming content as well as remote functionality so consumers can enjoy media on various platforms.
* AOL Search includes enhanced web and image search powered by Google™. The world’s leading video search engine, Truveo allows users to quickly search and browse through tens of millions of videos from thousands of sources across the web.
* AOL Toolbar allows easy access to many popular functions including, AOL Search, preview your email inbox, share your favourite web pages with your buddies and links to rich content including news, videos and games.
The announcement comes days after AOL Europe launched AOL Poland (http://www.aol.pl), and supports the company’s continued commitment to introducing new products and services throughout Europe.
Over the past year, AOL has become a global web-based, advertising supported company. AOL is focused on products and programming leadership on the web; rapid international growth; and building a world-leading advertising network with the AOL Media Network reaching 77 million unique visitors per month in Europe (source: comScore, October 2007). In recent months AOL has issued new versions of many products, has enhanced its programming line-up, entered into an agreement to acquire Quigo and has acquired several advertising businesses, including ADTECH, TACODA, and Third Screen Media.