AOL plans on Wednesday to launch Hindi and Tamil language versions of its Internet portal in India as part of an aggressive global expansion that will see it in 30 regions by the end of 2008.The online unit of one of the world's biggest media companies, Time Warner, will also enable video searching in eight regions outside the United States.
They include France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
The local India language sites launch as the company hosts Time's Fortune Global Forum conferences in the region this week.
AOL, which restructured its domestic and global businesses a year ago by giving away most of its services away for free to focus on boosting online advertising sales, sees international expansion as one pillar of growth.
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In the past few months, it has launched versions of its free site in Sweden, Spain and Italy.
AOL, once the top online service in the United States, surprised the market at the end of the second quarter by reporting only 16 percent growth in online advertising, down from the 40 percent levels of the prior four quarters.
At the time, management said marketers were relying more on purchasing Web site inventory through third-party advertising networks rather than directly from Web sites.
Since then, more investors and Wall Street analysts have demanded the spin-off or separation of the AOL business from Time Warner.
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