Photo-sharing outfit Flickr yesterday announced it was finally addressing the issue of non-English-speaking users by launching new versions in seven major languages, Reuters reports.

Uploaders will now be able to choose from traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, or Spanish - acknowledgment of the 55 per cent of users who live outside the US of A, according to company figures. Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield said: "These are the markets where Flickr is taking off already."

He rather splendidly added: "Why are we only getting around to this now? There are two answers. One: we are stupid. Two: that we are late."

Regarding which countries have contributed most to the 525 million images already available on Flickr, Butterfield said the UK and Canada trail the US, with Germany, Brazil, Spain, France, and then Australia next up "in terms of users". Flickr has 24 million active monthly users, online audience measurement firm comScore Inc calculates. ®

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