Pina Brandi

While already thoroughly dominating the US, the site has added support for dozens of languages, and is now the most popular social network in most of Europe, with strong growth in Asia and South America too.

But one major market where Facebook is still significantly trailing is Brazil, where Google’s Orkut remains one of the most popular sites overall in the country (#2 according to Alexa; Facebook is #25). Now, Facebook is making a move to end that run, launching a tool to help users find their OrkutOrkut friends that are already on Facebook.

The feature is similar to the contact importer that Facebook offers US users that allow them to find GmailGmail, AIMaim, and Windows Live MessengerWindows Live Messenger contacts that are already on the social network. These tools make it much easier for new users to get started and build out their social graph – the nuts and bolts of Facebook.

Facebook’s Brazilian users are being greeted by a message about the Orkut import tool atop their homepages, and it works like you’d expect. Login to Orkut, download your contacts then re-upload them to Facebook, and it will tell you which of your Orkut friends also have Facebook accounts and quickly let you send friend requests to them.

Orkut users are already starting to discuss the new feature on Twitter () – though most of the chatter is in Portuguese (translations appreciated!). Obviously though, the move sets the stage for Facebook to grow quickly in Brazil, assuming users take to it the way they have in other countries. It’s also worth noting that Facebook has only been available in Portuguese for a little over a year, so Orkut has had a big head start in the country.

original link http://mashable.com/2009/09/29/facebook-orkut-import/