LookSmart Adds New Sites in Singapore, New Zealand

LookSmart this week strung two more beads on its string of international properties, in the form of local services in Singapore and New Zealand.

The two new search engine portals follow on the company’s expansion in to the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. According to IMR Worldwide, LookSmart (LOOK) ranks as the top search site in Australia, where the company originally was founded.

“Asia Pacific is a huge emerging market where we are aggressively expanding LookSmart’s reach to both partners and users,” said Tim Pethick, CEO of LookSmart Australia and vice president of international. Pethick added that the debuts are just more evidence of LookSmart’s commitment to “culturally sensitive and locally relevant search solutions for a global audience.”

Both sites were created by teams of editors and reviewers.

The company claims that its search and navigation solutions currently reach 45 million Internet users per month in the U.S., and it expects to reach an additional 31 million wired and wireless users through a recent venture alliance with British Telecom.

LookSmart has also created directories for Japan, Korea, and France, with seven additional country directories in the works.