AOL CEO Randy Falco says the company plans to carry out an overseas expansion this year, including the opening of an office in Greater China.

Quoted in various media, Falco says that the company will operate in 14 countries all over the world within the next 18 months, and the new websites of AOL in India, Australia and Netherlands have already been launched. The websites in France, Britain and Germany will be updated in the near future. Falco says that he expects to promote the expansion plan as soon as possible.

AOL is now carrying out a comprehensive evaluation of its plan to return to China and to set up an office, and Falco disclosed that there is little chance that AOL to launch a new website in China next year. He says that AOL had invested US$200 million to set up a website called FM365 with Lenovo in 2001, which ultimately failed because of inept operations.

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations in the United States and offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services.