America Online has signed up Lingocom’s LingoWare as the key translator for ICQ, AOL’s instant-messaging program, which has more than 60 million users. AOL also holds 18% of LingoCom.

“ICQ is one of the most popular freeware (programs) on the Internet,” says David Zeldin, vice president of marketing at LingoCom, based in the Tel-Aviv Suburb of Kfar Saba.

“What we do is translate the graphic user interface- all the menus, dialogue boxes and messages from Windows. The advantage of using LingoWare’s method is that it is specific to the program. The translation is exact; it is not a machine translation.”

LingoWare, which reflects patent and patent-pending technology, is a small application that is downloadable free from the Internet. It translates English into 12 languages.

“We translate without touching the code of the product. When you have to deal with the code, it means managing multiple versions,” Zeldin says. “We allow developers to simply concentrate on a single product in English, and they can roll out the product in 12 languages simultaneously with no delay.”

Zeldin declines to estimate the size of LingoWare’s user base, but he said the company has received good feedback.

“I had ICQ for a long time but could not master it properly. Only after installing LingoWare could I explore its full potential,” wrote one user in Brazil, where the popular shareware site Gratis rated LingoWare five smiley faces on a scale of five.

LingoCom has also developed the LingoWare Editor, which allows companies with freeware to translate the application themselves, saving time and money.

By year’s end, the company expects to release LingoWare, which will enable users to translate ant application into the company’s supported languages. The quality of these translations may not be as strong as that of translations made by LingoWare itself, but companies seeking more exact translations will be able to work with LingoCom to customize a dictionary for their programs.

“The next version, LingoWare 3, which translates the (graphic user interface) of all programs will be a killer app that everyone will want,” says Shlomo Aran, founder and CEO of LingoCom. “It will not only translate applications, but will also translate and content on the screen.”

Zeldin expects the company to begin to see revenues within three to six months. Currently, LingoCom is concentrating building its user base, leveraging the promotion from ICQ, which is pushing its users to download LingoWare. “Now that we are building our user base, we can make money through advertising and by distributing other software,” Zeldin says.

LingoCom soon plans to implement its first distribution deal, with a comparative tool called RU Sure. In addition, it hopes to earn referral fees and is currently in talks with a Spanish e-commerce site to refer the users of Spanish LingoWare users.

LingoCom is also developing a skins editor program that will allow people to develop their own product skins, which are graphic designs to make a product look more aesthetic.

LingoCom, which employs 28 people, was founded two years ago and has so far raised more than $1.5 million. Tamar Technology Ventures was the initial investor in the company- it has invested $500,000- and AOL recently exercised warrants, giving it 18% of LingoCom. Steimatzky, the Israeli bookstore chain, is another investor.

Alex Azulai, a partner in the $37 million Tamar fund, says, “The rate of growth in Internet usage among foreign-language speakers is faster than that for English speakers yet most of the sites and software applications are in English.”

“LingoWare can translate the software application GUI on site so it allows software developers to develop only an English version of the software.”

Azulay said LingoCom plans at least one more round of private financing before going public. The amount to be raised in the next round has not yet been decided.