About this Author
John Yunker is founder of Byte Level Research and author of the widely acclaimed book, Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies and editor of Global By Design. He has covered the emerging field of Web globalization for half a decade and has published a wide range of reports dedicated to best practices in Web localization and internationalization.
About this blog
Going Global focuses on the risks and rewards of expanding into new geographic and cultural markets, from Web globalization to international marketing to global usability.
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Monthly Archives
October 31, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
John Klensin is one the original architects of the Internet. He first tackled the challenges of mulitilingual (internationalized) domain names many years ago. I interviewed him for an article in Multilingual Computing magazine more than five years ago about this issue; back then I assumed that we would see multilingual domain names becomes commonplace within months. Needless to say, I was overly optimistic.
The domain name system (DNS) supports only a subset of the ASCII character set, which basically means it supports only English and does a so-so job of supporting European languages. Upgrading the DNS to support the 200+ languages of the world requires upgrading the DSN to support Unicode, which sounds easy but in reality is anything but. Security is just one of the many obstacles that must be overcome. And some experts believe it cannot be overcome. Some suggest that Unicode be used on the front end - the client browser - while ASCII remain within the DNS. The Web browser takes a language and maps it to ASCII characters which are then transmitted across the Internet. For one such solution, check out the Punycode spec.
The Challenge of Multilingual Top Level Domains (TLDs)
In this article by John Klensin, he focuses on TLDs, such as .com, .edu and .org. Here's the issue: it only makes sense that if a company in, say, China wants to register their company domain name in Chinese that the .com suffix (known as the top level domain name) also be translated into Chinese.
But as John Klensin points out, you only have to do a little math to realize how many top level domain names we would be faced with if every domain was translated into every language. There's also the issue of translating each TLD - who decides how it is translated?
Anyway, Klensin's solution is to leave the DNS alone and let the client browser map the TLD to the .com, .org or .edu. This way, the DNS does not have to be unnessarily overhauled.
That's not to say there aren't plenty of other challenges to be overcome. I had no idea in 1999 just how much of a challenge multilingual domain names would present; I fully appreciate it now. But I still remain optimistic that Unicode will become the dominant character set of Web browsers around the world.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Translation | Web Globalization
October 29, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
SDL announced that it helped Philips simultaneously launch new product marketing communications materials (Web site, collateral, etc) in 29 languages using SDL software and services.
I've only just skimmed the new site but it does appear to be an improvement and I'm pleased to see a global gateway splash page included (shown below).
I'll have a full review of the site shortly. Here is the SDL press release:
SDL International, the world's leading provider of translation services and technology solutions, announced today that Philips Consumer Electronics, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, has successfully launched new product marketing communication materials simultaneously in 29 languages using SDLWorkFlow 2004 and SDL translation services.
SDLWorkFlow 2004 integrates with Philips XML-based authoring, content management systems to automate product marketing translation management, ensure maximum re-use of translation assets and enable rapid translation of any type of content. This includes product leaflets, website and call center support documentation, with translation overhead reduced 85% and translation costs 35%. The increased automation of processes from authoring to publication has enabled the simultaneous launch of consumer web catalogues in 29 languages in support of Philips' new "sense and simplicity" marketing campaign.
"Our new 'sense and simplicity' campaign is one of the most significant marketing investments ever made by Philips," commented Luuk de Jager, Senior Manager for Global Content Management at Philips Consumer Electronics. "By concurrently launching in 29 languages we are able to reinforce our global brand, communicate consistently with our customers wherever they are located and achieve economies of scale in our product, marketing and e-business operations. This has provided our customers with immediate access to appropriate product literature. We could not have achieved this without our strategic language technology and services partnership with SDL."
"Philips is leading the industry in utilizing XML-based technology to improve its product and marketing communications processes," said Terry Lawlor, Vice President Worldwide Marketing at SDL International. "Our software, consultancy and language services have helped Philips reduce the cost of translation by over 30%, achieve faster time to market and creating consistent quality across multilingual business communications. The simultaneous launch in 29 languages would not have been possible without the advanced capabilities of SDLWorkFlow 2004 and the rapid turnaround, high quality translations from our services operations."
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Globalization Vendors | Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
I recently interviewed Heather Chandler, author of The Game Localization Handbook.
Game localization is much more than a niche industry these days. Today, video games may be console-based, Internet-based, and even phone-based. It's a fascinating, emerging industry. In the interview, Heather provides a number of insights:
- Game localization is a growth industry. Heather provides tips for those who want to join.
- Game localization presents very unique challenges. Find out what Healther learned when localizing a WWII flight-simulation game for Germany.
- Find out what game developer does the best job of game localization.
- Find out how long it takes to localize a video game for a new market.
For the full interview, click here.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Software Localization | Translation | Wireless & Video Game Globalization
October 28, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Spanish translation of an informational "voter guide" is so poor that the election board had to trash what remaining flyers it had in stock. Here's an excerpt:
One passage literally reads, "People that are registered 29 and 15 days before an election will be commanded a brochure."
"Any Spanish speaker would catch these errors, even if they were not academically proficient in Spanish. It's that bad," said Leslie Padilla-Williams, a translator in Oceanside who called the translation "horrific."
Four translators who work throughout the county said it appeared that a single person went almost word by word through the English version of the voter guide with a Spanish-English dictionary to write the flier.
"That's kind of close to the way it actually happened," confirmed Mike Workman, a county spokesman.
He estimated that between 8,000 and 12,000 copies of the voter guide were distributed.
What's particularly disturbing is that this same basic flyer was also used in the 2000 election.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Translation
Posted by John Yunker
eBay and Amazon both reported solid Q3 numbers. But if you dig a bit you'll find that the growth engine behind both of these companies is non-US sales.
eBay
eBay reported that revenue from total transactions was $779.2 million up 51% from $517.1 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue from international transactions surged 82% to $282.3 million in the recent quarter.
Amazon
International sales increased 52% and now accounts for 44% of all sales. Contrast that against US sales, which rose only 15%. Next, compare "Media" sales between US and International segments. US Media sales came in at $564 million while international sales came in at $530 million.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization
October 19, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
It's official. The Commission of the European Communities just struck a deal with EURid to begin registering the new .eu top level domain name.
There is still a good four to six months before you'll be able to register your domain name. EURid needs to negotiate with ICANN to make the .eu domain operational and this alone will take awhile. Still, I do expect the domain to be live in 2005.
Why Register .eu?
Companies understandably get domain fatigue when expanding into new markets. Every country has its own country code top level domain name (ccTLD), like .jp, .fr and .kr, and then there are the generic top level domain names (gTLD), like .com, .org and .net. Why should a company add .eu to its portfolio?
I think the domain provides a nice solution for companies that want to address the European Union with one Web site (with multiple languages). Since the EU has a standard currency and continues to absorb countries, one European Web site with the .eu domain could be quite successful. The .eu domain avoids creatiing the impression that a company favors one or a few European markets over the others, which is too often the case. Rarely will you see an American-based multinational launch a Web site for Romania. But with a .eu domain, you technically do cover that market, although you'll still need to address language and cultural issues.
I suspect that .eu is going to be quite popular going forward. Companies that do business in any of the EU markets should register this domain.
Who Can Register .eu?
According to the folks in charge, "Any individual resident in the EU or any organisation or company established in the EU will be able to register a name under the .eu TLD. European law and the jurisdiction of European courts will apply." I'm not quite sure if this wording means you need to have an actual mailing address in the EU to qualify; i would bet that ultimately anyone will be able to regiser a .eu domain; Japan tried to be strict about allowing only Japanese-based companies to register . jp, but eventually caved in to market pressures.
What To Do Now
Keep an eye on the EURid Web site. They will first launch a "sunrise period" for about four months during which owners of "prior rights" (e.g. trademark holders, public bodies) can register their domain names before other eligible parties.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Web Globalization
October 12, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Just as “time to market†has accelerated across all industries, so too has “translation to market.†After all, you can’t promote a new product globally if the marketing collateral and support materials aren’t available in the necessary languages.
When it comes to the Internet, the content management system (CMS) plays a critical role in accelerating (or decelerating) translation to market.
Up until recently, Briggs & Stratton was clearly suffering under the weight of its CMS. Briggs was using a now-defunct product called Eprise, from the now-defunct company Divine. Managing translation workflow through the software was cumbersome, time-intensive, and prone to error; translating a Web page into five languages could take a week or more, not because of the actual translation but because of the software overhead.
Briggs & Stratton turned to Northwoods Software Development for an XML-based software solution. Now, when a Web page is added or modified in the source language, Briggs’ translation agency (Cogen) is automatically notified. But that’s just for starters. Because the CMS is native XML, Cogen can export pre-translated text strings and re-import them when the job is complete. Only those text strings that need to be translated are exported saving a great deal of time; what used to take a week now can be managed in hours.
I spoke with Pat Bieser, CEO of Northwoods. He said that Briggs first looked at Vignette, Broadvision, Microsoft CMS, and a number of smaller vendors before selecting Northwoods. “They choose us because of our reasonable price and because our feature set compared well to the high end products,†he said. “It also didn't hurt that we have had 300 installs in the past two years, including ome big names like Snap-on, AIG, VISA, Time Warner, and the City of ilwaukee. “
Pat believes the translation workflow feature will become a critical feature of their CMS platform in the years ahead: “All of our clients who do business overseas have an interest in our translation process and multi-language CMS.†However, he does not believe that the feature alone will drive sales. Translation workflow support is well down the priority list with most companies: “Unfortunately, this feature is often a ‘next year’ or ‘next phase’ option.â€
I found the Briggs & Stratton deployment interesting for three major reasons:
- For starters, Northwoods appears to be growing rapidly despite the presence of global heavyweights like Vignettes. This tells me that there is plenty of opportunity for smaller vendors to succeed and to conintue to exert pricing pressure on the large vendors, as well as the globalization management software vendors like Idiom and Globalsight.
- Translation services vendors have an opportunity to gain new business through these new developments. Although Cogen kept the Briggs account throughout this transition, they could have been unseated had Northwoods entered with a services partner. Cogen appears to have had a strong enough relationship that Briggs did not “throw out the baby with the bathwater.†Other agencies in this situation may not be so fortunate.
- Speed kills. Multinationals will “kill†their existing software and service vendors if they can’t help them get translated content out to the Web sites as quickly as possible. Vendors would be wise to leverage “speed†as a marketing device to “kill†the competitioin.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Globalization Vendors | Translation | Web Globalization
October 11, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
According to this job posting, Netflix appears to be heading toward launching a UK operation. The job ad reads "The Manager, Marketing Analysis will join the London-based team whose role is to grow the Netflix customer base aggressively and profitably while building the Netflix brand in the UK."
There is still no UK Web site, but Netflix does have the domain name ready to go. Care to place any bets on when the site does go live?
As for the US, I would bet that a Spanish-language site is less than a year away as well. There are simply too many potential new customers for Netflix to ignore them for long.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Web Globalization
October 8, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Lionbridge shares took a major hit today, down more than 30%, on news that the company was coming up roughly $6 million short of its revenues target.
Lionbridge blames its Veritest testing unit for the shortfall and says it is making progress in diversifying itself beyond the tech sector. I've never been a huge fan of its Veritest division. Over the past few years, the company pointed to Veritest as an example of diversification. But that's not diversification in the larger sense of the word; Lionbridge needs to be well diversified outside of the tech sector, not just within the tech sector.
The company has been aggressively going after medical device, chemical, and automotive accounts. But I believe that Lionbridge is still largely perceived to be a software localization company. The company doesn't speak the language of the medical device community; see ForeignExchange Translations for a company that gets it right.
Now Lionbridge has good management and very bright prospects, particularly given its production facilities. But it needs marketing help, sooner rather than later.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
Posted by John Yunker
Globalization management software vendor Idiom has been on a hiring spree lately; they tell me that they plan to double revenues in '05 and are hiring field sales and consultants to help make this happen. I must confess that I've had my doubts about Idiom's survival but this development tells me that things are not nearly so dire. They also announced a recent new win from Information Builders.
Setting the Record Straight on Oracle and Idiom
A month ago I commented on the Idiom press release regarding the "new" Oracle account win. I suspected that an overzealous PR department was trying to make an expanded Oracle account sound like a new account.
However, I've been told by Idiom that this was indeed a new account win. The first sale to Oracle was for Idiom's Web globalization software. The second sale was for a different Idiom application; Idiom sells three different applications:
- Website globalization
- software localization
- global electronic publishing
According to Idiom, "The new deal was with a different Oracle group, for a different application. Oracle's Worldwide Product Translations Group (WPTG), in Dublin, Ireland, bought an enterprise license to use WorldServer across all translation and localization efforts at Oracle (documentation, Oracle Univ., etc.). The first license was for Oracle.com only. They were two separate deals, with two different Oracle organizations, with two different multi-month proof-of-concept pilots, etc. In both cases, Idiom and our GMS contemporaries were considered."
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
October 7, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
I recently browsed through Alexa's rankings of the most popular Web sites by language. Alexa, which is now owned by Amazon, tracks Web site popularity by means of a software toolbar that millions of folks have installed in their Web browsers. It's an imperfect measurement (the Alexa toolbar works only with the Internet Explorer browser), but it's one of the better tools available right now.
I took some screen shots of the rankings because I didn't want to fuss with character display issues; if I had used Unicode, it could have overcome this problem but there might have been display issues on youe end (see the Unicode entry). Of the four languages included below only one Web site is common to all four: Google.
Also, if you want to see where the Internet is headed, check out the top 500 Web sites. Of the top 10 sites, half are Chinese.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
Language Weaver, a machine translation (MT) software developer, has announced a $4 million VC infusion. This is just another sign that MT is inching closer to real-world/commercial applications.
Slowly but surely we're seeing companies make limited use of MT to translate text that would have been cost-prohibitive to translate manually. SDL recently launched such a service.
I'm not suggesting that MT is anywhere near replacing human translators. In fact, the better way to look at MT software is like desktop publishing software - it did not replace designers, but it did give them the tools to help them do their jobs more effeciently.
Here is the full press release:
LANGUAGE WEAVER RAISES $4 MILLION IN SERIES B FUNDING -All major Series A
investors reinvest in round led by Palisades Ventures -
LOS ANGELES - Oct. 6, 2004 - Language Weaver, Inc., a Los Angeles-based
software company developing statistical machine translation software (SMTS),
today announced it has completed the initial closing of its Series B funding
round of $4 million. The round was led by Palisades Ventures of Los Angeles.
Palisades Ventures is a venture capital fund making growth stage investments
in systems, services, software, and hardware companies driving the adoption
of leading edge information technology, communications, and media
technologies. Paul D'Addario, senior managing director of Palisades
Ventures, will take a seat on the Language Weaver board of directors.
"Palisades Ventures invests in companies with strong technologies, proven
market traction, and where we can leverage our many strategic relationships
in the IT, communications and media sectors for the benefit of our portfolio
companies," D'Addario said. "Language Weaver's translation technology has
immense commercial potential. The company will be well supported by
Palisades Ventures with introductions to potential customers and strategic
partners as it positions itself in the commercial markets."
Palisades Ventures first became aware of Language Weaver at LARTA
Institute's Los Angeles Venture Forum in April 2004 where Language Weaver
was chosen as start-up company of the year. In addition to Palisades
Ventures, all of Language Weaver's major Series A investors have also chosen
to invest in the Series B round, including Sulphur Creek Ventures and
Athenaeum Fund.
According to Bryce Benjamin, CEO of Language Weaver, the money will be used
to support the company's entrance into commercial markets. "The obvious
first mover for Language Weaver's technology was the government, where we
have now established several contracts and excellent relationships,"
Benjamin said. "With this new investment we will grow our team and expand
our marketing and sales efforts into the international and domestic
commercial markets, which are hundreds of times larger than the government
markets and where the need is even greater for high quality language
translation."
About Language Weaver
Language Weaver was founded in 2002 to commercialize a unique approach to
automatic language translation using proprietary statistical translation
algorithms that resulted from 20 person-years of invention and development
at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute
(USC/ISI). Its resulting product, statistical machine translation software,
provides the highest quality output to date from machine translation. The
company has 15 patents pending on its SMTS technology. Bidirectional
language pairs available include: Arabic/English, Chinese/English,
French/English, and Spanish/English; unidirectional languages include Somali
to English and Hindi to English, with others coming soon. Language Weaver's
software is available as licensed software in client server and stand-alone
versions. Website: www.languageweaver.com.
-end-
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
October 6, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The W3C Internationalization Working Group continues to add valuable resources for those who need hands-on information regarding Web globalization. Need to learn more about internationalized domain names, bidirectional text display, or multilingual style sheets? This is a good place to start. It can be dense at times and challenging to navigate, but there's a lot of solid information there.
I found this Web page particularly interesting. It contains demonstration Web pages to illustrate key issues and techniques. For example, the screen shot below is from a page in which you can test your Web browser's ability to display and respond to internationalized domain names.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Software Localization | Web Globalization
October 5, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The NHS is the UK's national health organization and the largest health organization in Europe. It announced recently that it would be offering multilingual phone support through Bowne Global Solutions.
Approximately 500 calls per month come into the NHS in a language other than English. Now when non-English callers phone in, they will be connected with a confidential interpreter who communicates between the patient and an NHS doctor.
I'd be curious to know how the NHS will seamlessly direct patients to their interpreters given the range of languages that they will have to field.
The most-requested languages so far are Asian and European languages such as Punjabi, Hindi, French, Portuguese and German.
Now that the phone support is in place, the NHS will need to tackle its Web site, which is only available in English:
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors | Translation
October 4, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Trados has been on a partnering spree lately, hooking up with a growing array of content management software (CMS) providers. Overall, this is a good strategy, as every CMS application will eventually need to support the creation and management of multilingual content.
Here is the press release:
Day Software and TRADOS Strengthen Leadership Positions by Introducing World-Class Branding Solutions
Day (SWX:DAYN) and TRADOS today announced an initiative that delivers global branding solutions combining TRADOS globalization management software with Day's content management solutions. It enables corporations to deliver the same, accurate messages to all their global markets, speaking in one voice across the linguistic divides. This Day-TRADOS initiative gives multinational companies a single, consistent, quick-to-implement way to manage and globalize brand content.
With the rise of global trade, companies who have nurtured global brands have benefited greatly. Brand value accounts for about one-third of the shareholder value of companies with the leading brands, and the majority of the world's top 10 brands have increased their value over the previous year, according to Interbrand studies. Moreover, global brand management requires that a company's core brand messages be delivered in multiple types of local language content. The initiative from Day and TRADOS enables timely and effective delivery of global brand content in multiple languages, offering:
-- Joint Day-TRADOS technology solutions for delivering global content with consistent messaging and branding.
-- Coordinated marketing, sales, delivery, and support from Day and TRADOS to ensure the highest quality customer experience.
Day and TRADOS technology have been united in an integrated framework that streamlines globalization and delivers localized brand content across a multilingual environment. This framework brings together Day's enterprise content management technology for global brand management, including features for creating generic templates and separating design and content, with TRADOS translation memory and terminology management, including centralized termbases, corporate glossaries and global terminology management. Leveraging the framework, customers can improve the performance and productivity of content creation, cut costs and cycle time for document management and localization, and deliver final content with consistent messaging and branding to all markets.
Today TRADOS and Day provide solutions to many blue-chip customers, including DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen Group and Johnson Controls. TRADOS is the leader in globalization software with over 80 percent market share and over 65,000 seats. Currently, TRADOS has developed globalization solutions for thousands of world-class companies -- including VERITAS, Siemens and HP. Day has provided content management branding solutions to over 150 companies with leading global brands, including McDonald's, General Electric, UBS, Shimano and DHL.
"Together, Day and TRADOS provide a powerful solution for today's global companies," said Michael Moppert, chairman and CEO of Day. "In our globalized economy almost all key business processes rely on the efficient management of the enterprise's Web properties. Our joint platform enables customers to make sure that all their Internet-based communication channels speak with one voice -- regardless of location, geography, time zone or language. With this we significantly increase business process efficiency and time-to-market while driving down cost."
"This Day and TRADOS initiative delivers a powerful, new solution for global branding," said Jochen Hummel, chairman and chief technology officer for TRADOS, "by unifying Day's innovations for achieving consistent global brand management with TRADOS' globalization management software."
About Day (www.day.com)
Day is a leading provider of integrated content, portal and digital asset management software. Day's technology, Communique, offers a comprehensive, rapidly deployable framework to unify and manage all digital business data, systems, applications and processes through the Web. Communique's content-centric architecture, and its innovative ContentBus, turns the entire business into a virtual repository, bringing together content from any system, regardless of location, language or platform.
Day is an international company, founded in 1993, and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange New Market (SWX:DAYN) since April 2000. Day's customers are some of the largest global corporations and include Audi, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Post World Net, General Electric, Intercontinental Hotels Group, McDonald's, UBS and Volkswagen.
About TRADOS Inc. (www.trados.com)
The worldwide leader in globalization software and services, TRADOS empowers multinational organizations to speed the delivery and improve the quality of multilingual content to global markets. Through software that captures, stores, analyzes, standardizes and reuses chunks of previously localized content, TRADOS has enabled 3,500 corporations -- including Microsoft, IBM, Deutsche Bank, Wal-Mart, Sony, John Deere and others -- to reduce costs and drive greater revenues with a more efficient, more accurate globalization process. More translators, localization service providers and companies use TRADOS products than all competing products combined. With headquarters in Sunnyvale, TRADOS has offices worldwide
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
Posted by John Yunker
Up until recently, only a handful of US banks have served the Hispanic population reasonably well. But that's all changed now that the Hispanic market is worth an estimated $700 million.
Recently, Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina (BBVA) purchased Laredo National Bank, a regional bank based in Texas.
This may seem like a relatively minor development, but it is anything but minor. Spanish banks see an opportunity to grow in the US through the booming Hispanic market. As BBVA noted in its press release: "Step by step, we are firmly moving forward into the US Hispanic market."
US banks are also on an acquisition spree. Citigroup has purchased First American Bank, based in Bryan, Texas. And Wells Fargo announced plans to purchase First Community Capital, based in Houston, Texas.
A key to succeeding in the Hispanic market is focusing on remitances - money transfers between the US and foreign markets. According to a New York Times article, more than $13.4 billion flowed into Mexico from the US in 2003. This is big business. And banks are getting more creative in how they serve their customers. For example, Hispanic customers can now pay the mortgage of a family member based in Mexico without having to send money across the border. This saves the customer money and trouble and helps the bank increase customer revenue. Citigroup also has launched a binational credit card that can be paid off on either side of the border.
Growth prospects in the Hispanic market are bright. BBVA said that while 95% of people in the general US population have a checking account, only 65% in the Hispanic market have one.
As banks target the Hispanic market, there will be plenty of growth in terms of Web localization. I reviewed more than a dozen Texas and California banks and only found one that offered Spanish content: Laredo National Bank. And Web localization is just the most obvious opportunity for translation agencies; banks will also find they need to translate signage, loan application forms, advertising collateral and even human resources materials.
For a list of companies that currently offer Web sites for the US Hispanic market, we now offer a rapidly growing directory.
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Posted by John Yunker
The Wall Street Journal is an excellent source of stories that capture the confusion and chaos that is globalization. Consider the story of jazz great Cecil McBee. Here is an excerpt:
Cecil McBee, an American jazz musician on tour in Japan, made an unscheduled stop one night in the early 1990s. A friend in Tokyo hurried him off to a shopping mall and said there was something he just had to see.
When the elevator doors opened on the third floor, Mr. McBee couldn't believe his eyes: The words "Cecil McBee" were emblazoned above the window of a chain store selling clothes to teenagers.
Ever since, in Japanese and U.S. courts, Mr. McBee, who has appeared for 40 years with the likes of Benny Goodman and Miles Davis, has been on a crusade to reclaim his name. The 69-year-old bass player hasn't been able to stop his moniker from appearing on bikinis, dog sweaters, cellphone covers and credit cards.
The store he saw is owned by the Japanese holding company Delica Co. It chose the name in 1984, soon after Mr. McBee's first performances in Japan. It now owns about 35 Cecil McBee stores, which had sales of about $112 million in 2002.
And Web globalization has played a major role in Cecil reclaiming his name. According to the article, Cecil had friends order goods from the store online for delivery in the US; in doing so, he was able to get the US courts involved. Google also plays an interesting role in all of this. Type in Cecil McBee and you'll find both the person and the store.
In case you're wondering, here is...
Cecil McBee: The Person
Cecil McBee: The Store
It's a funny world we live in. Here is the full article (subscription required).
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Cultural Issues
October 3, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
If you want to see how Unicode can help a Web site be more globally friendly, drop by the home page of the Belkin Web site.
You will arrive at what I call a "splash global gateway," shown below:
I should note that this gateway can be improved in three ways. First, the pull-down menu is not the best way to direct users to their local Web sites. Initially I found myself clicking on the pictures in vain. A better model is the splash gateway of the 3Com Web site, which gets right to the point, shown below:
Next, the Belkin Web site should note the locale preference of the Web user (by means of a cookie) so he or she does not have to keep returning to this gateway on subsequent visits. It can get tiresome quickly.
Finally, there is one tweak that needs to be made to the pull-down menu itself. Here is the menu up close:
"North America - Spanish" should be presented in Spanish, particularly since the other locales are presented in their local languages. I know, it's a minor thing, but details do count, particularly if you don't speak English well, or at all.
Okay, enough nitpicking. Let's talk Unicode...
Unicode Speaks to the World
Notice how a number of different scripts appear on this pull-down menu. Before Unicode, this was not even possible. That's because a Web page can only display one character set encoding at a time. In the US, that character set is known as Latin 1 and only includes Latin characters. In order to display Chinese characters, a different character set is required.
And if you want to display Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese characters all at once, you're going to need a "super" character set known as Unicode. Unicode is technically a character set encoding. It includes most of the world's languages. You can read all about it here.
Now before you rush out to do something similar on your Web site, consider the dangers. Just specifying Unicode on your home page does not guarantee that the Web user will be able to view every language. To do that, the user's computer must have a font that supports Unicode. The latest versions of Windows and Macintosh do support Unicode to varying degrees, but there are massive legacy issues to be aware of. If the user does not have the right font, the Chinese script, for example, may appear as number of black boxes. It's not pretty.
Nevertheless, the future belongs to Unicode. Google makes great use of it, as well as Kodak and Siemens.
To find out if a Web page is using Unicode, simply select the "encoding" feature of your Web browser (as shown below using Internet Explorer):
We will now begin tracking which Web sites are publicly using Unicode. Visit the Web page and let us know if you know of any sites to add.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
Multilingual Computing has published a "Guide to the Spanish Speaking World." It includes an article from yours truly on Web localization for the US Hispanic market; in the article I profile Southwest Airlines, which recently launched a fully featured Spanish-language flight reservation engine.
Additional articles talk about the variations of Spanish around the world as well as in-depth information on Spanish in the US market. Overalll, it's a great resource and best of all, it's free.
You can download the report here.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Cultural Issues | US Hispanic Market | Web Globalization
October 2, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
Kang & Lee, a multicultural marketing agency, offers a number of informational resources on its Web site, including an Asian Americans 101 primer.
Here are some interesting stats:
- Between 1990 and 2000, the three fastest growing Asian groups were (in rank order by population growth rate): Asian Indians, Vietnamese, and Chinese. (Source: US Census Bureau, Census 2000)
- On average, Asian Americans spend $635 per trip, nearly 50% more than the average spending per trip among all U.S. travelers. (Source: The Minority Traveler, 2000)
- As of 2000, and for the first time in history, Chinese is now the second most prevalent foreign-language spoken in US households. (Source: US Census Bureau, Census 2000)
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Cultural Issues | Globalization Vendors
Posted by John Yunker
Linux developer Red Hat says it will add five new languages to its next generation of enterprise software - all Indian languages. Equally important, Red Hat plans to offer customer phone support in those languages.
Although the company didn't say which languages it plans to support (India has 15 national languages), this is a positive sign. It brings the total language count that Red Hat supports to 15.
According to ComputerWeekly, India "sees a great opportunity in India for Linux desktop deployments in education, e-governance, and small and medium-sized enterprise."
Microsoft, to my knowledge, does not offer enterprise software in any Indian languages. Like I've written in the past, should Microsoft fall from its mighty perch, lack of localized software will be one of the reasons why.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Software Localization
October 1, 2004
Posted by John Yunker
The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that San Diego County is still hundreds shy of reaching its required number of bilingual poll workers who speak Spanish, Tagalog or Vietnamese.
According to the article, San Diego "is in danger of violating an agreement reached with the Justice Department in June in which it promised, among other things, to provide an adequate pool of bilingual poll workers."
San Diego has got a long way to go before it reaches its goal. Here is where the county stands now:
- Vietnamese: Need 85 more workers to reach goal of 111
- Tagalog: Need 126 more workers to reach goal of 241
- Spanish: Need 314 more workers to reach goal of 926.
The powers that be insist they will reach their goal. But they're certainly not putting their money where their goals are; bilingual workers only receive $5 extra for their efforts.
Qualified candidates can get more information at www.sdvote.com.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Translation
Posted by John Yunker
According to The Wall Street Journal, Nokia is launching its first fully global ad campaign. The slogan "1,001 reasons to have a Nokia imaging phone" will find its way into print, broadcast and Web sites across Europe, Asia and Africa, with the US following in a few months.
Speaking on behalf of the US market, the slogan hardly rolls off the tongue. It feels a bit like a "slogan by committee" which may very well be the result of trying to come up with a slogan that appeals to everyone. Nevertheless, global ad campaigns are a clear trend and it will be interesting to see how Nokia fares.
A photo of a baby will be used in some Nokia ads, as previewed here:
Of course, the nationality and ethnicity of that baby is a big deal in many markets, which is why Nokia wisely plans to localize the campaign as necessary. Here's an excerpt from the article:
To combat concerns of losing local flavor, Nokia is making some tweaks for different cultures. The current campaign will employ actors from the region where the ad runs to reflect the look of the local population, though they will say the same lines, Mr. Rantala says. He also said local settings would be modified when showcasing the phones, such as using a marketplace in Italy or a bazaar when advertising in the Middle East.
Cost savings is one driving force behind global ad campaigns. Nokia would like to cut back on the number of advertising agencies it relies upon around the world. For this campaign, it relied on just two firms - one for Asia and one for EMEA. The company also wants to achieve some economies of scale on advertising production, although with the added localization required for each market, I'm dubious that production costs will be decreased significantly.
The true measure of success won't be cost savings but revenue increases. In other words, does a global ad campaign help a company sell more product globally?
It all depends on the campaign. Few advertising campaigns ever become breakout hits regardless of their geographic focus. It's a tough business and consumers are harder to reach than ever before.
However, it is important for companies considering global ad campaigns to consider the risks and rewards of doing so. A global ad campaign is the biggest bet a marketing manager can make. If the campaign fails, it fails BIG.
Contrast the global campaign against a myriad of local ad campaigns, none of which promise global success but also none that will result in global failure. Another upside to launching a number of local campaigns is the opportunity to discover a hit campaign in one market that can be expanded into other markets.
Using the baseball analogy, the global campaign is the equivalent of players trying to hit a grand slam while local ad campaigns are the equivalent of a number of base hits. The tactics are different but the goal remains the same.
I'm not confident that this particular campaign will be a grand slam for Nokia, but I applaud them taking a big swing.
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