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
March 31, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Here's an interesting article in Wired about Web globalization (and not just because I was quoted in it)....
It's about companies that discover that their Web sites are successful in markets that they never expected -- such as Friendster in the Philippines or Orkut in Brazil.
Google's social-networking site, Orkut.com, meanwhile, has been a surprise hit in Brazil. Today, 66 percent of Orkut users are Brazilian. Rounding out the top three are the United States, where 10 percent of users reside, and Iran, home to 7 percent of Orkut members.
For these types of networking sites, the ability to sell advertising is key -- and yet smaller markets mean fewer eyeballs which means less money. David Moore, the chief executive of advertising firm 24/7 Real Media, said that there are nine markets other than the US where sites can profitabliy sell advertising.
But I believe that's all changing. While there are indeed diminishing returns involved, one need only look at Google's ever-expanding Adwords program to see that no market, no matter how small, is worth overlooking for long. Google now offers Adwords for more than 30 markets -- and I wouldn't be suprised to see that doubled over the next two years. At some point we're talking nickels and dimes in revenues, but they all add up.
Which makes me think of Chris Anderson and his forthcoming Long Tail book. He talks about the "long tail" of Amazon's product assortment and how the depth of goods is key to the company's success. I can't help thinking that there is a similar long tail involved in Web globalization. Keep your eyes on Google, because it is going to be testing that theory and, because it's a public company, we'll get quarterly updates on its financial progress.
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Posted by John Yunker
According to the Journal it looks like Europe will be seeing Chinese auto imports by the end of this year...
While Chinese cars generally aren't available for sale in large numbers in Europe, they are beginning to show up in Russia, one of Europe's fastest-growing car markets in recent years. Earlier this year some Russian car dealerships began selling sport-utility vehicles made by Great Wall Automobile Co. at prices that are as much as 35% below those of other Asian imports, even after accounting for the high tariffs on imported vehicles in Russia.
Here's one from Brilliance China:
US automakers will be watching closely -- and nervously. It could be 2007 before the automakers come knocking on US doors, but they are coming. And they could be escorted by a partner such BMW, which has partnered with Brilliance China.
With model names like the Great Wall Sailor and the Chery, the automakers have a long way to go in establishing trustworthy brand names. But if prices are low, they'll certainly get plenty of attention. And then they'll try to follow the template set in stone by Honda and Toyota and "move on up that value chain."
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March 30, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
What is it about the resurgence in "minority" languages around the world? Probably the inevitable backlash against the spread of globalization in general and English in particular.
Now it is Gaelic that is gaining momentum. According to this article, "only Gaelic will be used on road signs in the country's designated 'Gaeltacht' (Irish language) areas, which encompass more than 2,300 towns."
A 2002 census showed 1.4 million of Ireland's population of four million claimed to "have an ability" to speak Gaelic, and over a quarter of those said they spoke it on a daily basis.
Globalization is a funny, bipolar thing. The more it pulls us all together, the more we push back in an effort to remain unique. Just as it enables us to shop globally, new business opportunities arise for the "local" entrepeneur. And just when global business executives get hopeful for an English-speaking planet, local languages get popular again.
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March 29, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
According to Pacific Epoch, CNET is about to acquire yet another Chinese Internet property. This one is PChome.net; the article says that CNET is paying $10 million for a 51% stake (CNET is, not surprisingly, mum on the deal).
Assuming the deal does happen, this will be the 8th property that CNET controls in China; contrast that against the UK, with three CNET properties, and Japan, with just two:
And yet there is still lots of competition out there, and more on the way. So it's anyone's guess if all this buying will be worth it three years from now.
But I can see why CNET does want more real estate in this market -- because US advertisers are willing to pay for space in this real estate, as you can see here:
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
It looks like the much-awaited Australian site will be live by the end of April.
And unlike the UK, this time Apple owns the Australian domain name: itunes.com.au.
I even checked just to be sure:
What makes the Australian site significant is that this is the first Asia-Pacific site. I also expect to see Japan this year and possibly even Korea.
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March 28, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Here's an interesting article about the resurgence of the Hawaiian language.
I've seeing similar instances of this phenomenon in other parts of the world. It seems that just when a culture is about to write off its native language for good, the next generation takes a liking to it. Is this enough of a liking to save the language forever? I'm not sure, but I'm glad to see these "minority" languages hanging in there.
Here's an excerpt from the article:
Hawaiian is the only indigenous language in the United States that showed growth in the 2000 census, said Verlieann Leimomi Malina-Wright, vice principal of Anuenue school. About 200,000 of Hawaii's 1.2 million people are of Native Hawaiian ancestry.
Hawaiian is recognized, along with English, in the state Constitution as an official state language. Some lawmakers want to require that Hawaiian be used on government signs and in government documents, although two bills on the matter have stalled.
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Posted by John Yunker
As predicted, the person who lost control over his itunes.co.uk domain to the folks at Apple, is appealing the decision.
This is where itunes.co.uk takes you now...
According to this article, the owner of QuidPro is appealing to the High Court. And I think he has a shot at keeping the name; after all, he did register it first and it he doesn't appear to be a "squatter."
Still, can't the folks at Apple cough up a little cash to buy him out?
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Posted by John Yunker
From a CNN interview:
AP: Do you enjoy working as a producer, as you did on this film?
Bullock: The nice thing about it is I have complete say in the business. Nothing gets past, whether it's how the Web site is set up internationally or what things will be used in our film overseas, product placement. I'm like, 'Look, I'm not a product placement kind of person.' ... But I like to micromanage that way.
I wonder if she'd like a signed copy of Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies?
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March 24, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
In a page borrowed from Apple's playbook, globalization services/software vendor SDL is asking prospects to switch over to SDLX.
What is SDLX? It's a computer-aided translation (CAT) software tool used by translators and agencies to more efficiently and more quickly manage translation. The leader in this space by a long margin is TRADOS.
And, as I written previously, it's not easy to get companies and translation agencies to switch their CAT tools, particularly away from the market leader. That's why I like SDL's new Web-based campaign so much. It poses and answers the types of questions that prospects will naturally ask, like:
- Why switch?
- What companies have swtiched?
- How hard is it to switch?
My only question is will this campaign work as well for SDL as it did for Apple?
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors | Translation
Posted by John Yunker
Major League Baseball is enjoying a nice $150-million business in streaming live baseball video feeds to fans around the world (I'm thinking about getting a feed to track Red Sox and Cardinals games from here in San Diego).
But in order to make the business work, the MLB is relying on a technology called geolocation. In a nutshell, geolocation analyzes the user's IP address (the number associated with your computer) to guesstimate where the user is accessing the Internet. The MLB is relying on a service from Quova, and there are also a couple other vendors who offer the service.
The MLB must do this because it can't stream content to a fan who wants to watch his or her local team in a market where that team is broadcast on TV (don't want to get the TV networks' lawyers in a tizzy).
According to this Baseline article, the MLB claims that 99% of all IP addresses are correctly "located." Not too shabby.
Geolocation Isn't Just for Baseball
Geolocation is also used by companies to direct users to local content seamlessly, particularly companies with global Web sites. Google is the most prominent company using geolocation, but there are a handful of others. Now, I have spoken to one company that is giving up on geolocation after a pilot run because it didn't perform as well as they wanted in a few non-US markets. But I'm generally seeing positive results overall.
The question many companies have to ask themselves is this: How seamless do you want your global navigation to be? Assuming geolocation doesn't work and sends a US traveler in Japan to your Japanese-language Web site, you could be causing more than a few headaches. If you do use geolocation for global navigation, always be sure to include a permanent global gateway on every Web page (or a clear link to the gateway), so that users can always navigate out of the given country and/or language Web page.
For more information on geolocation, we've got a lengthy feature on it in our January issue of Global By Design
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March 23, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
According to this article ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) just gave the European Union the green light for using the .eu domain name.
I first wrote about the new .eu domain back in October and I suspect it could be a very good thing for global Web sites. Many companies offer only regional Web sites, which would be an ideal fit for the .eu domain.
Although I don't believe .eu will eliminate the need to register country level domains, like .fr or .de, it can provide a neutral "first step" for companies doing business in Europe. It also saves those companies just entering the market from registering a dozen country domains (although I would generally recommend companies do that anyway).
Ultimately, it's great news for registrars, because every multinational now has to add yet another domain to their annual list of renewals.
UPDATE
Here is the official word from the folks at ICANN:
Earlier this week, ICANN's Board took steps to authorize the delegation of
.EU as a ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain), and for ICANN Staff to enter
into an agreement with EURid and to complete the delegation of .EU. The
technical teams of ICANN's IANA function and EURid are working together to
complete the entry of .EU in the DNS root.
The two-letter code for the European Union (.EU) appears on the ISO 3166-1
reserved list of alpha two-letter codes of country names. At the request of
the European Commission, the ISO Maintenance Agency extended the scope of
this reservation to cover any application of the two-letter code
representing the name European Union, including its being used as a TLD.
Following this step, the European Union commenced a process, in partnership
with ICANN, to designate the .EU ccTLD.
Delegation of a new top level domain requires the completion of a number of
procedures. The key requirement is that for each domain there is a
designated delegee for supervising that domain's name space. In the case of
.EU, the European Commission identified EURid as the appropriate
organization to manage .EU.
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Posted by John Yunker
My correspondent in Australia took some pictures that illustrate the ways that Starbucks has localized itself for the market.
It's Our Shout!
Translation: "It's On Us"
A Local Drink Concoction
And Another...
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March 20, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
An interesting article in the Times (now locked down, I'm afraid) on the role that color is playing in social and political revolutions around the globe.
The Ukraine revolution became known as the Orange Revolution. President Bush referred to the recent Iraqi vote the Purple Revolution, in reference to the purple-stained fingers of those who voted.
The article notes that culture plays a large role in what color is chosen for a given movement: "In the Philippines, yellow is a sign of homecoming, so Corazon Aquino's trademark yellow dress became synonymous with the peaceful resistance that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986."
And the colors used these days are a far cry from the blacks, reds, and whites of the previous generations.
The article provides a handy color chart of the latest color/protest combinations:
Pink: Used by Iranian advocates of women's rights and reform.
Yellow: Used by pro-democracy opponents of Kyrgyzstan's president, Askar Akayev.
Cedar: Used by anti-Syrian independece-minded Lebanese.
Blue: Used by potential opponents of President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Cultural Issues
Posted by John Yunker
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (my old hometown paper), Anheuser-Busch (A-B) has reason to celebrate -- it just won a small victory against that tiny little Czech brewery that could: Budvar.
A few months back I wrote about the never-ending feud between A-B and Budvar.
I'm no trademark lawyer and I know even less about EU trademark law but it seems that Budvar was trying to use some EU regulation to sidestep A-B's trademark protections in the EU. The EU stepped in and sided with A-B. But that's not the end of it by any stretch.
Here are some great excerpts that illustrate just how bitter this conflict is:
Anheuser-Busch is fighting Budvar over the Budweiser trademark in more than 40 nations.
A-B's most recent win was in Austria, where a court ruled late last year that the St. Louis brewer could use Bud. The decision is under appeal. The company, which markets Budweiser under the name Anheuser-Busch B in that country, had been blocked from using Budweiser and Bud.
A-B started using the Budweiser name in 1876, which was 19 years before the Czech brewery opened. But the Czechs say that Budweiser refers to Budweis, the original German name of the city where Budvar is located, and that the name commonly referred to beer brewed in that area hundreds of years before Anheuser-Busch started making Budweiser. In the United States, Budvar must sell its beer under the brand name Czechvar.
Personally, I think these trademark battles should be settled not in court but by a taste test. And, in the interest of furthering corporate peace, I'll be happy to volunteer a few hours or my time to assist.
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March 19, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
That's what Tekrati has to say about Nielsen//Netratings' latest global Web usage report.
Their research shows that people in the US (and a few other markets) are spending the same (or less) time online, while people in markets such as Italy, Japan, France and Australia continue to increase their time spent online, as shown below:
Nielsen tries to sugarcoat their findings by saying that the "US is primed for the next ‘big thing’ to spike Internet usage." Perhaps.
But I believe the next big thing has less to do with the US than markets outside the US. Web globalization is still under the radar of most media and even many large corporations, but I'm seeing more research reports point to opportunities abroad and am talking to more Web globalization managers who tell me that they can't add languages fast enough. Web globalization is indeed a revolution, although because it is a multilingual revolution, it is easy to miss.
Finally, I have to take issue with one item on the Nielsen press release. It refers to global markets as "low hanging fruit." Nothing can be further from the truth. One of the most painful mistakes companies make about Web globalization is assuming that it's easy. It's not. If it were, Amazon would be in a dozen markets right now instead of five.
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March 18, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Mark your calendars for March 23rd, when I'll be joining Mercury and SDL for a Webinar on Web globalization best practices.
You'll hear me pontificate on Web globalization for 15 minutes, followed by an excellent presentation by James Ingalsbe of Mercury, in which he shares his experiences taking Mercury's Web site global under very tight time constraints.
You can register here.
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Posted by John Yunker
Here's a good article on the upsides and downsides of this thing called globalization. And a few excerpts that jumped out at me:
In recent years, about 100,000 software-writing jobs have moved from the U.S. to India alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Those jobs would have paid a combined $136 billion a year in wages. By the end of 2005, one of every 10 jobs at U.S. information technology vendors and service providers will have moved offshore, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Gartner and Morgan Stanley. Another 400,000 back-office jobs have already moved offshore and 3.3 million should move by 2015, according to Forrester Research.
Vivek Paul, vice chairman of Indian IT giant Wipro, figures that over the next five years, 7% of U.S. white-collar jobs could be moved overseas, and a whopping 60% of software jobs. "There's very little economic rationale for having those jobs in the U.S.," he says.
Globalization is a truly gut-wrenching experience for those who get made globally redundant through no fault of their own. What concerns me is that there appears to be a gold rush mentality about outsourcing these days. Everybody's doing it, which is why I can't help but wonder if we're witnessing a sort of offshoring bubble.
But, bubble or no bubble, a lot of people are now living out localized versions of the American dream...
Cruel to Westerners, offshoring is cause for celebration in Asia. This migration of jobs is one of globalization's greatest achievements-a fast-rising living standard in poor countries that is propelling better-educated Asian workers into an expanding middle class.
In Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, in Delhi and Bombay, white-collar denizens of the offshoring boom now gather at hip bars and pricey restaurants. It is as if the exuberance of Silicon Valley has moved to Asia. They spend their new paychecks on trendy Western clothes, trips abroad and new cars. Every month, two million more Indians and five million more Chinese carry cell phones as their countries grow richer. Young college graduates job-hop for ever-higher pay. The future has never looked brighter. While Chinese computer programmers splurge to buy the latest consumer goods, many will live with their parents until they are in their 30s, saving three-quarters of their $5,000-a-year salaries to buy a home or a car. That is not a sacrifice for them. It is an improvement.
These are the best of times; these are the worst of times. And it all depends on which side of the world you're standing.
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March 16, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
While I realize that Wal-Mart is a lightning rod for publicity, both good and bad, I'm constantly amazed at just how poorly the company manages to avoid the bad variety.
Now it seems it has generated a fair amount of negative press in Germany thanks to a new "ethics code" it has distibuted to its German employees. Apparently Wal-Mart's ban against personal relationships among co-workers (quite common in the US) isn't so common in Germany. And the locals aren't too happy about it.
You can read all about it at the Always Low Prices blog.
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Posted by John Yunker
First, the bad news...
According to the WSJ the EU is investigating whether iTunes overcharges UK customers. The price of a song in the UK is about 20% more than it is on the continent. And because iTunes does not allow cross-border transactions (CBT), this has become something of or sore spot.
Personally, I'd love to see iTunes embrace CBT. It sure works well for eBay.
And now for the good news...
According to CNET, Apple won the iTunes.co.uk domain after a lengthy battle with a company it had accused of cybersquatting. I'm not sure this is over just yet, as appeals may yet reverse the ruling, but for now it qualifies as good news for Apple.
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March 13, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Emerging markets are making the world a lot less easy to label
In the old days of global commerce, before the Internet, an international marketing director could focus on a handful of “strategic markets” and group all of the other countries into a “rest of world” (ROW) category. It wasn’t an elegant solution, but it fit the times.
And then along came the Internet. Suddenly, any market with a growing Internet penetration and disposable income broke through the ROW clutter. Ten years ago, the international marketing director may have focused on six or seven strategic markets. Today, there are typically no less than a dozen markets worth serious marketing attention. And this list will only grow as Internet penetration grows. For example, it is not a question of whether eBay will develop more than 50 localized Web sites, it is just a question of when.
I never much liked the ROW label because it lumped together countries such as Vietnam, Chile and South Africa, countries that are unique, growing, and worth getting to know in their own right. In the years ahead, it will be those companies that put aside the ROW mindset that will be best positioned to capitalize on all emerging markets, no matter how big or small.
In a global economy there is no Rest of World.
(Note: This was first printed in Global By Design.
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March 11, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
Greg Josefowicz, CEO of the Borders book chain, has looked into the future and he sees India.
According to this article, the Ann Arbor-based chain is betting on international expansion to help it continue growing. The company already has stores in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Singapore.
Currently, Borders has less than 100 international stores in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Singapore. It plans to open a store this year in Malaysia. But it looks like the company is going to ramp up investments to accelerate the rate of store openings in selected markets.
Here's a great quote that illustrates how quickly foreign revenues can grow from zero to significant...
In 2003, the international business made a profit for the first time of $100,000. The final profits for this year will be released Thursday, but the company has said it will earn between $4 million and $6 million and the expectation is that international stores will be as profitable as domestic stores by the end of the decade or sooner.
In 2003, Borders had total profits of $120 million, so the $100,000 profit from the international business was negligible. But this year's profit from stores abroad will contribute significantly to the company's earnings.
Josefowicz also noted that the success of their Puerto Rico stores may lead them to look at additional Spanish markets. And speaking of Spanish, I expect Amazon to launch a Spanish-language site for the US market within the next 18 months. This will be a nice complement to Borders Spanish-market efforts.
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Posted by John Yunker
Sun says that it localize its StarOffice software suite into five additional languages over the next year, which will include Russian, Polish and Dutch. The software is currently available in 11 languages.
StarOffice costs a great deal less than Microsoft's Office suite, which makes it particularly appealing in an emerging market like Russia. While Microsoft's Office suite is available more languages than StarOffice, the gap is narrowing.
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March 8, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
eBay has launched of an international classified ads Web site called Kijiji, which the company says means "village" in Swahili.
Kijiji is available for 50 cities in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Oddly, Kijiji doesn't support any cities in which Swahili is widely spoken; perhaps those Web sites are on the way.
My first thought when visiting the Web site was that eBay is trying to beat Craigslist to the world. I realize that eBay owns a piece of Craigslist, but not a majority interest. Meanwhile, Craigslist has been steadily launching sites for a number of international cities, from Bangkok to Montreal. However, Craigslist has to this point only launched English-language Web sites, which renders many of these international sites largely useless to the majority of the population. I'm also told that the categories have not been localized either, rendering them not only useless but downright silly.
eBay has the language skills in place to do international classified ads and it will be interesting to see if the Web sites generate the type of enthusiastic traffic that Craigslist has achieved.
Kijiji also creates an interesting dynamic in some markets. Consider Montreal. If you speak English, you have Craigslist; if you speak French, you have Kijiji.
One final thought: With Kijiji, eBay has officially re-entered Japan. eBay gave up on Japan a few years back, ceding the market to Yahoo! I'm glad to see eBay taking another crack at the market; it is simply too big to ignore.
PS: My company is close to publishing an in-depth analysis of eBay's globalization efforts; contact me if you'd like more information.
Update: Here is a Reuters article on the launch.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Translation | Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
The Journal writes about Hollywood's strategy to (finally) begin discounting DVDs in China in an effort to be more competitive with the pirated DVDs.
The discounted DVDs will still cost roughly three times what the pirated versions cost, but at least we're in the same general ballpark. I suspect a growing number of newly affluent Chinese will pay a premium for a higher-quality movie, not to mention all those DVD "extras."
But what is particularly interesting is Warners' plan to coordinate DVD releases in China with theatrical releases in the US. According to the article...
Warner Bros. plans to release more than 125 movies this year in China, including hoped-for blockbusters like "Batman Begins," around the time of its U.S. theatrical release. They will sell at two price points: $2.65 for relatively basic discs, with English and Mandarin dialogue tracks, and $3.38 for fancier versions with extra footage and language enhancements.
So this means that Chinese consumers will have a head start on Americans in getting the newest DVDs. I wonder if we'll see an underground market develop as Chinese begin selling these DVDs back to Americans.
Despite the inherent risks though, the studios have little choice but begin testing lower prices. Even at these cut-rate prices, there is a good potential for profits should enough Chinese begin bypassing pirates for Hollywood.
Hollywood is not alone in its struggles with emerging markets. Microsoft is working on a lower-priced operating system for countries such as Thailand, India and Indonesia, referred to as Windows Lite. I'm less optimistic with Microsoft's approach because instead of just cutting prices (which is what Hollywood is doing), Microsoft is cutting features.
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March 6, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
I'm at the IA Summit in Montreal and have been pleased to find that IA (information architecture) professionals are tackling the challenges of content globalization in a big way. And this is a great thing, because the IA industry is critical to the evolution of truly successful global Web sites.
I'm not much of an IA guy, so I've been getting up to speed on industry buzzwords like facets and taxonomies and folksonomies. And the presentations by far have been terrific.
There were a total of four sessions that spoke directly to content globalization, touching on everything from translation testing to global IA (I gave a talk on one of my favorite topics, the global gateway). And there were a good number of attendees across these sessions -- mostly internal IA professionals and their agency counterparts. I did not find one localization industry professional (besides myself), but I expect that to change in the years ahead.
Thanks to the efforts of Louis Rosefeld, Peter Van Dijck, Jorge Arango, Livia Labate, and many others, I expect we'll see some really exciting things coming out of the IA industry, which will have a large impact on the localization industry. My personal goal will be to do what I can to get the localization industry and the IA industry to work more closely together to share insights and do a better job of advancing global Web sites, from taxonomy to translation.
PS: I spoke with more than a dozen IAs who are all working on brand new multilingual Web projects (from IT to services to apparel), another strong sign that companies have awakened to the importance of Web globalization. I said it before and I'll say it again: 2005 is the year that Web globalization goes mainstream.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Cultural Issues | Globalization Vendors | Translation | Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
China has nearly 100 million Internet users, so it's only natural that the country want a stake in how the Internet is managed. Chinese Ambassador Sha Zukang recently said that China opposes the "monopolization" of the Internet by one state, a reference to the Untied States, which ultimately controls the digital medium.
I think the world is much better off without the Chinese government controlling the Internet, but the government does have one valid point -- the Internet still does a fairly poor job of supporting the Chinese language. The domain name system currently only supports Latin characters. There are a few workarounds available, but these aren't long-term solutions. Ultimately, Unicode will provide the necessary language support, but this too is going to take awhile to be fully implemented.
This will be an interesting story to follow in the years ahead...
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March 2, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
I sat in on the second part of this three-part Webinar and it was well worth it. Part three is coming up; here are the details:
------------------------------
VASONT SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES THIRD IN SERIES OF FREE CONTENT MANAGEMENT WEBINARS ON MULTILINGUAL PUBLISHING
Webinar features Real-Life Translation Management and Multilingual Publishing Success Story
Emigsville, PA, March 2, 2005 — Vasont Systems, a leading provider of content management software and data services, today announced the third Webinar in its free Webinar miniseries, entitled “Multilingual Publishing: How Do You Manage All Those Languages? It’s Greek to Me!” This three-part Webinar miniseries provides insight into how organizations can streamline their multilingual publishing and save thousands of dollars in translation costs. The third Webinar of the series, “A Real-Life Success Story,” will take place on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 at 1:00 pm EST.
Part 1 of this miniseries discussed ways to structure multilingual content using XML. In Part 2 of the Webinar miniseries, Blast Radius, TRADOS, and Vasont Systems identified ways to automate the translation process to save your organization time and money. The last Webinar in this miniseries will feature a client of Vasont Systems, TRADOS, and Blast Radius. The March 15th Webinar will share their translation management and multilingual publishing success story and show how they are saving their organization thousands of dollars a year.
Guest Speakers include:
· Paul Prescod of Blast Radius and co-author of “The XML Handbook.” Blast Radius is the maker of the XMetaL® product family, which simplifies XML-based content creation and management
· Karl Kadie, Alliance Director for TRADOS Incorporated, the world leader in globalization software and services
· Bret Freeman, Sales Engineer for Vasont Systems
To register, go to http://www.vasont.com/webinars/register-031505.asp.
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Posted by John Yunker
Because I spend the bulk of my time talking to US executives about expanding globally, my focus is typically on creating non-English Web sites. But Web globalization cuts both ways. If you're a Russian company, for example, you'll need an English-language Web site if you want to expand in the US. Most companies do this by default, but it's no less challenging than an American company launching a Russian-language Web site. Often, companies do a fairly poor job with their English-language sites the first time out.
According to this article, the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) just launched an improved English version of its Web site.
I took a look at the MICEX site and it's clear they put a lot of effort into it. Everything from press releases to the feedback form and FAQ are in English.
According to the press release...
...new English version of the MICEX’s web site will help to raise the transparency of the Russian financial market, which, considering Russia’s growing investment rating, is essential for attracting the attention of international investors.
It's all about money. If you want money from people who don't speak your language, translation is step one.
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Posted by John Yunker
I find it amazing how quickly a person can adopt a technology and, after having adopted it, grow impatient with it when it isn’t used to maximum effect. Take email for instance. In the early days of email I felt the urge to reply to nearly every email I received to let the sender know that I had received it. Today, replies are by necessity only. We are assaulted with emails so we don’t want our fellow emailers to waste our time.
Which brings me to blogs. Now that I have more than 100 blogs that I scan daily, I find it necessary to prune a few blogs from time to time. I have no formula for how I decide which blogs to keep and which blogs to delete from my RSS reader, but there are some traits common to those blogs that I have parted ways with.
After all, because time is a finite resource, there are only so many blogs a person can follow on a daily basis. Which means that every blog I add tends to come at the expense of a blog that I delete. Which means that I expect the bloggers that remain to not waste my time. There may be a billion blogs out there, but from the reader’s perspective, it’s a zero-sum game.
I’m really only referring to those blogs that purport to be about something, like VoIP or travel or Web usability. I subscribe to these blogs to learn more about these topics or issues and I tend to get annoyed when the authors spend more time writing about their personal lives than the actual topics. Occasional off-topic postings are just fine (like this one, for instance) but too much off-topicness and I will consider pruning that particular feed. A year ago, I was much more tolerant than I am today. Either I’m getting more cranky or I’m becoming a more demanding blog reader.
So here is my advice to bloggers who want to avoid being pruned…
Have Something To Add
If all you do is point to other news stories you have to ask yourself – are you adding value or are you just aggregating? Aggregation is fine on occasion (I’ve certainly done my share), but eventually you’ll be made redundant by someone who both aggregates and adds value.
Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid
I love bloggers precisely because they don’t have editors. I like the unfiltered thoughts, ideas and predictions. When I want an edited piece of work I read the paper. However, sometimes I wish bloggers would do a little bit more self-editing. For example…
Don’t blog to tell the world:
1. you are not feeling well today
2. you are tired today
3. you are tired of all the blogging you’ve been doing lately
4. you are going out of town for a few days
5. you just got back from having been out of town for a few days
6. you will be offline for the next two hours
7. your server went down and that’s why we haven’t heard from you for the past two hours
You get the idea. A writing teacher of mine used the term furniture moving to refer to wasted prose. These types of posts strike me as furniture moving.
Anyway, I’ll step down from my soapbox, prune a few blogs and get back to back. I’ve got lots to do as I’m getting ready to go out of town for a few days!
Just kidding.
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Posted by John Yunker
I wrote about GE's global growth plans in our February edition of Global By Design and I'm thrilled to see the Journal writing about it as well.
GE expects to have 60% of its revenues coming from emerging markets over the next decade, compared to just 20% a decade ago. And GE is not alone. Here's an excerpt from the article...
GE's outlook is echoed by most multinationals, many of them rivals such as Siemens AG and Philips Electronics NV, and financial-services giant Citigroup Inc. Like GE, these companies are dealing with how to grow in the face of a slower U.S. and European economy. For most of them, that means moving deeper overseas -- in some cases, building manufacturing plants and buying materials in those countries while selling lower-price products such as medical equipment. It also could mean more job cuts in the U.S., and even Europe, as the multinationals seek new markets for their products.
Deane Dray, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, says, "It's not by choice but by necessity. Developing countries are where the fastest growth is occurring and more sustainable growth."
"It's not by choice but by necessity."
A great quote and equally relevant to Web globalization. Companies aren't taking their Web sites global for thrills; this is about following the money. And those companies that sit on the sidelines too long are going to have a steep learning curve ahead of them.
GE, by the way, could stand to improve its global Web site. More on this later...
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March 1, 2005
Posted by John Yunker
According to CNET, the MII, China's equivalent to the US' FCC, says that there will be 120 million Internet users in the China this year. That keeps them on track to easily surpass 200 million by 2007, as reported earlier.
The statistics that come out of China are simply mind-boggling. Consider the following:
China is the world's second-largest PC market. IDC predicts that roughly 30 million PCs will ship in 2005.
China is the world's largest cellular market, with more than 340 million subscribers in January of this year.
Not surprisingly, American companies are pouring money into the market. eBay is investing $100 million and UPS is investing $600 million, building 20 new warehouse and distribution facilities over the next two years.
A lot of experts warn about China's economy cooling off, or stalling. Eventually this will happen, but for the time being there is still plenty of "headroom" for growth, as bizdev people like to say.
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