Is Globalization Right for You?
By Sandy Tapper
Why all the hubbub about globalization? There's no question that the Internet is a global phenomenon, but not everyone speaks English. In fact, Idiom Technologies notes that 43 percent of today's Web users are non-English speaking; and over the next few years, Internet use is expected to grow by 79 percent in Asia, 123 percent in Latin America, and over 2000 percent in Japan.
Because this scenario (and common sense) suggests that the U.S. won't always dominate the Internet, U.S. companies have begun to realize that they can no longer build their Web sites solely for the English-speaking populations around the world. That's where globalization comes in.
An Investment, or a Blunder?
Now that e-commerce is crossing cultural and international boundaries, commerce sites will obviously be more effective if they're written in a user's native language. But there's more to globalization than translation. Beyond using the right vernacular to name and promote your products, globalization is a means of explaining your features and benefits in a way that makes sense to your target market.
Many companies that claim to provide a full array of globalization services focus primarily on translation and infrastructure services to handle transactions in a variety of foreign currencies. These services include translation software or local translator services that can easily and quickly give you the foreign language presence you want, especially if you have a very large Web site.
Such services don't come cheap; companies charge anywhere from 10 to 25 cents per word, depending upon the language.
