As I noted then, the company utilized crowdsourcing to spur its translation efforts. And though volunteers aren’t the only people translating content, a year later, Facebook has done an impressive job of going global.

Om Malik recently reported some key stats from Facebook’s global expansion efforts. Among them:

• Facebook is available in 43 languages and is in the process of being translated into another 60 languages.
• 40 percent of Facebook users are not using English.
• 25,000 volunteers helped translate Facebook into Turkish last year, and there are now 9 million Turkish-language users signed up for Facebook.

Even though only 43 languages are available now, if you add the Facebook Translations application (which i really recommend doing if you’re into this sort of thing), you’ll see the other 60 languages in the pipeline — many of which look pretty much good to go.

Here’s what the Translations pull-down menu looks like:

So many languages my computer is lacking for fonts.

It’s a very safe bet to say that Facebook will support more than 100 languages a year from now.

And this is particularly true in China, where people pay thousands of dollars to obtain license plates with lucky numbers.

So when it comes to naming products or setting prices, you have to be very careful about your choice of numbers. Here are some tips:

6 means “good fortune.”
8 means “abundance of wealth” or “make lots of money.”

The number 8 is a very lucky number, and the reason why China chose August 8th, 2008 to kick off Olympics Games. Vehicle license plates and cellphone numbers containing 6 or 8 are coveted and often auctioned to the highest bidder. A recent example: A C88888 vehicle license was auctioned in Guangdong where it sold for RMB800,000 (around USD113,000). The new owner hopes this license number helps bring good fortune — though presumably the owner was already fortunate enough to have the money to spend on the license plate.

9 means “forever.”

If a boy wants to buy a rose for his girlfriend, he will typically buy 9 roses. If he wants to splurge, he’ll buy 19 roses — and if he’s affluent, he’ll buy 99 roses. September 9th is Senior People Day in China, to ensure that th elderly live a healthy and long life.

4 is pronounced the same as “dead.”
13 means crazy, abnormal.

If a Chinese person says “you are 13″, it means “you are insane!” Some buildings, like in the US, avoid having a 13th floor. Instead, they use floor 12B. And although the pronunciation of 4 sounds like “dead,” there is a positive way to portray the number: In a musical scale, 4 is equialent to “fa,” which is pronounced closely to “make money” in Chinese. My old phone number contains “5854″ and my Chinese friends say it is a great number because it means “I make money and then I make money again.” I am happy to hear their comments.

51 in Chinese is pronounces like “I (5) wanna (1).”

You’ll find a lot of businesses and Websites using 51 in their names. 51job is the largest online human resources company. So you can tell a lot about a company simply by the numbers it uses in its domain name. Since 1 sounds like “wanna,” the number 18 is also popular as “wanna make money” and many people will choose the 18th of the month as a new business opening date or a wedding date.

Even numbers > odd numbers

Chinese people like to use even numbers rather than odd numbers because even number are related to the concept of “pairs” which usually means “perfect” in Chinese culture.

With regards to business, if a company produces different versions of products, expect them to produce 6, 8, or 12, 36 different versions. And you can always find prices like 88.00, 128.00; 156.00 in China’s shopping malls.

In this article, I do just that, and I render a verdict as to which Web site is better.

Search

The best way to compare search engine quality is to compare searches.

I recently input three Chinese keywords for my experiment:

• 许霆 (Xu Ting: A Chinese citizen who was recently involved in a controversial criminal case)
• 次级房贷 (Subprime mortgage)
• 看羹吃饭 (Kan-Geng-Chi-fan: A phrase used and recognized by a relatively small number of Chinese, meaning that you have to think carefully before taking action)

These keywords represent three different categories of information people search for online. Xu Ting is a hot keyword in China at the moment but it has received little international media coverage. Subprime mortgage, on the other hand, is a foreign concept and the term has been transliterated into Chinese characters from the English equivalent. Kan-Geng-Chi-fan is used within a specific dialect that is not used by the majority of Chinese citizens.

Okay, here are the results as of April 18, 2008:

“Xu Ting”

• Baidu: 2,000,000 results
• Google.com: 1,440,000 results
• Google.cn: 1,330,000 results

It would seem that Baidu knows much more about Xu Ting than Google, although I did not verify that every result referred to this particular individual.

Interestingly, in the first results page of both google.com and google.cn, one of the search results directed users to Baidu Post — Baidu’s popular user forum.

Overall, I would rate both sites equally because the top 20 results from each search engine were highly qualified and I could easily find information I wanted from there. Verdict: A tie.

“Subprime mortgage”

• Baidu: 1,050,000 results
• Google.com: 387,000 results
• Google.cn: 1,540,000 results

This time google.cn appears to do much better than Baidu. But if we look closely at the top 20 search results, we’ll find there are 7 results at google.com and 5 results at google.cn that direct us to Web sites that use traditional Chinese characters, which are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and by the overseas Chinese community.

It can be rather challenging for the mainland Chinese to read traditional Chinese, though they can understand most of the message. Nonetheless, this mix of simplified and traditional Characters is not the most user-friendly approach. Verdict: Baidu wins.

“Kan Geng Chi Fan”

• Baidu.com 207 results
• Google.com 4,000,000 results
• Google.cn 247,000 results

At first glance, Google produced overwhelmingly more information than Baidu. However, if we examine the details, Google did not perform so well. Neither Google.com nor Google.cn produce an accurate search result within the first 10 pages respectively, while all the 207 search results from Baidu are accurate. Verdict: Baidu wins again.

Based on these three searches, Google comes across as a bit complicated and “foreign” to Chinese users. Baidu is the superior Chinese search engine.

Products

Both Google and Baidu are trying to leverage their network effects to promote other products. Google has many excellent products, but not every product has performed well in China. For example, Google Maps is widely used by American users. Unfortunately, Google Maps in China is unable to provide the same features due to unavailability of mapping data in China. Google’s satellite map currently only covers the major Chinese cities. Should Google acquire better maps, it would have a clear advantage over Baidu, which doesn’t offer the same degree of functionality and usability in its map tool.

Although music copyright is a controversial issue within China, the market reality is that millions of Chinese Internet users download free music online. Baidu understands this reality and its music search product — which presents a list of links for free music downloads when people search by song, singer, or label — is extremely popular. Google is unable to compete with Baidu in this regard due to its adherence to US copyright laws.

Another example is Baidu Post, an online forum allowing Internet user to create new topics based on search keywords and provide commentary. When people search online by keyword, they can also follow these keywords to Baidu Post, where they may find additional information — or at least find out what others think of the selected keywords.

Online forums are a very important medium in China for distributing information online. I think an important reason for this is because the Chinese, as well as many businesses, want to remain anonymous. While this may change in the years ahead as the next generation embraces social networking sites, for the time being, online forums are dominant. Baidu also offers a blog platform (Hi Baidu) while Google has localized Blogger into Chinese, very few Chinese people currently use it.

Local culture and consumer behavior are critical factors in determining whether a product will succeed in an overseas market or not. So far, Google products have not been as appealing as Baidu to Chinese users.

The Brand Name

The name of Baidu (百度) is from a beautiful Chinese ancient poem:

Thousands of times, I looked for my girl;

Suddenly, at some point, I stopped and looked back,

I found she was just over there among a bunch of lanterns.

This poem, written by Qiji Xin, who lived in the Song Dynasty nearly 1000 years ago, is still very popular in China and also taught in high schools. Baidu in Chinese means thousands of times. In Chinese culture, this poem communicates one’s desire to achieve his/her dreams. Obviously, meshes well with the services offered by Baidu, a company that claims it better understands Chinese users and Chinese culture.

Google started to use its Chinese name Guge (谷歌) in 2006. Guge (goo-ge) is transliterated from Google and it literally means “the song of grain” in Chinese. A survey conducted in 2006 shows 84.6% Chinese do not like this name. I think the most important reason is that Chinese people want to feel international and modern. This is also one reason you may see many Chinese companies using English words in their marketing materials, as it creates an international effect. The “song of grain” presents an image of the agricultural society that the Chinese people are striving to break away from.

Google has exerted a good deal of effort in localizing its name for China but it has not yet been accepted by the Chinese people. It may take some time. Some companies have chosen to simply use their English names in China, avoiding localization altogether, such as IBM.

To sum up, Baidu definitely has an edge over Google in China. But it is early yet and Google has been doing things such as redesigning its Chinese home page, which may resonate with users. The key takeaway here is that every new market is a new challenge; just because you are number one at home does not mean you will be number one in every country you enter. Should Baidu enter the US market some day, it will face many of the same challenges that Google is now facing in China.

Four years ago, I was working for a localization company in Shanghai. One day, I received a phone call from a woman who said: “I read your advertisement about localization services. We’ve just moved to Shanghai and I was wondering if you could help find a baby-sitter for us.” This may sound like a strange request, but it was not that unusual back then.

Fortunately, times have changed, and quickly. China has become one of the most important regional markets in the world for multinational corporations:

• 470 of the Fortune 500 companies have invested in China;
• 750+ multinational companies, including Microsoft, Intel, GE, and Motorola have established R&D centers in China;
• In 2006, 144 multinational companies chose Shanghai as their Asia-Pacific regional headquarters, while 36 chose Beijing. These numbers are certain to grow.

And then there are the 210 million Internet users in China, according to CNNIC, making the country an alluring market for any Web-based service or application.

However, Chinese Web users have proven to be very selective when choosing news, ecommerce, and networking products. More often than not, they are choosing home-grown products. For example:

• Despite Google’s best efforts thus far, Baidu is still the number one search engine in China.
• Sina, Sohu, and Netease remain the three biggest news portals in this market, and not Yahoo! China.
• QQ is an IM tool developed by Tencent, a local company. It now has 160 million registered users and 50 million active users, greatly outnumbering the users of Yahoo Massager, MSN, and Google Talk.
• Although MySpace has been successful in the States, it seems that Chinese people are more interested in local social networking sites, such as Mop and Tianya.

These few examples demonstrate the significant challenges that companies face when localizing for China. There are cultural, financial, and lingustic obstacle to overcome — many of which I plan to address in more detail in future articles.

According to the article, “Chinese and Russians eat soup more than five times a week, on average, compared with Americans’ once-a-week, Campbell says. In China, 320 billion bowls of soup are consumed each year, compared with 32 billion in Russia and just 14 billion in the U.S.”

Campbell took a crack at China in the 1990s but didn’t do well because it made no effort to localize the product. Campbell is not alone in this regard; see my post on Disney.

For Russia, Campbell has invested in learning all about how the locals make and view soup. For starters, the company has learned that Russians have created unique words specifically to describe soup, such as navaristy. Says the article, navaristy “refers to a thick, heavy soup like the ones Campbell plans to sell in Russia: a beef broth with pieces of meat, onions and potatoes; a chicken broth with chicken, onions and potatoes; and a mushroom soup with large pieces of mushrooms, onions and seasonings.”

Campbell is no stranger to Web localization. It currently offers sites for countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Japan.

I checked to see if Campbell had a Russian Web site in place. Nothing so far that I could find. What’s worse, it appears that www.campbellsoup.ru has been taken by a squatter.

In an effort to win over the locals in Korea, Google has just launched a new design that not only features twice as much text, but also features animation:

Try it out yourself.

According to Search Engine Land, “The new, animated Google Korea home page is intended to help Google better compete in the country where it seeks to gain market share. ‘It was important where our classic minimalism wasn’t working that we adapt,’ Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience at Google, told Danny Sullivan in a briefing earlier today.”

Google isn’t alone in this regard. I often hear from global Webmasters and marketing execs in global companies based in the US and Europe who often do battle with their Web designers and managers in Asia who insist on using lots of Flash-generated animation and dense amounts of text. But what may seem busy and downright silly to a Westerner is anything but to consumers in many parts of Asia.

Does that mean that Western companies have to give up their Web designs when localizing for Korea? Well, they certainly need to be flexible. I recommend a global design template in which the “global” elements take up very little real estate. This will allow for plenty of local customization.

Google Korea is a case study to watch closely. Even with its animated home page, the design is still spare when compared to the likes of Naver and Empas.

According to the WSJ (sub required), Comedy Central is going global, but with a distinctly local touch. Says the article, “In January, Viacom began airing a German version of its Comedy Central network, in a strategy the company hopes will strengthen its toehold in one of the world’s biggest media markets. It’s the second international foray for Comedy Central after Poland, which debuted with a small digital channel in October.”

Here’s a screen shot of the German site:

Comedy Central is mixing dubbed American comedies with locally produced shows. It’s focusing on large markets only and it’s open to simply licensing the name to local partners.

Meanwhile, MTV, which offers 64 international MTV channels, is pulling out of on some of its countries. For all its international coverage, the WSJ says the network is barely covering costs.

Viacom brings in only about 10% of its revenues from abroad, well behind the curve as global companies go.

Which is probably why Sumner Redstone is comfortable taking the risk. Viacam can’t really afford not to expand its brands globally. Says the article, “Mr. Redstone defends Viacom’s strategy on comedy, saying he faced similar doubts 20 years ago about MTV, which critics derided as a fad. ‘In every place in the world, people are interested in comedy, just like with music and kids” programming, he says.”

He says:

“On a country-by-country basis, the largest hurdle we had to overcome was thinking we had to be different. There are regional differences in every market, but the main reason we are successful in the US is the same as why we are successful internationally.”

“I was in a Starbucks in Kuwait a year ago and other than the language spoken, I could have been in Tacoma.”

But Starbucks does indeed localize when it has to. For example, he says:

“The peak time in China is not 7 to 10 in the morning, it is 4 to 6 in the afternoon. And there are also food preferences we had to adapt to. There is the holiday Yorkshire pudding that is big in the UK but does not work in New York. Breakfast sandwiches in Germany, for example, are made up with a hard roll with sausage and tomato and served cold. So we listen hard to waht our partners in a region say.”

Starbucks does what most companies do when they go global — which is as little as they have to. Localization isn’t easy and less is usually more. Of course, the magic comes from deciding what needs to be localized — and how best to do it.

The question of whether the globalization of PR is a myth or reality is easily answered: it is definitely a reality. The key question is what kind of reality is it? And two further questions: what does it mean for us? And where is it headed?

Any concept of globalization that attempts to airbrush out the importance of local, national, or regional dynamics is not going to take us very far. It is no longer acceptable to rely on the watchwords, “Think Global, Act Local.” Perhaps closer to the mark is a line by Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who once said, “All politics is local.” In some important senses, all PR is local, too.

I will return to this theme later, but first let me discuss the idea of globalization itself. Just as the Depression, the Cold War, the Space Age, or the Roaring 20’s are used to describe different historical periods, the Era of Globalization encapsulates the political, economic and cultural atmosphere of today.

Yet, as one or two academics have pointed out, globalization is not a new concept. While the term, “globalization,” was coined only in the1980’s, the concept originated much earlier than that.

Consider for a moment that the Roman Empire once extended from Scotland in the north to Tunisia and Egypt in the south and from Portugal in the west to Turkey in the east. Within that vast region, there was one currency, one banking system, one legal system, one trading system, and one official language for matters of state and commerce. No wonder, then, that there were revolts and street riots protesting the imposition of Roman rule on local life. This isn’t much different from a meeting of the World Trade Organization today.

In considering the reality of global PR, we should remember that it is complex, not simple. The tension and balance between the power of international and the power of local is an old theme. One lesson is clear: global and local always coexist and have always been intertwined. History shows that one does not necessarily lead to the demise of the other. Globalization is complex and multilayered and it is perilous to forget that.

If the 19th and the first half of the 20th century were dominated — sometimes tragically — by nation states, the last 50 years have seen the emergence of a new global player: the multinational organization, or as some experts prefer to say more accurately and neutrally: “the transnational organization.”

Transnationals may be based within a particular country and carry strong cultural associations from that home country. Coca-Cola, for example, has long been regarded as American as apple pie. The historic brand essence of Mercedes or Peugeot was quintessentially German or French. But increasingly, the country of origin is becoming less central to the DNA of these organizations. They think and act internationally; they have intellectual property and operations around the world; and their culture becomes global, not national or local.

People often assume that transnationals are only multinational businesses, such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, Nokia, or Sony. However, one of the key points about understanding the globalization of PR is that we aren’t just referring to businesses, but to many other types of global players, as well.

Transnationals may be political, such as the European Commission, UNICEF or the World Health Organization. They may be NGOs, such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth. They may be economic, such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and they may be cultural, such as CNN, BBC World and Al Jazeera. These disparate organizations all demonstrate the willingness and ability to think and act on a global or regional basis, rather than on just a national basis.

The first step in understanding the reality of the globalization of PR is that some of the key players now are no longer capable of being understood within the confines of traditional national boundaries. It’s not just that they act internationally; they act supranationally. Their psychology, their thinking and even their cultures are becoming truly global.

The term globalization most simply refers to the growing interdependence and interconnectedness of the world — politically, militarily, economically, or technologically. Whether people view globalization as a liberating force for economic prosperity and world peace, or whether they fear it as a catastrophic form of tyranny and the nemesis of advanced capitalism, both supporters and opponents agree that globalization rests on our interconnectedness and interdependence. That’s true whether the issue is trade barriers, pornography on the Internet, climate change, or the spread of avian flu. Like it or not, we have never understood so keenly as now that we all inhabit the same planet.

Yet, there is a second idea that is often mistakenly linked to interconnectedness — an idea that is far more problematic for those of us facing the challenges of the globalization of PR.

It is the idea that globalization means not just international connectedness, but, also international homogenization. This notion holds that globalization inevitably moves toward uniformity in consumer behaviors, tastes, cultures and personalities. According to this view, whether we live in Malaysia or New York, Belgium or Bolivia, we all will eventually act in the same way, consume the same products, and have the same cultural reference points. Local differences will diminish over time as an inevitable result of globalization.

Understandably, this argument worries many people. Take the night skyline of many a major world city on any continent and see the familiar neon signs for Kodak, Panasonic or Foster’s. It does seem to indicate a world that looks increasingly alike.

It is also true that nearly the world over people can be seen drinking a Coke, taking their kids to McDonald’s, using Microsoft Windows, or clutching a Siemens cellphone. Does that mean that people around the world are all becoming the same? Does it mean that national, regional and local differences are slowly melding into a uniform, global consumer marketplace? Far from it.

The strongest evidence that globalization does not mean bland uniformity comes from the many corporations whose products and services penetrate scores of countries. These companies need to make their brands relevant in ways that are faithful to the core attributes of the brand, yet flexible enough to accommodate diverse trading patterns, differing consumer tastes and behavior, and a variety of businesses, media and political cultures. Take the work that we do for Siemens and MasterCard, representing both businesses in dozens of diverse markets. Of course, we help these clients drive a central global plan, based on core brand values. But the effectiveness of these programs comes from the huge creativity and intellectual property residing around the world.

The real challenge for PR is to help organizations bridge that which is global and that which is local. Unfortunately, there is no magic template for doing this. What there is, instead, is a steadily growing body of wisdom that comes from doing it, day in and day out, in numerous markets around the world.

I mentioned at the start of this article that old watchwords like ‘”Think Global, Act Local” are no longer relevant. With very few exceptions global campaigns that are designed, executed and controlled centrally have little place in today’s global PR market. “Think Global, Act Local” was an attempt to get beyond complete centralization by suggesting that execution, at least, needed to take place locally. But it still implied that corporate headquarters could establish a strategy that would resonate around the world as long as it had a little local interpretation in the execution phase.

Today, global campaigns do not come from some NASA-like Mission Control center. Instead they originate from any corner of the world. And once originated, they have to find differing expressions to be effective in different markets.

Our business is more and more about the quality of our ideas — strategic and creative ideas. By their nature, ideas can come from anywhere — especially if we are to avoid the charge of cultural imperialism. A model that has strategy and creativity at the center and execution at the local end is no longer adequate. Free-traveling, free-thinking ideas are the new lifeblood of global PR.

This brings me to my final point. We simplify people at our own risk. As a consumer, myself, I only have to look inside my own head to know that I have interests and allegiances that are global, national, and local. I am influenced by the ethnic and religious origins of my ancestors, by my family, and by people who share my intellectual interests. Much as I would love to believe I am especially complex, I think most of you would be the same. If we can hold different notions of “global” and “local” in our heads and live life anyway, then it is incumbent upon global PR programs to do the same. It may not be as simple, but it’s much more interesting.

And that’s great news for PR.

About the Author
Harris Diamond is Chief Executive Officer of Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s leading public relations firm. Weber Shandwick offers a full spectrum of communications services – corporate consulting, public relations, investor/financial relations, marketing communications, public affairs, government relations, attitudinal research and advocacy advertising. PRWeek has selected Mr. Diamond as “PR Professional of the Year, 2000″ and one of the “100 most influential PR people in the 20th century.”

“The world’s next generation of leaders must have transcultural skills. They need to have an appreciation and understanding of cultures, and know, for instance, how to relate and behave when they walk off a plane. This is a well-honed skill, not a crash-and-burn exercise.”

From Chief Executive Magazine.

The challenge of controlling your company’s vocabulary is in first deciding who actually controls this vocabulary. Tech writers may have one way of referring to something while the marketing folks may opt for something entirely different. Ideally, you let the user decide, through extensive interviews and testing (there are a number of consultants who have booming businesses doing just that). And you need to be flexible, particularly when you target different cultures. Even two cultures that use the same language may use different terms for the same thing (i.e., cellular phone vs. mobile).

Despite the many challenges, it is very, very hard to argue against the many benefits of standardizing a vocabulary.

Says, the article:

“Doing so will not only standardize the content, it will standardize content management in general, create efficiency, and further increase the many benefits content management already offers. Reusability is the key word here, which applies both to the English content, as well as to the translations, which can decrease the content up to 30% AND save translation cost up to 40% per language! Cheaper translations are one aspect, but avoiding costs as a result of clear and unambiguous communication to our customers can be tremendous, let alone the fact that our customers simply understand what they are reading, which will be a further enhancement to your product.”

Looking ahead, I believe we’ll see more competitors work together to standardize terminology industry-wide. This will open the door to the sharing of translation memories, something that we will hear more about in the months and years ahead.

Conclusion: These people don’t like each other all that much.

Between contested territories, painful histories, and the simple fact that neighbors often make the best enemies, I guess none of this should come as a surprise.

Here are the numbers for China and Japan:

These numbers may be a little intimidating to Japanese companies hoping to win over Chinese consumers, who are among the most coveted consumers on this planet these days. But they must also pose a challenge to Chinese companies with aspirations of becoming global brands, such a Lenovo and Haier and Chery.

Or, perhaps none of this matters as much anymore when it comes to building a global brand — brands are increasingly created, managed, and (to a growing extent) viewed as distinct from their countries of origin.

The article focuses on the new Disney Hong Kong theme park, which has had experienced epic lines thus far; apparently, part of the problem is that Asians are more likely to stand in line than other cultures, resulting in longer lines. (Or, could it also be that Disney simply lets in too many people?)

Here’s an excerpt:

Ms. Zhou, who has studied the psychology of queuing in Hong Kong, although not at theme parks, said there was a tendency among Asians and others in more collective cultures to compare their situation with those around them. This may make it more likely that they will remain in a line even if it is excessively long.

Ms. Zhou said this finding was rooted in a somewhat paradoxical observation: that it is the people behind a person in line, rather than in front, that determines the person’s behavior.

“The likelihood of people giving up and leaving the queue is lower when they see more people behind them,” Ms. Zhou said. “You feel like you are in a better position than the others behind you.”

By contrast, she said, Americans and others in more individualistic societies make fewer “social comparisons” of this sort. They don’t necessarily feel better that more people are behind them, but feel bad if too many people are in front of them. Lines in these cultures tend to be more self-limiting.

Here’s the full article. Hurry now before the Times locks it down; it looks like they just started “TimesSelect.”

Australia debuts in the number one spot, displacing Sweden. And the US falls to number 11…

Country Rankings
NBI 2005 Q2 Ratings
• Australia
• Canada
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• Sweden
• Italy
• Germany
• The Netherlands
• France
• New Zealand
• United States

I was surprised to see New Zealand so far down the list; I would have ranked it right up there with Oz. Currently, 1,000 respondents from only 10 countries are surveyed. You can download the full report here.
Going forward, it looks like they’ll be charging for reports. I imagine any country that wants to improve its share of international tourists will want to subscribe to this survey.

ie: 555.555.5555 or 555-555-5555

The punctuation you choose says a lot about your company (or maybe just your choice of designer). And now it appears that there is a global angle to this story; according to this article, some folks believe periods are becoming popular in the US because they make phone numbers appear more international.

Here’s an excerpt…

Another phone buff, Roger Conklin of Palmetto Bay, Fla., thinks globalization played a role. “The Europeans have been using dots from the beginning of time. Americans adopted dashes. Now that the world is getting smaller, each tends to want to emulate the other, resulting in a mixture,” Conklin said.

I’m glad to see Simon resurface recently in a partnership between him and research firm GMI. They have launched the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index.

According to the Web site, “Nation brand is an important concept in today’s world. Globalization means that countries compete with each other for the attention, respect and trust of investors, tourists, consumers, donors, immigrants, the governments of other nations and the media: so a powerful and positive nation brand provides a crucial competitive advantage. It is essential for countries both rich and poor to understand how they are seen by the publics around the world; how their achievements and failures, their assets and liabilities, and their people and products are reflected in their brand image.”

Sweden came out on top overall (The lower the score the better)…

It’s probably next to impossible to find someone who doesn’t have a positive image of Sweden. But I was surprised to see the US score so high. The study acknowledges that only a limited number of countries were included in this first survey and that the US might not have scored so high if countries like France, Australia, New Zealand, and others were included. It will be interesting to follow this survey in future quarters.

This index is free for download, for now at least, and well worth a read.

It looks like Disney learned some painful but important lessons about the importance of localization from the Euro Disney disaster.

Writes Laura Holson…

When Disney opened Disneyland Paris in a former sugar beet field outside Paris in 1992, the company was roundly criticized for being culturally insensitive to its European guests. Now Disney burns incense ritually as each building is finished in Hong Kong, and has picked a lucky day (Sept. 12) for the opening.

This may seem silly to Westerners, but imagine Disney opening a new park in the US on Friday the 13th. Other details include a liberal use of the number 8 and an avoidance of the number 4. You won’t find a fourth floor here.

I’m glad to see a more humble Disney localizing itself to the world. And I love this quote: “It used to be Disney was exported on its own terms,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. “But in the late 20th and early 21st century, America’s cultural imperialism was tested. Now, instead of being the ugly Americans, which some foreigners used to find charming, we have to take off our shoes or belch after a meal.”

Now, about that Web site…

I couldn’t help but notice that the Disney Hong Kong and Disneyland Hong Kong Web sites place their language navigation in the “sweet spot” of the upper right corner. This is the perfect location; here is a screen grab from the Disney Hong Kong page:

Perhaps the folks who manage Disney.com will follow Disney Hong Kong’s lead. Today, if you visit Disney.com you’ll have to look really hard to find the “global gateway.” It’s buried in a pull-down menu at the bottom of the Web page:

Now why is this a big deal? Because Web and marketing professionals are finding that up to half (and sometimes more) of their Web traffic to the .com page originates from outside the US. It’s critical that these visitors find their languages and countries as quickly as possible. Disney Hong Kong gets it and I believe that Disney.com will get it too, eventually.

But now, having read The World is Flat, I’m a little disappointed. And yet I will recommend the book (three stars on Amazon) because I agree with his message, and I think it’s critically important that we have writers like Tom out there explaining the many ways that globalization makes the world a better place to live.

However, the book could have been much better with some ruthless editing. As a reader, I don’t like being talked down to, and I feel that Tom does that a bit too much, primarily by repeating many of the same concepts and buzzwords over and over again. For example, he explains why the world is flat early on. It’s a good metaphor, but Tom proceeds to attach “flat” to everything he sees. He sees customer service reps in India “flattening” their accents. He writes of the “coefficient of flatness” and “compassionate flatism.” I felt as if Tom tried way too hard to make his flat metaphor stick. And maybe it will stick.

Here are a few nuggets from the book that did stick with me:

• “In the future globalization is going to be increasingly driven by the individuals who understand the flat world, adapt themselves quickly to the processes and technologies.”
  This is such a key point. The interesting thing about globalization is that it empowers individuals, even more than countries.

• Tom stresses that globalization helps the small firms as much as the big firms, perhaps even more. As the owner of a small firm, I agree. Tom quotes UPS CEO Mike Eskew: “You know who the majority of our customers and partners are? Small businesses. They are asking us to take them global. We help these companies achieve parity with the bigger guys.”
• Tom talks about Eriksen Translations, a New York-based translation firm featured in my firm’s Savvy Client’s Guide to Translation Agencies. Tom mentions how Eriksen embraced Skype, the VoIP service that is revolutionizing the telecoms industry. After the first six months of using Skype, the company cut phone costs by 10%. I only wish Tom had talked a bit more about translation agencies – these firms have been outsourcing work for decades and have always been early adopters of new technologies, from email to VoIP.
• “The Indians and Chinese are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top.” The Lenovo/IBM deal is one example. And just wait until Chinese automakers start making their way into the US…
• “China has more than 160 cities with a population of one million or more.”
  Wow.

While I didn’t love this book, I liked it. If you’ve been reading The Economist for the past few years then much of this book will come across as old news. But if not, it’s worth a read. Tom is truly passionate about all that is good about globalization, and it comes through in his writing. The world needs more voices like his to prevent the US (and other nations) from knee-jerk protectionism as we collectively slouch toward a more connected world.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sesame Street is seen in 120 countries and localized for 30 of those countries.

“We hear about the spread of U.S. popular culture, making Europe, to its horror, more American. But the influence works the other way, too,” says Matthew. “At many levels, we have more in common now, as the local goes global.” The “culinary Babel,” as Matthew (Kaminksi) calls it, isn’t just a French-American thing, either: “The average German now drinks 123 liters of bottled water a year, and ‘only’ 117 of beer.

“In Poland and Russia, the cradle of the really hard stuff, beer is up and vodka down. In the U.S., vodka is hot.” However, Matthew does not think that such stats mean that consumption patterns will result in “confusion and conformity … Try a Bavarian weisswurst without a jug of cold Augstiner,” he writes. “Polish herrings, delicious with onions and sour cream, are indigestible without a couple of shots of Zubrowka,” he adds. And that’s to the good, he says, because ultimately, the conformity of tastes will create more choices: “A finicky global consumeriat will demand much more,” he concludes. Plenty of room for improvement, too. Matthew says he’s noticed that his local wine shop in Paris now stocks Gallo, but “in an America of super-everything stores, wine selection can be spotty.”

She’s exactly right and this is one bet that will pay off huge for eBay. The company also believes that the UK will be “the next Germany,” meaning that UK could equal the success of the German site, currently the largest non-US eBay Web site. The company also is investing in Italy and France, the rising stars in eBay Europe.

My only concern is that the company is overlooking emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Latin America and will suffer down the road from local upstarts. I also am not convinced that eBay is doing the best job in regards to global navigation.

I’ll have a full global analysis of eBay in the February issue of Global By Design.

One Web site is aimed at the Balkans and the other, shown below, at the Maghreb region of northwest Africa, which includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Magharebia supports English, French and Arabic languages.

Magharebia in Arabic

Magharebia in English

Magharebia also promises daily newsletters in each language

Magharebia represents a signficant investment of time and taxpayer dollars, requiring 50 freelance writers and additional translators. I must admit that the site does do a good job of providing seamless navigation between languages. What the site fails at doing is making it clear exactly who or what is behind the Web site. The only way a visitor will find out the Department of Defense is behind this project is if he or she clicks on the “disclaimer” link; this is hardly the way one goes about building trust around the world.

What I’d also like to know is what a Web site that reports soccer scores in Tunisia has to do with placing the US in a more positive light. Do the powers at be at the Pentagon truly believe that the best way to get your message out to the world is to dress it up in localized faux news portals?

Speaking of faux news portals, here is the Balkan Times “news” site:

Naturally, many in Washington are questioning the wisdom of this initiative.
According to this CNN article many are wondering if these Web sites violate President Bush’s recent mandate against sponsoring journalism.

Web globalization, when used wisely, is a wonderful way to educate the world and expand your business around the world. But Web globalization can just as easily be used unwisely, and this is one vivid example.

The burgers join a long list of localized menu items that McDonald’s has developed over the years. Here are a few of the more memorable items:

-> Japan: TofuBurger; Green Tea Shake
-> New Zealand: KiwiBurger
-> Mexico; McBurrito
-> Greece: Greek Mac
-> New England, USA: McLobster

McDonald’s is not the first chain to offer rice burgers. It will be competing against Mos Burger (which is big in Japan) and 7-Eleven.

Japanese are not soda freaks like Americans, but they do have an affinity for coffee in a can. Enter a product from Coke called Georgia.

Now, if you don’t know that Coke is based out of Georgia, you have to look pretty close to tell that this can of coffee is part of Coke’s global empire. Here is the Coca-Cola logo, in 7-point type:

The majority of vending machines that I’ve seen in Tokyo and Kyoto feature Georgia products (there is an entire product line around this brand) and few vending machines feature Coca-Cola.

Speaking of coffee, Starbucks seems to be everywhere. I’ve spotted four in Kyoto already (more on this later)…

The beginning of the article pretty much sums up the challenges that any company faces when expanding into new markets:

“Inside the shimmering headquarters of the Lenovo Group, China’s largest computer maker, workers are carting birthday cakes over to three office cubicles.

These days, every employee here gets a birthday gift, something a multinational company might be expected to do in this age of feel-good corporate management.

The problem is that people in China do not traditionally celebrate birthdays. (NOTE: This is incorrect; see below)

But that is changing. And so is Lenovo. It is trying to become a global company with its purchase of I.B.M’s personal computer business for $1.75 billion, and handing out birthday cakes is just part of the process of evolving into a multinational corporation.”

UPDATE: The NY Times Article is wrong
First of all, the Chinese do celebrate birthdays. I had given the article the benefit of the doubt by assuming the reporter was only referring to the lack of birthday celebrations within offices. However, that is a mistake as well. I just received an email from a former Lenovo employee who says that the company regularly celebrated birthdays in the office with birthday cakes. This was standard operating procedure long before IBM ever entered the picture.

When Swedish air-traffic controllers speak to Italian pilots they speak English. When Dutch importers do business with Chinese manufacturers, they use English. Ditto for Russians trading with Indians and Taiwanese selling in Bangladesh.

Now Chile has begun a nationwide educational program to ensure that all graduating high school students are fluent in the globe’s international language. “We know our lives are linked more than ever to an international presence, and if you can’t speak English, you can’t sell and you can’t learn,” Chile’s minister of education told the New York Times this week.