Global by Design » US Hispanic Market

US Hispanics love the Internet, but not localized web sites

John Yunker — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:46:40 +0000

I came across an interesting presentation today via Carla Briceno. The survey, sponsored by AOL and conducted by Cheskin, was based on interviewing more than a thousand Hispanic households across the US about how they view and use the Internet.

First some data points. Looking ahead at the 2010 census:

50 Million Hispanics will be living in the US
Nearly one in six US residents will be Hispanis
Los Angeles County is expected to be home to the largest Hispanic population in the US – exceeding that of Costa Rica

Two slides jumped out at me. The first slide noted:

Only 3% of respondents found Spanish language sites more trustworthy and useful than those in English, leaving an important percentage of the Hispanic segment feeling underserved.

Why? Because all too often localized Hispanic sites are simply literal translations of the English sites. And these web users want much more than literal translation. After all, most of them can migrate easily between English and Spanish sites.

So what exactly do they want from the Spanish sites?

The following slide sums it up:

You can download the survey here.

Google Adwords unavailable (in 17 languages)

John Yunker — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:40:57 +0000

I tried to login to Google Adwords recently and was met with the following “temporarily unavailable” Web page:

The page illustrates one of the many the challenges of managing a Web site that supports so many languages. Even something supposedly as simple as this temporary page is not quite so simple. There are a whopping 17 languages on this page — from Chinese to German to Japanese.

Google generally does a very good job of “guessing” the Web user’s language through a combination of geolocation and browser language detection — and then providing users with their matching language. But in this case Google simply slapped up a “one-size-fits-most” Web page — which is a lot of visual noise.

And even with 17 languages, the page comes up a bit short in serving all Adwords users — as Google Adwords supports more than 35 languages.

What’s the lesson here? That when it comes to Web globalization, no detail is too small — including those details such as error strings, 404 pages, and “temporarily unavailable” pages.

Hillary Clinton leads the presidential translation race, says Lionbridge

John Yunker — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:10:12 +0000

Lionbridge evaluated the Spanish-language Web sites of the presidential candidates and found that Hillary Clinton offered the highest percentage of translated content for Hispanic voters.

Lionbridge evaluated the sites of Clinton, Obama, and Edwards on the Democratic site and Romney on the Republican side. It appears that Huckabee and McCain have more or less given up on the Spanish vote, as they offer no Spanish content.

The Clinton site offers 210 Spanish language pages versus 2,482 English language web page — 8.4%.

I know, this doesn’t sound like much, but it’s well ahead of Romney’s site, with just 4% translated content, and Obama’s paltry 1%.

What about Edwards? Edwards offers only one page of translated content, what I typically call a “local façade.”

I realize that language is a thorny issue these days, as it calls to mind thornier issue: immigration.

Nevertheless, Hispanic voters make up 9% of the electorate and could play a large role later this year in picking the next president.

Lionbridge also commented on several other issues, like quality, content, and navigation. Speaking of navigation, I like how Lionbridge notes that placing the “Español” link in the upper right corner is a best practice. This is something I have advocated for a number of years and I’m happy to say that more and more companies (and candidates) are placing their global gateways in this general vicinity.

To learn more, check out the press release.

The Web Globalization Report Card 2007

John Yunker — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:49:24 +0000

Is just about ready for publication.

You can see which companies are included in this year’s report here. This has been a particularly exciting report to write because there are some very clear trends developing. There are also a few new entrants to the Top 10 list. Here’s who made the Top 10 list last year.

If you want advance notice of when the report publishes, please be sure to sign up for our free email newsletter: Web Globalization News.

Web Globalization and the Marketing Executive: A New Report

John Yunker — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 02:39:28 +0000

Byte Level Research and MarketingSherpa recently polled 2,000 executives on their Web globalization activities and plans.

We asked what executives are spending on Web globalization, what languages their Web sites support — what languages they planned to add. We asked about Spanish localization for the US market. We measured executive awareness of Web localization vendors.

We gathered the results together into a 54-page report with 39 charts. We also included a handy introductory section on Web globalization.

This report is now available for purchase here: Website Globalization Report 2007.

I will also post the report in the Global by Design members portal so enterprise subscribers can access it after that date.

And I plan to write an article about the survey in the next issue of Global by Design. If there is one key takeaway from this survey, it’s that smaller companies have embraced Web globalization in a big way — and the forecast for growth is significant.

MotionPoint Benefits from Rush to Develop Localized Web Sites for US Hispanics

John Yunker — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:12:31 +0000

MotionPoint announced today that it was now hosting a Spanish-language pandemic flu Web site for the US Dept. of Health & Human Services.

The site is located at http://espanol.pandemicflu.gov.

I first profiled MotionPoint in December of 2005. The company is part translation agency, part content management tools provider. MotionPoint effectively hosts the Spanish-language site on its servers and provides embedded pointers that manage any links between the English-language site and the Spanish-language site. MotionPoint also scans the English-language site for any changes to content. When a content change is detected, the MotionPoint people translate the content automatically. What this means is that the client has to do nothing — no files to handoff, not tools to purchase, nada. And this is resonating with companies and government agencies.

Of course, there are tradeoffs to this approach. For one, the client is locked in to the MotionPoint solution. This isn’t something that you can just take with you and give to some other vendor to manage — MotionPoint is the only company that I’m aware of that offers this solution. You also can’t bid out your translation pricing because MotionPoint is the exclusive vendor.

That said, there will always be those clients who want and need to outsource everything and, as a result, MotionPoint appears to be on a roll.

American Airlines Upgrades US Spanish Web Site

John Yunker — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:54:50 +0000

By now, most of the major US airlines offer Spanish-languange content on their Web sites But only a few offer fully localized flight reservation systems, which is where the money is.

A few years ago, Southwest Airlines was the first to launch a localized reservation engine. This was followed by Continental, Northwest, and Alaska Air. It’s fun to watch momentum build for Web localization within industries. Once a leader takes the plunge the rest dive right in.

And now American Airlines has launched a reservation engine in Spanish. Not only is the engine in Spanish, but the site offers a Spanish “gateway” at www.aa.com/espanol where users select their home country. From what I can tell American Airlines is using the “universal” flavor of Spanish, which, despite its critics, has worked quite well for the many companies I’ve spoken with over the years. So, kudos to AA.com.

Now, who will be next airline to upgrade? Will it be United? Jet Blue? Both have Spanish content on their Web sites, but still no flight reservation engine.

Staples: Asi de Fácil

John Yunker — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:43:49 +0000

I was at Staples in San Diego yesterday and found that the company has translated its “That was easy” button into Spanish.

I’m not sure if this is a national retail phenomenon, but it’s pretty nifty — and I would love to see a Chinese version released next.

What’s interesting is that Staples does not yet offer a Spanish-language Web site for the US market. I say “yet” because it really is just a matter of time — I bet we see a Spanish-language Staples Web site launched later this year. Office Depot has offered a Spanish-language Web site for more than a year.

Hispanic vs. Latino? Survey says…

John Yunker — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:34:28 +0000

Back before the Internet, I worked in marketing for a publishing house and we were coming out with a dictionary of Hispanic culture in the US. During the marketing meeting, the issue of the title came up: Hispanic vs. Latino? We must have wasted a good hour on the issue without any firm conclusion. Boy would Google have come in handy then.

I think we settled on Hispanic but nobody was really sure what the right answer was.

According to a survey conducted recently, there still is no right answer, or, more precisely, no one answer.

Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Xicano, Mexican or Mexican American?

According to the survey, “most of the 8,600 respondents identified with multiple identities.”

The article quotes a few respondents:

Pepe Carrillo, 50, a naturalized citizen who came to the U.S. at 11, said he describes himself as Cuban, American, Hispanic, and then Latino — usually in that order.

Lorenzo Barcelo, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, said he uses the terms Hispanic and Latino interchangeably. “To me, they are the same.”

Louis Hollingsworth, an attorney, also said the way he identifies himself varies with the situation. “If I’m talking to people of Mexican or Latino descent, I identify myself as a Latino. If I’m talking to an Anglo I tend to say I’m Hispanic. If I’m asked what kind of Hispanic I am, I’ll say I’m of Mexican descent.

So it looks like we’re going to be doing the Hispanic/Latino two-step for the time being, although it does appear that Hispanic is gaining ground as the preferred term in business settings. I’m seeing a lot more job titles along the lines of “Director of Hispanic Marketing.”

Happy Bilingual Holidays!

John Yunker — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:36:54 +0000

Toys ‘R’ Us has released its top 5 toy trends for the 2006 holiday season and trend number two was nice to see…

Trend #2: Bilingual Toys
Catering to the growing demand for products that promote dual language skills among children, toys that boast English and Spanish capabilities have gained momentum this year. Leading the list of bilingual toys for the toddler set are the Learn and Groove(TM) Alphabet Drum and the Learn and Groove(TM) Musical Table from LeapFrog®, both of which introduce the alphabet and encourage physical movement, vocalization and musical exploration in both English and Spanish. Taking a cue from two popular Nickelodeon programs, Fisher-Price® has introduced toys based on the adventures of Dora the Explorer(TM) and Go, Diego, Go!(TM) The Go, Diego, Go!(TM) Diego’s Talking Rescue Center lets children go on rescue missions with Diego and his animal friends, while providing commentary from Diego in both English and Spanish. Dora the Explorer(TM) Magic Hair(TM) Fairytale Dora allows kids to imagine whisking Dora away on adventures through magical lands while she offers them encouragement in English and Spanish. The Pink Nitro Notebook(TM) from VTech® features Spanish language activities for developing readers.

How long before we begin seeing English <> Chinese toys as well?

Lionbridge Helps The Well Project Reach the World

John Yunker — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:23:28 +0000

Lionbridge announced today that it “is localizing the web site for The Well Project Inc., a not-for-profit corporation with a mission to change the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique focus on women.”

The WelL Project launched its Spanish-language site today and more languages are on the horizon. While I would love to see the Web design place the link to the Spanish content in a more visible location (upper-right corner is ideal), I’m sure they’ll get there eventually.

As non-profits turn to the Web to communicate globally, they’re going to face the same challenges as multinationals — translating and managing content — under tight budgets. It’s nice to see Lionbridge lending a hand.

One Step Forward; Two Steps Back

John Yunker — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:52:15 +0000

Just when I thought the dark days of US xenophobia couldn’t get any darker, I read that Utah has taken down its Spanish-language Web site.

According to the article, “”Two weeks ago, the state launched www.espanol.utah. gov, a Spanish-language companion to the state’s informational Web site The Spanish-language site offered 10 pages of information on taxes, health services, driver licences, and work-force services selected from the state’s 400-page Web site. But within days, callers complained to the governor’s office that the site violated Utah’s law making English the state’s official language. The Spanish-language site was quickly taken down until its content can be reviewed, said Mower.”

As US companies add Spanish content to their Web sites at a furious pace (Southwest Airlines, Home Depot, Lowe’s), our federal, state, and local governments are going in reverse (or leaning in that direction). In a period of time when Americans should be learning second and third languages, we’re having debates on “protecting” English. How long will it be before WhiteHouse.gov takes down its Spanish content?

These are dark days.

VW Offends Locally With New Billboard Ad

John Yunker — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:43:12 +0000

First, here is a picture of the billboard in question:

According to the WSJ, VW was using this billboard to pitch its new GTI to young, bilingual Hispanics. But it appears that the billboard got a little too much attention. Says the article, VW quickly took the billboards down in three cities after they quickly generated a firestorm in Cuban-dominated Miami. “In English, Turbo-Balls might not sound so offensive,” says Luis Perez Tolon, an instructor at Miami-Dade College who supervises a writing program for Spanish-language network, Telemundo. “But in the Spanish-speaking community, it will always have a vulgar connotation.”

Now it could very well be that this result was very much what VW had intended. If the goal is to appeal to the younger set, sometimes offending the older set is the way to do it.

Spanish Harry Potter Coming Soon

John Yunker — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 09:27:39 +0000

The Spanish-language edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due out next week. Now this begs the question: Which Spanish is it being translated into? According to the press release:

I have two great articles on the challenges (and business) of translating Harry Potter. Both are free and located here in PDF form:

More Reasons to Localize for the US Hispanic Market…

John Yunker — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 12:12:52 +0000

According to a recent study by Feedback Research of online consumers who lived in the US, spoke Spanish at home and/or used Spanish media regularly:

69% of Spanish-speakers who shop online preferred Spanish language sites when shopping or gathering information about products/services online.
49% of Spanish-speaking respondents who shop online stated that they were more likely to buy from a Spanish language site when shopping online.

PG&E Launches Spanish Web Site

John Yunker — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 23:33:23 +0000

Pacific Gas & Electric Company has launched a Spanish-language site for the US market. Here’s the press release

The Spanish site is parked at www.pge.com/espanol. But PG&E wisely also redirects from the URL: www.pge.com/es.

Also important, the English PG&E site provides a prominent link to the Spanish site, nicely positioned in the global gateway “sweet spot.”

US Spanish Speakers to Surpass 40 Million by 2025

John Yunker — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 10:17:16 +0000

A new study by the Roslow Research Group on behalf of Hispanic U.S.A. “challenges the assumption that the use of Spanish will decrease in coming years as succeeding generations of Hispanics are born and grow up in this country.”

Key findings include:

By 2025, the number of Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States will reach 40.2 million, up from 27.8 million today.

Fully two-thirds of Hispanics, five and older, will speak Spanish 20 years from now.

On average, 35 percent of third-generation Latinos in the United States speak Spanish.

The 18-and-older Spanish-speaking population will increase by 53 percent, to 15.2 million by 2025.

Web globalization typically refers to companies localizing their Web sites to expand their reach outside of their domestic markets. But it also may refer to companies who localize their Web sites to expand their reach within existing markets. A Spanish-language Web site for US companies is fast becoming a necessity (I’m compiling a list of companies that offers such sites here). And this survey is just another wake up call to companies who do not have yet Spanish-language business strategies.

And why stop with Spanish? Chinese for the US market is also a language we’ll be seeing more of in years ahead.

US Hispanics: 41 Million, And Growing

John Yunker — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 12:29:03 +0000

According to Bloomberg, the US Hispanic population is growing three times more quickly than the US population as a whole.

Here’s an article excerpt…

The U.S. population is about 296.3 million. Population growth from July 1, 2003, to July 1, 2004, was 2.9 million, the Census Bureau said, with half of that coming from Hispanics.

Over that period, the Hispanic growth rate was 3.6 percent compared with a growth rate of 1.0 percent for the population as a whole, the bureau said.

Given these statistics, it’s little wonder that US companies are aggressively launching Spanish-language Web sites. I’ve compiled a growing list of these Web sites here.

If you have any to add, please email them to info@bytelevel.com

Stop Speaking English!

John Yunker — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 19:54:52 +0000

According to this article, Quebec Premier Jean Charest has hinted that he might crack down on the spread of English in the workplace. Apparently French is losing its grip. albeit very slowly, in this Canadian Province.

The report I just completed on Web globalization would seem to support this trend. In 2003, we looked at language use on the Web sites of 121 major multinationals. French Canadian finished 7th overall. In our latest report, we studied 200 Web sites and French Canadian finished 12th overall. Of course, behind this drop were up-and-coming languages like Chinese and Korean.

Still, you have to wonder about the future of a language when the government requires people to speak it.

Conversely, there are groups within the US who want to force federal and state governments not to support Spanish.

Banks Court Hispanic Customers; Web Sites To Follow

John Yunker — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 08:37:14 +0000

Up until recently, only a handful of US banks have served the Hispanic population reasonably well. But that’s all changed now that the Hispanic market is worth an estimated $700 million.

Recently, Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina (BBVA) purchased Laredo National Bank, a regional bank based in Texas.

This may seem like a relatively minor development, but it is anything but minor. Spanish banks see an opportunity to grow in the US through the booming Hispanic market. As BBVA noted in its press release: “Step by step, we are firmly moving forward into the US Hispanic market.”

US banks are also on an acquisition spree. Citigroup has purchased First American Bank, based in Bryan, Texas. And Wells Fargo announced plans to purchase First Community Capital, based in Houston, Texas.

A key to succeeding in the Hispanic market is focusing on remitances – money transfers between the US and foreign markets. According to a New York Times article, more than $13.4 billion flowed into Mexico from the US in 2003. This is big business. And banks are getting more creative in how they serve their customers. For example, Hispanic customers can now pay the mortgage of a family member based in Mexico without having to send money across the border. This saves the customer money and trouble and helps the bank increase customer revenue. Citigroup also has launched a binational credit card that can be paid off on either side of the border.

Growth prospects in the Hispanic market are bright. BBVA said that while 95% of people in the general US population have a checking account, only 65% in the Hispanic market have one.

As banks target the Hispanic market, there will be plenty of growth in terms of Web localization. I reviewed more than a dozen Texas and California banks and only found one that offered Spanish content: Laredo National Bank. And Web localization is just the most obvious opportunity for translation agencies; banks will also find they need to translate signage, loan application forms, advertising collateral and even human resources materials.

For a list of companies that currently offer Web sites for the US Hispanic market, we now offer a rapidly growing directory.

Free Guide to the Spanish Speaking Market

John Yunker — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 08:32:46 +0000

Multilingual Computing has published a “Guide to the Spanish Speaking World.” It includes an article from yours truly on Web localization for the US Hispanic market; in the article I profile Southwest Airlines, which recently launched a fully featured Spanish-language flight reservation engine.

Additional articles talk about the variations of Spanish around the world as well as in-depth information on Spanish in the US market. Overalll, it’s a great resource and best of all, it’s free.

You can download the report here.

Cox Begins “Transcreating” Spanish

John Yunker — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 08:19:34 +0000

Cox Communications announced yesterday that it is rolling out Spanish-langauge bills in selected markets. Here is the press release.

I found an interesting new term in the release: transcreating. This is just another term for localization, and I’m not sure I like it any better. But its use does underscore the limitations of terms like localization and internationalization. Here is the quote:

Cruz noted that Cox is the first major cable company to offer customers a “bundled bill” in Spanish, meaning that the new billing feature is available with not only Cox Cable, but also Cox Digital Telephone and Cox High Speed Internet. As with Cox’s current billing options, customers of multiple Cox services who choose the new Spanish-language bill can elect to receive a single bill or separate bills for each service. “Certainly, there is much more to offering a billing statement in Spanish than simply translating the existing bill. We took great care in ‘transcreating’ our statement to ensure that every section is clear, understandable and culturally relevant to our Spanish-speaking customers,” Cruz noted. “We also looked carefully at our customer service functions to ensure we offer excellent customer care at all levels of contact. This includes having customer service representatives who speak Spanish. We’ve also enhanced our web site, http://www.cox.com , to allow customers to view their Spanish- language bills and access other online customer support features in Spanish.”

When Cox launches the Spanish support pages for the San Diego market, I’ll provide more detail. However, if all they’re doing is adding a language preference option on the customer’s account information page, I doubt that this will be enough to ensure widespread usage. Cox needs to launch a full-scale Spanish Web site. Perhaps support is the first step.

As a side note, in our recent report we found that marketing initiatives tend to be what drive Web localization, not support initiatives. Cox appears to be an exception to that trend.