10/06/2006 - 10/07/2006

Why Website Globalization Should Matter To International Businesses

What kind of financial return should a company expect when it globalizes its website? If it translates the e-commerce pages, will more people buy? Or is English enough for the still English-saturated web?

Some new research answers these questions.

At some basic level, we know that language is important -- people don't buy what they don't understand. For years the most widely cited statistic in business globalization has been that buyers are three times more likely to purchase something if addressed in their own language ("Strategies for Global Sites" by Don DePalma in May 1998). Until now, there has been no large-scale, independent behavioral study of consumers to validate this contention.

"Can’t Read, Won’t Buy – Why Language Matters on Global Websites�

Most people prefer to buy online in their own language, and, in fact, the majority of people in some countries will pay more for a product with information in their own language. These findings, and other global online consumer buying preferences, were outlined in a new report released by independent research firm Common Sense Advisory.

In the report “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy – Why Language Matters on Global Websites� (Sept. ’06) the firm analyzes the online global buying preferences of more than 2,400 consumers from eight non-Anglophone countries in Europe, Asia, and South America. Specifically, the research was conducted to assess online language preferences and its subsequent impact on purchasing decisions. Factors including nationality, English-language proficiency, brand, and the ability to conduct transactions in foreign currencies were included in the study.

the Advertising Industry Diversity Conference

Adrants, along with Business Development Institute, is presenting the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference, an event that aims to tackle, head on, the hot issue of diversity in the advertising industry. With recent legal wranglings and diversity basically taking a back seat since, well, ever, we though it time to get a conversation going about what, if anything, the industry can do to address the topic.

Polish professionals helping to fill UK financial services skills gap

Professional polish workers are helping to fill the UK financial services skills gap, research revealed.

Far from simply supplying the UK with a large force of low-wage workers, figures from recruiter Joslin Rowe showed the number of Polish accountants registering for work has risen sixfold since 2003.

In Malaysia, misuse the language, get fined

Malaysia plans to levy fines for incorrect use of its national language and will set up a specialized division to weed out offenders who mix Malay with English.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim said fines of up to $271 can be imposed on displays with any wrong or mutated form of Malay, the Star newspaper reported Thursday.

Fines will be imposed after a first warning, according to a report in the national news agency Bernama. Most Malaysians speak Malay, also known as Bahasa Malaysia. English is widely spoken but a mutated form, known as "Manglish" - a mishmash of English, Malay and other local dialects - is commonly used in the Southeast Asian nation.

changing etiquette of u.s. gift giving

Wrapping up that unwanted picture frame from last Christmas and giving it to someone else as a gift might not be as taboo as it once was, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The survey of 1,505 American adults, conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive, found that over half of the respondents admitted to "re-gifting" with passing on gifts becoming a far more common and acceptable phenomenon.

Bulldozers set to destroy expats' homes

Hundreds of British families living in Spain were facing financial ruin last night after being told their homes were built illegally and face being bulldozed.

It is the latest in a series of threats by Spanish authorities to demolish homes built without planning permission.Regional government officials sent shockwaves through the expat community of Catral near Alicante after stripping the town hall of its housing powers and threatening to disssolve the local council over the scandal.

IBM Gives Schools Translation Software

IBM Corp. on Monday plans to unveil the latest version of a grant program that uses translation software to enable Spanish-speaking parents to communicate with their children's English-speaking teachers.

The TraduceloAhora! (Translate Now!) grant program uses an enhanced version of IBM's WebSphere software to translate e-mails from English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English, and also translates Web sites automatically from English to Spanish.

word of the day: privation

privation \pry-VAY-shun\, noun:
1. An act or instance of depriving.
2. The state of being deprived of something, especially of something required or desired; destitution; need.

The late Georges Bernanos complained that the isolated labor of writing deprived novelists of essential human contacts. This is, indeed, a bitter and painful privation, even if it is in some instances a temperamental preference of novelists. -- Saul Bellow, "My Man Bummidge", New York Times, September 27, 1964

The Carsons were more often poor than of modest means, and this privation shaped Rachel's opportunities and her personality from the outset. -- Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature