Multilingual Businesses Leverage Global Markets Via the Web as US-Based and English-Speaking Web Users Become a MinorityBOSTON (BUSINESS WIRE) – An Aberdeen Group report released today predicts that 80% of multi-national B-to-B companies will “globalize” their Web sites by 2004 in order to enter or optimize business in global markets. Faced with the English language”s rapid decline as the dominant language on the Web, companies are leveraging technologies, professional services, and best practices to efficiently deliver localized, customized, corporate messages and content to customers across the globe.
“Web globalization will remove geography from the competitive equation,” says Tom Dwyer, Aberdeen Web Globalization Research Director. “It enables Web buyers to select products and services based on the relevance, appeal, and comfort level of a supplier”s Web site, whether it”s the local Wal-Mart or the Carrefour on another continent.”
“New Web users in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia/Pacific are putting US-based, English-speaking Web users in the minority. US-based businesses can capitalize on these new markets with Web globalization tools,” says Dwyer. “Many European companies already have multilingual, multicultural Web sites. The challenge for them is to replace old, labor-intensive localization processes with efficient, automated ones.” At the end of 2000, fewer than 35% of all Web users were US citizens and only 48% of total users were English-speaking, according to the report.
Web globalization is the internationalization and localization of Web sites and software, enabling them to operate across languages and cultural boundaries. Web globalization solutions combine best practices and advanced technologies such as translation memory, terminology management, multilingual content management, translation tools, project management, and workflow.
The report, Web Globalization: Write Once, Deploy Worldwide, profiles 18 Web globalization suppliers, including: Alis Technologies, Inc.; ALPNET, Inc.; Atril Software; Berlitz GlobalNET; eTranslate; Glides, Inc.; GlobalSight Corporation; Idiom, Inc.; Immersant, Inc.; Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.; LUZ, Inc.; Planet Leap; RWS Group LLC; SDL International; STAR Group, represented by its headquarters STAR Corp.; Sykes Enterprises, Inc.; TRADOS Corporation; and Uniscape, Inc.
For more information about Web Globalization: Write Once, Deploy Worldwide, visit http://www.aberdeen.com/ab_company/hottopics/web_globalization or call (in the US) 800 577 7891 or (outside the US) + 617 854 5212.
About Aberdeen
Aberdeen Group is a leading IT market analysis and positioning services firm that helps Information Technology vendors establish leadership in emerging markets. Steeped in technology and armed with end-user field research, Aberdeen analysts answer clients” critical business and technology questions in the context of the Internet economy and across the product lifecycle. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and has research divisions in Palo Alto, California; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Aberdeen is on the Web at www.aberdeen.com.
Contact: Aberdeen Group Leslie Granese (617) 854-5226 pr@aberdeen.com
