Taking Harry Potter Global
When I heard that the latest Harry Potter book was expected to sell 10 million copies in the first day, I assumed that this number included editions in various languages. But it turns out that the book is so far …
Month: July 2005
Branding in China (free download)
Last month, Christopher Liechty, president the AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design, moderated a panel on branding in China. The transcript from the session has been published and is available for free download. It’s a long transcript but worth a read. …
ITunes Japan Coming in August
According to ths news blurb, iTunes Japan is coming online next month. No word yet on whether Sony will participate. This will be Apple’s first Asian iTunes site and definitely not the last. Sites for New Zealand and Oz can’t …
John Deere Improves Global Gateway
John Deere made a subtle but important change to its global gateway. As shown below, the company moved the gateway into the “sweet spot” of the upper right corner of the Web page. I’m not sure when this change happened, …
Pardon My French
A group of French language teachers in Japan are suing the mayor of Tokyo for saying, “French is a failed international language because it cannot be used to count numbers.” That’s according to this article. If nothing else, the article …
Pepsi’s Global Growth Spurt
It has been a good quarter for PepsiCo, driven by a healthy spike in international sales. According to this article… In the standout international division, snacks volume rose 3 percent, while drinks volume jumped 10 percent. PepsiCo said it saw …
The Globalization of Punctuation
Do you display your phone number with dashes or periods? 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 …
SDL + TRADOS: The Executive Interview
Last week I interviewed Mark Lancaster, CEO of SDL, and Joe Campbell, CEO of TRADOS (now on the board of SDL), about the merger and their visions for the SDL and the industry. The good news is that the little …
Young Asians Study
My colleagues at Future Tense have posted an entry on a recent Synovate study on young Asians. Here’s a quote from the study: Head of Sales Yahoo! Hong Kong, Ivy Wong, said “The results of Young Asians show that teenagers …
PayPal China To Debut This Year
PayPal has confirmed in the WSJ that it will launch PayPal China by the end of this year. PayPal currently offers a dozen localized Web sites. its growth strategy is simple — follow in eBay’s global footsteps. Last year, eBay …