Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
In the August issue of Global By Design, in the article Machine Translation: The Next Generation, I introduced statistical machine translation (SMT): SMT is a data-driven translation technology. Rather than relying on a dictionary of translations and rules, it starts …
TransPerfect Translations announced today that it had acquired Crimson Language Services. According to the press release, the “merger creates a newly-formed Life Sciences Division that combines Crimson’s ISO 9001:2000/ISO 13485:2003 certified quality system and patent-pending risk management methodology with the …
According to Internet Retailer, Tiffany has launched a Canadian e-commerce site, with a selection of 3,000 products. Competitor Blue Nile launched a site for Canada in January of this year. This is Tifany’s fourth localized Web site — and surely …
According to an ACNielsen study of 21,000 people in 38 countries, more than 627 million people have shopped online, including over 325 million within the last month. Highlights of this very interesting study are: Europe and North America have the …
Of course it had to happen. Once Weblogs became a profitable busines, it was only natural for people to try to expand these Weblogs into new markets — and new languages. The first major blog to do this was Engadget, …
Years ago I remember listening to the pundits who said that Starbucks wouldn’t make it in the UK – a country where tea was the default beverage of choice. But Starbucks is proof that just because a market appears predisposed …
Jessica Vascellaro of the Wall St. Jnl. wrote an interesting article on foreign retailers who are using the Web to take a shot at cracking the US market; companies like Harrod’s, FigLeaves.com, and Wedgwood have all recently launched localized US …
The Apple iTunes Australia store is now live. That brings Apple to a total of 21 iTunes stores. Anyone care to guess how long before a New Zealand iTunes store launches?
The globalization services and software industry has for years labored under the radar of the mainstream media. But this is gradually changing thanks in part to consolidation among top players like SDL and Lionbridge and investments by smaller players in …
TransPerfect Translations announced that it was selected by the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation (NRAEF) to “produce translations of multicultural training tools.” According to the press release, the restaurant and food service industry, with more than 12 million employees, is …
Starbucks Japan has launched its first ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee, shown here: Starbucks “Discoveries” will initially be offered in two flavors, Seattle (latte) and Milano (espresso) and will be sold in the refrigerated section of convenience stores. According to the company, …
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 …