In April, after publishing a Web localization report for Brazil, we soon began receiving requests for a similar report on Russia.
So I’m pleased to announce our Russia Localization Report.
The report is designed to be a quick read for both marketing and Web executives. Here are some of the questions we answer:
- What American and European companies currently offer Russian-language Web sites?
- How to localize a Web page using Cyrillic characters.
- What to know before transliterating your company’s brand names.
- What are some of the major Russian brands?
- How much does translation cost?
- What are the common customs and superstitions in Russia?
To develop this report, I interviewed a number of translators and marketers in Russia. My overall impression is that although Russia poses a huge opportunity for Western and Asian companies, it also features a number of home-grown brands that are not going to sit back and watch their market share erode. You can look at the Web portals to see how strong the Russians are. Russia is the only European market that Google does not rank highly in; Yandex leads in Russia. The Russian beer brand Baltika, is now gaining market share throughout Europe and has its sights set on Heineken for European dominance.
You can read more about the report here. And, as always, I’m curious to know what countries you would like to see addressed next. We’re also looking for country experts who would be interested in contributing to future reports.