The Year of the Pig (one localized website at a time)

Lunar New Year has arrived and, with it, the Chinese New Year (and related Asian New Year celebrations).

As I’ve done a few times in the past, I thought I’d feature a few localized web pages from multinationals as they make the most of Chinese New Year.

And, as in years past, we can expect to see plenty of the color red — the color of celebration and good fortune.

Beginning with Google:

And BMW practically wall-papered its China home page in red:

Buick (which has a very positive brand in China):

Nike:

Starbucks:

Coach:

Gucci:

Hermes (and its poorly punned promotion):

Speaking of luxury brands, they have invested heavily in China, but as you’ll see in the next Web Globalization Report Card, luxury brands are laggards in web globalization best practices.

<begin PSA> And speaking of pigs, did you know that they are more intelligent than most dogs? Sadly, we slaughter millions of these very smart and compassionate creatures every day. In honor of this amazing animal, I ask everyone who eats meat (as I once did) to consider cutting back or giving it up altogether. As someone who was raised on barbecue, I never would have imagined I would be one day write these words, which is proof that you will not wither away if you give up meat. You’ll actually be quite a bit healthier. And think of the animals you will save! </end PSA>