Can displaying the Taiwan flag get your website shut down in China?
The short answer: It depends. The context of how you display this flag can make all the difference; for example, do you display the flag on a global gateway with …
Countries
Marriott’s China websites get shut down — and your website could as well if you’re not careful
If you visit Marriott’s China website today you’re likely to see this: I dumped the text into Google Translate and here is what it loosely says: So what exactly happened …
Succeeding in the Translation Economy
Here is an article I wrote that was recently published in tcworld magazine. In it, I define the “translation economy” and the opportunities (and challenges) it presents to all organizations. …
Think Outside the Country is coming to Japan
I’m pleased to announce that Born Digital (in collaboration with Mitsue-Links) is publishing the Japanese edition of Think Outside the Country. The book will be available December 23rd and I …
Day One for Amazon in Australia
Today marks the official day one for Amazon in Australia. While Amazon.com.au has been around for a number of years largely selling eBooks via the Kindle, today the company goes …
Amazon’s uneven (and not unusual) language strategy
Amazon Crossing is the Amazon publishing imprint dedicated to translating non-English books into English. In just a few years it has grown to be a leading translator of literary novels. …
The Language of Global Success (and the rise of the English-only multinational)
The dream is profound — a global company united by one language. Employees communicating freely with one another across border and culture, improving productivity and sharing of ideas. The reality, …
China: 120 million international travelers and just getting started
In 2016, more than 120 million Chinese traveled internationally. which is roughly the entire population of Japan (or Canada, Italy and Australia combined). And only 10% of the country has …
When looking at Asia, look beyond China, Japan and South Korea…
Historically, when a Western company planned its Asian expansion strategy, it primarily focused on three markets (or fewer): China, Japan and South Korea. Today, any company with eyes on Asian …
The growing language gap between travel and tourism websites
The travel industry has long been at the forefront of web globalization. Take Booking.com, with support for 41 languages, or Uber, with support for 36 languages, or KLM, with support …
Announcing the top 10 global tourism websites
While I’ve closely studied travel websites for many years (such as airlines, hotels, travel agencies) as part of The Web Globalization Report Card, I’ve not spent much time looking closely at …
India: Growing like crazy and craving local-language content
Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins released her 2017 Internet Trends report today — the mother of all PowerPoint decks. I last commented on the 2014 deck. A few slides jumped out at …
Languages are a means to an end, a journey as well as a destination
I recently wrote an op-ed for the Seattle Times about the importance and value of thinking globally. Here’s an excerpt: Consider Starbucks. In 2003, this aspiring global company supported a …
Think Outside the Country
I’m pleased to announce the publication of my newest book: Think Outside the Country: A Guide to Going Global and Succeeding in the Translation Economy. This book is the result …
Intel: The best global enterprise technology website of 2017
For the 2017 Web Globalization Report Card, I benchmarked the following 10 enterprise technology websites: Autodesk Cisco Systems HP Enterprise Huawei IBM Intel Oracle SAP Texas Instruments Xerox Intel emerged on …
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