Starbucks Takes On the World
According to this WSJ interview, the Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, says he plans to significantly increase the number of Starbucks locations in the years ahead to 30,000 (from 11,000 …
Web Globalization
Two Barriers to Global Online Sales are Falling
For an online retailer, going global isn’t easy. That’s because retailers have to figure out how to deliver products to consumers around the world cost effectively and how to process …
Does Your Web Site Speak Dutch?
If you want to succeed in Europe, it probably should. According to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics, 30% of the Dutch population made an online purchase in 2005. This …
Borders to Enter Middle East
While Amazon has done little on the Web globalization front over the past year, Borders has been slowly but steadily expanding its retail presence outside the US. it currently has …
Yahoo Launches New Portal for Oz
According to Paid Content, Yahoo! has launched: Yahoo7, which is a joint venture between the Seven Network (TV) and Yahoo Australia and New Zealand, to take on Australia’s popular portal …
Globalization Is Good for UPS
UPS just reported a very strong quarter. While US volume grew 6.2%, “internationally, average daily package volume rose 25.1% to 1.8 million a day. Export volume was again strong with …
You Say Euro; I Say Eiro
Latvia has “localized” the spelling of the euro to better fit its national language. Says this article… “The ‘eu’ diphthong is alien to the Latvian language. We don’t have such …
Amazon: Now Serving 200+ Countries
Amazon gave out some highlights from 2005 Xmas season and it looks like they had a very good quarter. What jumped out at me was that they shipped products to …
Will China Build a Separate Internet?
China has been making a lot of noise lately about wanting “root” control over the Internet. That’s clearly not going to happen anytime soon, nor should it happen. But what …
Intel’s New Logo, Via Samsung
So I read today about Intel’s new branding campaign set to launch next week during CES. I had no idea that when Intel hired Samsung marketing chief Erik Kim to …
A Few Global Gateways
Yesterday I mentioned how 2005 was a big year in the evolution of the “global gateway.” As proof of this, here are three splash global gateways that did not exist …
Predicting 2006: From eBay to .EU
2006 is a few days away and I can’t resist looking into my crystal ball to see what the year holds for all of us in the Web globalization industry. …
Chinese as a Second Language
According to my local paper, Chinese language instruction is hot: “I tell you, this Chinese fever is on again,” Wong-Avery said. “Everyone knows it will be one of the most …
Is eBay Losing China?
According to Shanghai Daily eBay is dropping its fee for online stores, matching competitor Taobao.com‘s free offering. Says the article: Now why would eBay China do this? According to the …
China: We’re Number Four!
According to Business Week, China might soon revise GDP upwards by a whopping 20%. Says the article: That would make China the world’s fourth-largest economy, suddenly overtaking Italy, France, and …