The Guide from MultiLingual Computing & Technology GOING GLOBAL: ASIA #61 Supplement January/February 2004
4 Preparing to Enter the China Markets Terry Shidner
8 Strategies for Introducing Products to Japan Steve Kemper
13 Reengineering Software for Asia Helen Trainor contents contents 15 Chinese-to-Chinese Conversion in a Nutshell Jack Halpern
16 Web Site Translation for Japan Ken F. Sakai
18 Experiences in Marketing MT for Indonesian Helen McKay GETTING GUIDE GUIDE STARTED GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA
MultiLingual Computing & Technology
Publisher, Editor-in-Chief Donna Parrish Managing Editor Laurel Wagers Translation Department Editor Jim Healey Copy Editor Cecilia Spence Research Jerry Luther, David Shadbolt News Kendra Gray, Becky Bennett ‘tree) ’ Illustrator Doug Jones Production Sandy Compton Photographer Seth Schneider
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a solid partner when it comes to web or software adaptation. or software a solid partner it comes to web when For more information visit This guide is published as a supplement to MultiLingual Computing & Technology, the magazine about language technology, What’s in a word? Regarding Asia, Regarding in a word? What’s the surface language is only of complex cultural differences. Japanese roots and 40 years of experience in bridging cultures make TOIN TOIN of experience roots and 40 years in bridging Japanese cultures make localization, Web globalization and international software development. Adding the Asian perspective
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The Journey to Asia Begins With Careful Study
Many guidelines for doing business apply no matter where a company may choose to go, but “going to Asia” presents special challenges. Among these are cultural assump- tions and expectations; languages that may appear to be the same but are significantly different; varied ideograph-based scripts and double-byte encodings; differing ways to deliver a physical product; and the kinds of partnerships and networking necessary in each country to bring a project to fruition. This complex undertaking is as fraught with dangers as any adventure game Web site. But successful navigation translates into real-life international rewards. Any adven- turer, virtual or real-world, knows that nothing helps along the way more than a guide with local knowledge and experience. So, for this supplement we have asked several authors with experience in Asian languages and business to offer their insights into this often delicate process — their stories of safe roads to take and pitfalls to avoid. In his overview article, Terry Shidner describes the historical and cultural context in which a foreign company enters the Chinese business world — a context built in terms not of decades but of centuries. Steve Kemper tells the story of how one US company studied the Japanese mar- ket and adapted its Web-based offering to suit a radically different group of potential customers to ensure success — and describes how others can profit by this example. Helen Trainor explains the linguistic and technical factors that are involved in reengineering a software product for double-byte Asian languages. And Jack Halpern briefly summarizes the complexities of Chinese-to-Chinese (Simplified <> Traditional) character conversion. Ken F. Sakai advises people who do business on the Web regarding when it is desirable to translate a site for Japanese Internet viewers and how to go about it. As Shidner and Kemper point out — and as one would realistically expect — not all of the “tales from the front” are success stories. In an unusual history, Helen McKay describes the hard lessons she and her colleagues learned when their company’s best efforts weren’t enough to guarantee the success of a product for the Indonesian market. Our list of Web resources for planning a foray into the Asian markets was provided by David Fine, president of Manjiro International ([email protected]) with additional input from Jin Kang, marketing manager of E4NET. May your journey be a great success. —Laurel Wagers, Managing Editor
Jack Halpern Steve Kemper Ken F. Sakai Terry Shidner Helen Trainor JACK HALPERN is CEO of the Japan-based CJK Dictionary Institute and author of seve- ral comprehensive Japanese and Chinese dictionaries. He can be reached at [email protected] STEVE KEMPER is the managing director of Ion Global in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at [email protected] HELEN MCKAY is the director of ToggleText, which specializes in the development of MT systems for the Asian market. She can be reached at [email protected] authors authors KEN F. SAKAI is president of Pacific Dreams, Inc., a translation and business consulting company. He can be reached at [email protected] TERRY SHIDNER is an account manager for Moravia Worldwide’s Global Business Services group. He can be reached at [email protected] HELEN TRAINOR is a senior manager at Symbio Group. She can be reached at htrainor @symbio-group.com 3 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA
Since Deng Xiaoping assumed the reins of power in the late 1970s, no country has modernized as fast — or as drastically — as PrPreparingeparing toto EnterEnter China. During the last quarter century, China has transformed from a collective agricultural society to a juggernaut of capitalism, invest- the China Markets ment and high-tech manufacturing. This rise the China Markets from a mainly agrarian economy to one which boasts 200 urban centers with a population of at least a million people each is truly stagger- Terry Shidner ing and unequaled in the history of modern civilization. Coupled with the reunification of Hong Kong and the mainland in 1997 and the nothing new. Those who truly understand Chinese growth has been fueled by a will- growing financial inter-dependency with China realize that the country is now emerg- ingness from the Chinese government to allow Taiwan, China is looming on the horizon as a ing from a 150-year slumber that saw China foreign investment into Chinese enterprises leader in the new world business order. In go from one of the centers of world culture to and the establishment of centers of develop- 2002, China accounted for 16% of the growth a society that had been carved up and exploit- ment for global, multinational corporations. in the world economy, ranking second only to ed by the West. This emergence is merely a Beijing has allowed foreign corporations to the United States. And since 1970, China’s once-proud nation regaining its stride and pump over $450 billion into its economy, which gross domestic product has ballooned from reestablishing its prominence in the world. makes China tied for fifth in total foreign direct $106 billion to a lofty $1.3 trillion, all of which Arguments can be made that the Chinese investment (FDI) behind the United States, provides both optimists and pessimists with empires of the past are much different than United Kingdom, Benelux Economic Union food for thought. As the Asian market, prima- the China of today. The spirit of the Chinese countries and Germany. And according to rily mainland China, continues to open its people, however, has endured through the recently published accounts in Foreign Affairs doors of opportunity to western businesses, good times and the bad times. They are a peo- magazine, China could surpass all but the many will find that their first experience into ple proud of their culture and history and United States in FDI by 2004. This influx of China will be ripe with obstacles and pitfalls. eager to shake off a temporary feeling of inse- investment is also enhanced by cash remit- These difficulties stem from the fact that many curity to once again regain their role as a dom- tances from China’s large expatriate community companies fail to pay proper respect to the inant society. According to a finely written and through the recently reunited Hong Kong intricacies and nuances of this new and article by long-time China watchers Evan S. Special Administrative Region (SAR). emerging market because in China, business is Medeiros and M. Taylor Fravel, a series of While the majority of Chinese investment guided by a culture and history centuries in provocative articles have recently run in major is directed into China, it is also important to the making. This is often overlooked by those Chinese newspapers and journals that advo- note that China, like other Asian nations, has of us from the western world. cate China abandon its victim mentality been investing heavily, not only into other Where many companies have faltered or (shouhaizhe xintai) and instead reaffirm its countries within the region, but also into the have outright failed when approaching China standing in history. This view was endorsed in West.In an attempt to stabilize its national cur- is that they underestimate the market. When 2001 by the former President of China, Jiang rency, China has been buying US dollars en thinking of China, these companies get caught Zemin, who in a speech marking the 80th masse. According to the US Treasury Depart- up with dollar (or euro) signs in their eyes as anniversary of the Communist party urged ment, China has purchased over $100 billion in they view a large and potentially lucrative mar- China to adopt a “great-power mentality” US Government Securities in a recent 18- ketplace. The truth of the matter is that com- (daguo xintai). Emerging sentiment such as month period (2002-2003). In doing so, China panies cannot simply walk into this market this continues to gain traction and combined has itself become a primary source of funding and start making money. The process of estab- with the impressive economic growth of the for United States’ growing fiscal deficit and lishing a successful business venture requires a last two decades is an important thing to con- current account deficit. In the 1980s Japan willingness to endure an adoption by the pub- sider when engaging in business relations with played a similar role, but this marks the first lic and the building of connections (guanxi) China. China today brings more resources and time that China has played an active part in with local government officials and members influence to the table than at any point previ- fueling US debt. This is also a reason that the of the business community. While understand- ously in its 3,000-year history. US has been lobbying the Chinese government ing a country’s culture and history is always an to remove its currency peg to the US dollar. advantage in doing business abroad, an under- Understanding China Today What does this mean for companies that standing of the culture and history of China is do business in China? Mainly it means that a must when dealing with China. Companies When approaching China, western busi- China has embraced economic growth over its need to understand that to the Chinese nesses should always remember that as China previously held ideological model and now has Diaspora the drive to economic achievement is becomes more engaged with the West, it is the capital means to reinvest into its infra- not just about money, but rather it is a reawak- also growing more adept at using its new eco- structure. Because of this, China is creating a ening of nationalistic pride. nomic clout and business savvy to better cyclical economic model, which has led to serve Chinese interests. Today’s China is cer- investments into China’s infrastructure, which Understanding the Past tainly smarter and more sophisticated, but directly enhances its ability to fuel further busi- not necessarily kinder or gentler. China is ness growth and recruit additional FDI. China Upon approaching China, it is first also rapidly emerging as the engine of growth has devoted a large amount of capital into important to understand that the rise in cap- in Asia, which means that it is increasing its expanding its education system, strengthening italism and entrepreneurship in China is influence and leverage within the region. its IT infrastructure and reforms in its banking 4 GETTING
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED and finance sectors. China’s increased business and update this transport medium with Furthering Chinese growth is its recent capacity has made China an essential link in newer, more efficient networks. invitation to join the World Trade Organiza- the global production chain for many multina- China, however, does not have this tion (WTO) and the awarding of the 2008 tional corporations. problem. Since Deng Xiaoping moved the Summer Olympics. Both of these events are Education, in particular, has become a country to adopt a capitalist approach in significant because they symbolize China’s main focal point for China as its citizens have the late 1970s, China has been installing coming of age, not only in world business but seen that an educated workforce has a direct high-capacity fiber and wireless networks at in the global community as a whole. And influence on the prosperity of their country. a staggering rate. Since China’s traditional events such as these continue to fuel China’s Chinese universities are now creating a highly telecommunications network was almost non- nationalistic pride to continue the drive to educated labor force that is beginning to rival existent prior to the 1980s the country does prominence. Anyone who discounts the that of many of the traditional world develop- not have to support old telecommunications importance of this statement needs only to ment centers such as Ireland, India and other networks while adding new technologies in wander the streets of any Chinese city to see once low-cost nations. The benefit for western the same way that the West needs to. the civic pride that the Chinese take over the companies is that China provides a resource Evidence lends support to the claim that by awarding of the Olympics or the acceptance for low-cost but highly reliable development. 2010, China will have one of the most into organizations such as the WTO. It is education that is helping to drive China’s advanced telecommunications networks in goal to match and eventually exceed other the world. Not only will China’s telecommu- China and the Rest of Asia nations in the region as a prime exporter for nications capacity continue to grow, but its software development, IT services and prod- citizens will also take advantage of the new The economic boom that China has been uct testing. According to a report by the wave of technology that IT infrastructure enjoying over the past quarter century has been World Affairs Council, Beijing hopes to cap- investment brings with it. Already, 69 million mainly due to its being used as a low-cost pro- ture 60% of the regional software develop- Chinese access the Internet through personal duction center for western corporations. That ment and testing market for local firms and to computers and even more log on via mobile trend has, however, been slowly changing in multiply current exports by a factor of ten by telephones. In fact, China has become one of recent years. China is now actively growing its 2010. Many companies view India as a prime the largest and fastest growing mobile phone own domestic corporations, which are contin- market for low-cost outsourced development, and personal computer markets in the world. uing to fuel an expanding domestic and export especially testing services. India has enjoyed One only needs to look at the large busi- market. Chinese corporations such as comput- significant growth in this sector because it ness parks that have risen up in urban areas such er manufacturer Legend are leading this charge invested heavily in technical colleges during as Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to establish China as a major trading partner the 1970s and 1980s and because many of its to understand the massive investment that around the globe. In fact, China has recently citizens speak English. Although China does China has made into its business future. And surpassed the United States as the main trading not have India’s linguistic advantage, it has no nothing shows this trend in Chinese investment partner for South Korea. It is also a leading shortage of engineers: some 325,000 new quite like the city of Shenzhen, which is located investor into countries belonging to ASEAN. engineers graduate from Chinese universities opposite of the former English colony of Hong How does this affect the rest of the region? every year. This yearly output is three times Kong. Quite simply, 25 years ago, Shenzhen did Mainly, it is allowing China to move into a posi- greater than the graduation rate of India for not exist. Rather it was a tiny fishing village that tion once held solely by the Japanese, that being the same skill sets. Coupled with the fact that has become a major point of entry into China, of an economic powerhouse in the East and FDI into India is a mere fraction of what is by way of its close proximity to Hong Kong. Southeast Asia. China is now actively engaging currently being infused into China, it’s easy to Shenzhen now boasts a population of over 8 other Asian countries as a competitor for west- see why China is rapidly becoming a prime million inhabitants, all of whom have come to ern FDI and also as a major consumer for choice for western businesses to push devel- Shenzhen to work in the many technical and imported goods. This has been troubling for opment and investment into China. industrial parks that have come into existence many Asian countries, especially those from In addition to its focus on education, over the last quarter century. other emerging markets that are competing China has gained distinction for its commit- ment to IT and physical infrastructure devel- opment. This reinvestment in its physical Proudly serving capabilities is being sponsored by both the central government and private investment. 300 Translation Companies Investment in infrastructure is also an area where having a centrally planned govern- with their Asian Language needs ment does have its benefits. One of the things that plagues western countries is that our communications backbone is rapidly aging and is becoming unable to handle the new throughput levels needed for today’s business and technical development. The copper wire twisted pair that makes up the majority of 1-STOP translation 1 BRING ASIA TO YOU, BRING YOU TO ASIA America’s short haul communications net- work is woefully inefficient and unable to www.1stoptr.com handle high traffic volumes. And due to gov- ernment bureaucracy and public entitle- Seoul/Korea Shenzhen/China L.A./USA ments, it is very difficult and costly to go back [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 5 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA with China for foreign investment. They see becoming seen as a superpower in Asian eco- localization, it is very important to find out China’s good fortune as a threat to their own nomic terms. the target market since the distinction economic development. When faced with the When approaching business in the Asian between the written and spoken word is not staggering amount of FDI and interest being region, companies need to pay attention to this always well known. Differences depend paid to China, it is easy to understand why these dynamic and how it plays into intercountry greatly on the type of industry that the countries feel a bit uneasy regarding China’s dealings within the region. Political, economic product or service is focused on. However, continued growth. Another threat that China’s and nationalistic feelings play a heavy part in the differences are not too great an obstacle neighbors are facing is the fact that China to how countries in the region interact with one to overcome as long as a company appreci- this point has been largely insulated from the another. Engaging with China without this ates and understands the Chinese market. downward trend in the world economy. knowledge is not a wise undertaking. As mentioned earlier, research needs to be Because of the currency peg and a then protec- done prior to launching a product into the tionist government, China was largely unaf- The Chinese Language Chinese marketplace. fected by the Asian market crash of the late The Chinese Diasporas speak a myriad 1990s. It was this crash that crippled countries and the Chinese Marketplace of different forms or dialects of Chinese. Most such as Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, many of of the western world is familiar with which are still trying to recover. When entering into the Chinese market, Mandarin and Cantonese, which are the two Furthering China’s growth in the region, it is important for western companies to be main Chinese “business” languages. When the reunification of Hong Kong is also helping aware of the diversity and nuances of the discussing Mandarin and Cantonese, it is to shore up areas of expertise that were once Chinese language and subsequently its influ- important to remember that these are spoken lacking in China — banking and corporate ence on particular regions within the country. dialects and for the most part do not differ in finance. These two areas are what have been The Chinese language has more than 20 iden- their standard written form. The written form troubling China for many years and have also tifiable spoken dialects that are mutually does differ, however, depending on what made doing business in China difficult for exclusive to one another, in addition to having country the language is being used in. The other countries. In the past, Chinese banks two distinct written forms. The combination two written forms of the Chinese language are have been largely mismanaged, often floating of dialects and writing conventions will vary classified as Simplified and Traditional. As a bad debt on inefficient state enterprises. The depending on where the speaker or entity is general rule, Simplified Chinese is used exclu- result has been to limit the amount of capital located. Additionally, aside from the three sively in mainland China (PRC), whereas available in which to fuel private enterprise. major areas where Chinese is spoken (PRC, Traditional Chinese is used throughout the The reunification of Hong Kong in 1997 has Taiwan and Hong Kong), the Chinese lan- rest of the Chinese world. not only added a valuable market to Chinese guage is also a major influence in just about products, but has also provided the mainland every country in the world. And it’s essential to Mandarin and Cantonese with a valuable commodity not previously remember that historically, China has more seen — knowledge of how to manage a busi- expatriates living in more countries than any Mandarin is the official language of the ness. Coupled with China’s massive produc- other society in the world. People’s Republic of China (PRC) and of tion capability, this is enough to make some of When a company attempts to market a Taiwan. Remember that Mandarin is only the China’s neighbors cringe at what is rapidly product or service that will require Chinese spoken language. It evolved from the North of China where the seat of Chinese government had historically been located. With the reunifi- cation of China following the 1949 Comm- unist Revolution, Beijing established Mandarin Understanding the English Original. as the official language of the PRC. In Taiwan, Mandarin is the official lan- guage largely in part to the relocation of the Today’s latest terminology. Chinese National Government to Taiwan fol- lowing their defeat by the Communists in 1949. The native language of Taiwan is not Mandarin. The establishing government adopted Man- US quality assurance and reliability. darin as the official language in 1950, however, and it has been taught ever since. The Cantonese dialect is exclusively spo- That’s quality Chinese translation. ken in the South of China and in the now reunified Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong. Cantonese is still a major That’s TCA. dialect and is one of the more widely spoken dialects in Chinese communities worldwide, especially in America and Europe, which is due to historical reasons. Both dialects use the same written form — either Simplified or Traditional. However, +1 888.663.7007 the pronunciation of the written characters is Visit www.tc-associates.com/fourthings to learn more today. completely different. Some similarities for ©2003 Thomas-Chen Associates, Inc. words exist, but largely the difference is quite 6 GETTING
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The main difference in the two Kong is part of China, but it runs on a one- Chinese Writing writing conventions is that the Simplified country, two-rules model in which Hong Kong version tries to limit the intricacies of some operates almost completely autonomous of Simplified and Traditional Chinese are of the key characters that are used most com- Beijing. Since 1997, however, Beijing has been largely similar in many respects. To best under- monly — the theory being that it would be increasingly exerting control over many parts stand the differences, it is important to know easier for the population to learn to write if of Hong Kong society. In the future, it is rea- the origins of the Chinese language. the language were simpler to memorize, sonable to expect that the written and spoken The Traditional form of Chinese has hence the term Simplified Chinese. form of Chinese will gradually homogenize in evolved over the past 3,000 years. Unlike For mainland China there are also gram- order to fuel continued business growth by western (Latin-based) languages, Chinese matical and stylistic differences of the written removing barriers to communication. does not use a phonetic alphabet when creat- language across the major cities and latitudes, ing words. Rather, the language is created by especially among Beijing, Shanghai and the Conclusion characters that represent whole or parts of Southern Economic Zone (which includes words. These characters have ideographic Guangzhou and Shenzhen). When contemplating entering the Chinese roots, which over time have evolved to their Issues with marketing products and marketplace, western businesses can never do current state. services in Hong Kong are quite different too much planning. On one side of the coin, Although Traditional Chinese charac- than those for mainland China. Even though China is a market ripe with opportunities ters are visually appealing, the practical usage the mainland has established Mandarin as due in part to its strong labor force and low has historically led to a largely illiterate the official language in Hong Kong, its grip cost of doing business. But the other side of Chinese population. High illiteracy rates cul- on the population is slow in coming. Many the same coin shows that it is important not minated from the population’s difficulty in older Hong Kong residents do not speak to take China lightly. It is not by happen- having to memorize the stroke orders for some Mandarin (business people do, but many stance that China has grown to be an emerg- 50,000 characters. Because the language is non- consumers don’t). They rely heavily on tradi- ing economic giant. The Chinese have a long phonetic, each character combination needs to tional Cantonese instead. The “official” lan- history and are a very proud people. To be memorized and cannot be spelled out. guage tag came only after reunification in underestimate them by not appreciating the The Simplified Chinese writing style 1997 saw Beijing install a mandate that nuances that go into their society is a danger- was a creation of the Communist Chinese required students to learn Mandarin as the ous proposition. Ω 7 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA StrategiesStrategies forfor IntrIntroducingoducing PrProductsoducts toto JapanJapan
Steve Kemper Promotions.com knew it had a good team. If things are not running smoothly at Are You Talking to Me? thing going in the United States. And the com- home, stretching your resources and focus pany knew Japan was a good fit for their offer- across borders and oceans will do more harm Another basic, but critical aspect of ing. If Promotions.com had tried to go it alone, than good. Language and cultural differ- communication is language itself. Will all though, it might have been another stepping- ences, working across distances and time overseas offices be required to adopt stone in the bone yard of failed Japan market zones, and integrating new staff into the English as their official operating lan- entry attempts. Instead, it has exceeded their organization are just a few of the factors that guage? Is this a reasonable expectation? If most optimistic projections and remains a will magnify and exacerbate problems within not, are you prepared for the time and leading player in their industry. the organization and product line. expense involved in translating key docu- The world is getting smaller. It is easier Take the time to iron out the bugs with ments and communications — and keep- and less expensive than ever before to travel your products and services. If you are strug- ing them current and accurate — in all to and communicate with nearly every corner gling to resolve product and service-related languages? Will you provide interpreters of the world. We have the Web, e-mail, issues in your home market with which you for conference calls? Whether you choose instant messaging, Internet telephony, Web- are intimately familiar, you will find it much to provide interpreters or ask all staff to based conferencing, inexpensive long dis- more difficult to resolve these issues in a new participate in English, conference calls will tance telephone service, cheaper airfare — and unfamiliar business environment abroad. likely require significantly more time and and the list goes on. There are also more and You do not want to carry existing problems patience if they are to be productive and better resources than ever before to help us into markets that have their own set of new fair to all involved. with every aspect of conducting business and unique challenges. One company, for example, held mon- across borders and around the globe. Clear communication is perhaps the most thly regional sales calls and a twice-yearly The relatively lower costs and ease of important requirement of all. Be sure that your sales meeting at one of the regional offices. access have led many firms to underestimate existing communication protocols are working Everyone was proficient in English except the the difficulty of entering a foreign market. well and then determine exactly how you will sales manager from Japan (I’ll call him Sho Some have learned things the hard way, had integrate your international operations into Matsumoto), one of the company’s top pro- the resources to right the ship, so to speak, this process. For example, is your staff — at all ducers. Matsumoto had his own interpreter and make a go of it. Others have fought long, levels of the organization — ready to partici- for all conference calls and meetings. One expensive battles only to find that they were pate in conference calls at odd hours? A compa- problem early on was the occasional distrac- not ready for the market — or that the mar- ny with offices around the world must have tion caused by the voice of the interpreter at ket was not ready for them. Still others had a staff willing to embrace viable offering, but their approach was wrong conference calls at 11:00 for the market. The painless market entry is a at night or later. Teams in rarity, if not a Holy Grail. the United Kingdom, on It is critical to avoid the mistake of the other hand, may get focusing so much on the technology and to watch the sun rise theories that you forget the basics — peo- since the same confer- ple, money, time and the law. No software ence call will take place at application can eliminate cultural or legal roughly 7:00 a.m. their barriers. No sales process, no matter how time. The US East Coast carefully researched and refined, can guar- staff would have to set the antee people will choose your product or alarm for a merciless 2:00 service. And as much time as some devices, a.m. One possible solu- applications and methodologies can save, tion is to shift to more there is no getting around the massive time asynchronous commu- commitment required to enter and thrive in nications, such as e-mail, a foreign market. conference call and pres- entation archiving, and Get Your House in Order so forth. Another is to keep company-wide con- International market entry will tax your ference calls to a mini- organization and require the involvement, mum and hold regional Promotions.com site for the United States required commitment and cooperation of your entire conference calls instead. major adaptations to suit Japanese tastes 8 GETTING
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED meetings, especially for those sitting near- the company has ties there or speaks the Chinese individual purchasing power does est him. The more important problem was language. These things will likely be little not even rank in the top 70, according to the fact that Matsumoto was not able to help in the overall scheme of things. The Economist, and the overall business participate effectively in the meetings. Market selection and entry must be under- environment is ranked 41st in the world. When he did, he was often commenting on taken with a reasonable expectation of Business software is an especially risky a topic that had been laid to rest five to ten financial success based on thorough due proposition: by some estimates, a whopping minutes before. This was how long it took diligence. Look at markets that have shown 94% of business software in use in China in for the interpreter to convey the informa- the greatest interest in and, preferably, sales 2001 was pirated. Nonetheless, China could tion, for him to digest it and to formulate of your products and services. If you have possibly become the largest software market his thoughts, and for the interpreter to unsolicited customers in a market, you in the world within 20 years, so knowing the break in and convey it to the group. There should take a closer look. In today’s con- nuances of how to enter is critical. Do not were other times, it turned out, the inter- nected world, early adopters will have make the costly mistake of letting your due preter missed key points altogether or mis- found you if you fill a need that is not diligence stop at the good news. It is impor- interpreted what was being said, leaving being addressed. tant to get the complete picture before you Matsumoto out of the loop completely. Bob Rathbun of Fry’s Outpost.com, commit to a market. One solution to this problem is to recog- for example, sought professional assistance nize the needs of non-native speakers and when he needed help dealing with an They May Not Love You simply ask speakers and participants to increasing number of unsolicited inquiries speak a little more slowly, to enunciate and and orders from customers in Asia — pri- Just the Way You Are to pause occasionally in order to make sure marily from Japan. Outpost.com was not everyone is keeping up. Another is to pro- attempting to create a market for its pro- Be prepared to make changes — poten- vide a detailed agenda far enough in ducts “from scratch,”but rather to formalize tially big changes. For Promotions.com, more advance for everyone, including inter- its channels and processes to serve existing things changed than remained the same. preters, to study the topics to be covered customers better, win new customers and One of the leading on-line sweep- and formulate questions and comments improve the company’s profit margins from stakes sites in the United States was ahead of time. overseas sales. The company already had Webstakes.com, a Promotions.com pro- Your Web site is an important means some name recognition and word of mouth perty. The name was clever and memo- of communicating with your prospects, upon which to build. rable, the site well designed and robust, and clients, partners and the press. Does it Finally, do not underestimate the the products — or prizes in this case — reflect your commitment to the market? importance of favorable economic, legal were a hit with their rapidly expanding Nearly as bad as having no information in and political conditions. Even the heartiest membership base. They certainly had their Japanese is having neglected and outdated of businesses will struggle in an inhos- operation down cold in the United States, information in Japanese. This tells visitors pitable environment. China, for example, and it seemed a perfect fit for Japan, a to your Web site that you were once inter- has the world’s largest population and country famous for its enthusiasm for ested in them, but that you have moved on ranks second in the world in terms of sweepstakes, lotteries and the like. As it to other things now and cannot be troubled, national purchasing power. It is critical, turns out, it was a perfect fit — but not in thank you. But you would still like them to though, that analysis not stop there. any form similar to the original. trust you and send you their Promotions.com first com- money. It does not work that missioned a thorough opportu- way. If your site consists of nity assessment that found that enough information that it is there were a great potential and a difficult to track and localize high likelihood of success. A new content, consider invest- team of branding experts was ing in a content management then assembled to determine if system or globalization man- and how well the existing service agement system — or both. name would be accepted in This will streamline the pro- Japan. The findings: it would not cess of tracking changes to the work without a complete English-language site and rebranding and localization. Not updating the localized versions simply a translation of the Web with those same changes site, but a complete rework of quickly and efficiently. the brand and service offering. This would be a difficult pill to Go Where swallow for some companies, and many ignore such recom- You’re Wanted mendations, unable to part with company culture and tradition. Choose your markets The Promotions.com executive carefully. This seems like com- team had no such qualms and mon sense, but it is surprising immediately integrated the inter- how many companies choose national team into every aspect a market because someone in Promotions.com becomes Chakkalina Shikkalino for Japan of the business. 9 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA
What’s in a Name? team sought outside expertise, but ultimate- all and thus can be developed in whatever ly the local manager in charge simply went way you choose (think Pepsi or Sony) or a Make sure consumers don’t have a beef with his gut feeling and the nonsensical, but name that has positive connotations and will with your name. The US service name, a play carefully crafted, names he created. It not infringe on or be confused with an exist- on the words “Web and “sweepstakes,” was worked; they now have over half a million ing brand (such as Duracell or Bubblicious). perfect for the United States. Consumer registered users.” And you certainly want to avoid a name or research revealed that most Japanese, however, slogan that will be offensive or have negative thought it was a place to buy meat, or Giving Your Brand connotations in any of the major world mar- “steaks,” on-line. A team of local brand kets. In a famous marketing blunder, Pana- experts worked with the management team to Character sonic Japan licensed the cartoon character come up with an appropriate name and image Woody the Woodpecker for its new Internet for the Japan entity. The result is a uniquely As is common in Japan, the brand team terminal. Just days before rollout, an Japanese name with an Italian twist, playing also developed characters — or mascots — American staffer caught wind of the clever to the cachet of all things European — partic- around the new name, giving a friendly face to slogan: “Touch Woody — The Internet ularly Italian and French — in Japan. the service. Whereas Americans tend to con- Pecker.”Panasonic wisely scrapped the slogan Chakkalina Shikkalino (often called simply sider characters, such as Snoopy or Mickey and avoided a complete marketing disaster “Chakkalina”) puts an Italian-sounding end- Mouse, childish, in Japan they are serious — albeit at great cost. The lesson here: get ing on two Japanese words: Chakkari means business. Hello Kitty, the subject of a new local staff or consultants involved early in clever or shrewd, often used to refer to some- book, has adorned everything from cars to the process. one who is a smart shopper and uses their “personal massagers.” And the face of Sanwa A prize is only a prize if it’s valued by money wisely. Shikkari means stable or reli- bank, one of the leading city banks in Japan the prizewinner. Another early discovery was able, as in a person who is established and with a network extending to 31 countries: the fact that consumers in Japan are interest- doing well. Combined in this way, it evokes Snoopy. Sanwa customers can get a Snoopy ed in much different prizes than their coun- the image of a person who is a shrewd shop- bankcard and check book. Characters give a terparts in the United States. Webstakes.com, per, financially stable — and yet fashionable. brand qualities that a name and logo alone the US portal, found that they could not go “The Chakkalina branding was bril- cannot — they give it personality and warmth. wrong with consumer electronics — televi- liant,” says Tim Clark, Senior Fellow at When considering a brand name, look sions, CD and DVD players, cameras and so SunBridge Venture Habitat in Tokyo. “The for something that either has no meaning at on. Research in Japan and early trials found that these prizes drew little interest — cer- tainly not enough to inspire consumers to register and visit frequently. Adventure trips, gourmet food items, and fashion and beauty products proved to be some of the most alluring prizes, along with English classes. Don’t let your site result in sore eyes — and lost business. Web site localization involves much more than simply translating the text into the target language — and even that is often done poorly. A literal translation will make for laborious reading and definitely will not result in compelling marketing copy. This is why we warn against translation and instead recommend professional content transcreation. Instead of merely translating from one language to another, content must be transcreated into material culturally suitable for persuading and selling in each market. Editing for tone and development of culturally appropriate imagery are just two key components of this process. Interactive usability and visual aesthetic must also be analyzed on a market-by-market basis. Japanese Web users, for example, are more demanding than their Western coun- terparts when it comes to logical naviga- tion and clear instructions for what is expected of them. On-line surveys in Japan garner much better participation when users are provided with adequate details, both at the outset and throughout the process, on how many questions the survey contains, how long the survey should take, 10 GETTING
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED
Found in 1996, Boffin China is a software localization Distinct Personalized firm based in Shenzhen, China. Focusing on forming Linguistic Solutions for long-term partnerships, we seek creative, proactive Robust Multilingual Solutions solutions to our clients’ localization needs. Our goal is HZ Multimedia, Inc. offers bitmap and TrueType fonts Asian Text to become an extension of your organization by providing ideal for your multilingual projects. Our VersaFont™ Why take chances? Rely on the same partner that high-quality, cost-efficient and fast turn-around bitmap fonts are handmade for LCD screens and have a companies such as Google, FAST and Software AG localization services. small footprint. have turned to when introducing their technologies • Software internationalization and localization • Sizes: 11 – 24 points or larger to Asia. Our Rosette® Globalization Platform pre- • Software QA testing • Languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and pares your applications for Asian text processing by: • Technical translation from English into: European languages • Identifying text’s language and encoding Chinese, Simplified (for mainland China) • Character sets: GB2312, GB13000, Big5, HKSCS, • Converting legacy encodings to Unicode and Chinese, Traditional (for Taiwan) JIS, KSC, Latin back again Chinese, Traditional (for Hong Kong) • Encoding: Unicode and national standards • Performing linguistic analysis and segmentation Japanese • File Format: binary, BDF, BMP, C file and so on of Chinese, Japanese and Korean text Korean • Platforms: Embedded, Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix • Extracting named entities • Multilingual Desktop Publishing (PC/Mac) – Asian and European languages We offer personalized licensing terms and We also provide professional engineering and competitive pricing. consulting services for software internationalization. Boffin China, Inc. HZ Multimedia, Inc. Basis Technology Room 602-608, B&H Plaza, No. 27 Industry Avenue 600 S. Lake Avenue, Suite 303 150 CambridgePark Drive Shekou, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518067, China Pasadena, CA 91106 Cambridge, MA 02140 86-755-2667-1715 • Fax: 86-755-2668-0283 626-744-0530 • Fax: 626-744-0531 617-386-2000 • 800-697-2062 [email protected] • www.boffinchina.com [email protected] • www.hzmi.com [email protected] • www.basistech.com whether or not they will be able to save their English. A link to a localized privacy policy lack them: financial means, patience and data midway through and return to finish should be one of the most prominent links active, ongoing management involvement later and so forth. on the top page of your Web site — and from the top down. If you plan to engage in commerce, be should be accessible from every page. Adequate funds are critical for success, prepared to accept more than credit cards or Equally important is to make your and it is always sad to see an organization you will limit your potential revenues from company as real as possible to the customer. unable to go the last mile to success due to a the start. While credit cards are the single If your Web site is their only point of contact relatively small shortage of funds. No matter most popular method of payment on-line, with you, be sure to include a rich “About how thorough the research and planning customers may expect other options, such as Us” page. This should include, at the mini- that precedes it, market entry will always bank or postal savings funds transfer and mum, your street address, telephone and fax require a significant amount of budget flexi- COD (cash on delivery). An option almost numbers, and photos of your office building. bility. Be it bureaucratic red tape in the tar- unheard of anywhere else is that of conven- Depending on your business and the type of get market, longer than expected ramp up ience store settlement and pick up. Due to the image you wish to project, you may also time in operations, or one of the countless convoluted street address system in Japan, as include photos of your executives and other other “surprises” that always springs up, well as the near ubiquity of convenience staff. For a Japanese-language Web site devel- there is always something that requires more stores, this has become a popular way for oped for the State of Oregon, the governor money than anticipated. Be prepared for that consumers to pay their bills, as well as receive wrote a letter specifically to site visitors, and before setting out or you jeopardize the and pay for goods purchased via mail order this was transcreated into Japanese. The let- entire endeavor. Cash is critical. and the Internet. ter, along with a photo of the governor, is the With financial means in place, next You don’t know me, but please give me most prominent feature upon entering the comes patience and dedication. Establish- your personal information. Privacy and dis- site. The visitor cannot help but feel Oregon’s ing a business and succeeding in Asia is not closure have made strides in the United sincerity and commitment to making them for the impatient or easily disheartened. States, so there is less of a discrepancy here feel welcome. The road to Asia, like that fabled path to now than a few years ago; but many firms Hell, is littered with good intentions — as still underestimate the importance of estab- It Takes More well as pride, overconfidence and short- lishing trust and alleviating concerns when sightedness. No matter how sure you are trying to win new customers and repeat Than a Blank Check that your offering will be an overnight suc- business in new markets. It is amazing how cess, take your most conservative estimate many sites targeting Japan have either no pri- Successful Asian market entry requires for time to profitability and double it. A vacy policy at all or one that has been left in three things and swiftly punishes those who move into Asia is a long-term investment, 11 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA not a short-term moneymaking scheme. throughout the entire process. This is critical damage to both staff morale and client and Even the largest and most established com- for two primary reasons. First, the level of partner relationships in the target market. panies often fail to understand this. domestic success that brought the company Casualties of botched Japan market entry to a point where international expansion is Ignorance Isn’t Bliss attempts include eBay, NASDAQ and possible did not come about by accident. The Morgan Stanley to name a few. A pullout same dedication and expertise must be When It Comes to the Law following a failed entry means more than applied to achieve success internationally. lost time and money; it means a loss of Second, significant organizational resources There is nothing worse than putting credibility. If you decide to make another go will be required to not only research and together the perfect offering, going live with of it down the road, you are going to have a establish the overseas operation, but to keep it — and then getting a visit from the local much more difficult time winning the trust it running as well. Management must buy authorities. Localization involves more than of potential clients and partners. into these needs completely and approve language and culture, and you need to make Most important of the three is the com- requests for resources in a timely manner. sure that you are operating within the plete understanding, support and involve- Hesitation or neglect on the part of manage- boundaries of local law. ment of management, from the top down, ment will result in costly delays and potential The maximum amount allowed for a cash prize in Japan is one million yen or roughly $10,000. This was significantly less than Promotions.com had been offering grand prizewinners in the United States. Researching this prior to launch kept Promotions.com out of hot water and allowed equally attractive prizes that stayed within legal guidelines. Make sure you are in the clear with your intellectual property. Do an exhaustive check on your trademarks, copyrights, titles and domain names to make sure that you are in the clear in every target country. One compa- ny had done its due diligence and made sure it was in the clear in every country — except the largest and most important one. This oversight took months to resolve and cost countless hours of company time at all levels of the organization, as well as expensive legal fees and unnecessary stress. It also meant that all overt marketing and PR had to be put in a holding pattern until the issue was resolved. The client came away victorious in the end, but this will not always be the case. Worst-case scenario would have meant a complete mar- ket pullout or the use of a different name in that market — a situation that would be con- fusing for clients and demoralizing for staff.
Should You Stay or Should You Go Now?
Japan is the second largest economy in the world and offers a relatively stable polit- ical and economic environment. Consumers there are generally open to and favorably dis- posed toward other cultures — and their products and services. These factors have led many companies to make overzealous, ill- prepared market entry attempts — and to fail on a grand scale. Others have had the patience and discipline to conduct thorough due diligence, forge prudent partnerships, and enter Japan knowing that they were in for a long, but ultimately enjoyable and rewarding ride. Ω 12 GETTING
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED
Asia is emerging as one of the largest soft- ware markets in the world, with China quickly becoming the regional anchor. IDC’s latest ReengineeringReengineering research indicates that China’s packaged soft- ware market grew 19.5% to reach $1.98 billion in 2002, with compound annual growth rate Software for Asia (CAGR) of 25.8% forecasted from 2002 to Software for Asia 2007, reaching $6.24 billion by 2007. These numbers are driving many software companies to begin including Asia as part of their core Helen Trainor international strategy. In fact, many firms are now expanding to Asia first, foregoing the more traditional route of entering Europe first. single-, double- or multibyte code. In order to software product using Unicode. Many of these Companies entering Asia for the first time decide on a technical strategy for code conver- firms believe that Unicode is a cure-all for face a number of daunting issues. The challenge sion and DB/MB (double-byte/multibyte) many of the DBCS/MBCS issues. However, is to craft an internationalization strategy that is enabling of a product, companies need to when most software is implemented in designed for Asia, not simply to overlay a local- understand the general process and differences Unicode using C/C++ or in many cases in Java, ization strategy that has worked European between these two systems. it does not mean that one has solved any or all markets onto an Asian strategy. of the double-byte issues Preparing products for Asia is Currency Symbol and Currency Number because many software vastly different than preparing components are usually not them for Europe, and taking a Locale Thousand Decimal Intl. Symbol Negative Amount Amount in Unicode. For example, Euro-centric approach side- China , . CNY [RMB¥1,500.90] RMB¥1,500.90 external data files, font files steps the technical complexities and input methods all need of Asian locales. Globalizing Taiwan , . TWD -NT$1,500.90 NT$1,500.90 to be converted between existing software for any Asian Japan , . JPY -¥1,500.90 ¥1,500.90 Unicode and non-Unicode. locale will require some form of In addition, Unicode maps reengineering work to be com- Korea , . KRW - 1,500.90 1,500.90 code points to characters, pleted. This article will focus on but does not actually speci- the basic technical and engi- Locale Sort Order for CCJK Ideographic Characters fy how the data will be rep- neering issues companies face resented in memory, in a In phonetic order. This is the default for the Simplified Chinese locale. when preparing their existing Simplified database or on a Web page. Or by the number of strokes required to draw the character. This is products for Asia. Chinese This is where the actual The first and most obvi- provided as an alternative sort method. encoding of Unicode data Traditional ous difference that most com- By the number of strokes required to draw the character. comes into play. Finally, panies think of is the language Chinese there are many different difference and the translation In phonetic order. Roman, kana and kanji characters types of encoding for Japanese effort. But the other and usu- in Shift-JIS are sorted phonetically. Unicode. The three that are ally the more daunting tasks most commonly used are are the technical challenges Korean In phonetic order. Hanja and hangul characters are intermixed. UCS-2, UTF-16 and UTF- of converting and enabling 8. Some other Unicode en- English-based single-byte software to one of To enable English-based software to sup- coding variations include UCS-4 and UTF-7. the Asian languages. port CCJK locales, there are two common When referring to the Asian markets, approaches. The first approach is to base the Localization Engineering most companies group the CCJK languages localized version on native encoding and to for CCJK Locales (Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, “enable” the English-based application to Japanese and Korean) as one set of locales, and support multibyte characters correctly. The Once the fundamentals of internation- then other Asian languages such as those of other approach is to base it on Unicode alization are completed, a firm can move Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, encoding and to “reengineer” the English- into the actual process of globalization. The Vietnam and other mostly Southeast Asian based application for global languages. In first step of this process is typically the locales as separate locale sets. The CCJK locales English or single-byte languages, one charac- globalization assessment or technical audit. are the most complex locales for software prod- ter is always one byte. There is no difference This should consist of a short-term assess- ucts as these locales have double-byte character between the number of characters and the ment to evaluate source structure, architec- sets. Due to the need to mix single-byte and number of bytes. In double-byte languages, ture and build process. Any third-party double-byte characters, they are also referred as one character could be one byte, two bytes or software internationalization issues should multibyte character sets (MBCS). more bytes. When the character is encoded in be identified during this phase. If these UCS-2 or wide character in C/C++, one char- products are not globalized, then the ven- Internationalization acter is always two bytes (or four bytes in dors that license these products need to be Engineering some systems), no matter if it is a character in contacted for an existing patch/fix or per- English or in a double-byte language. mission to use the needed code to fully The technical challenge begins on the Some firms may believe they have avoided enable the primary product to work as most basic of levels with the difference between the initial code dilemma by developing their designed in the global marketplace. At the 13 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA conclusion of the assessment, a detailed and another in katakana (pronunciation form). allow the user to choose whether or not to internationalization implementation proj- It should be noted that the katakana field has break lines between hangul characters. ect plan should be prepared in preparation to be longer. for implementation and internationaliza- Dictionary and lexicon. There is no space Putting It All Together tion enablement. Any third-party software character between any two adjacent words in internationalization issues should be iden- Japanese or Chinese, but for Korean there is a To be successful in the Asian markets, tified during this phase. If these products space character. The implication is that the one needs a proven product, a solid interna- are not localized, then the vendors who algorithm for the identification of an English tionalization and localization project plan and license these products need to be contacted word that relies on a space or the other delim- an engineering team well versed in Asian cod- for an existing patch/fix or permission to iters will not work correctly in Japanese and ing conversions. Depending on the internal use the needed code to fully enable the pri- Chinese. In order to have the ability to under- team’s familiarity and skill with product glob- mary product to work as designed in the stand what sequence of characters is a word, the alization, it may make sense to outsource the global marketplace. dictionary and lexicon should be used in entire reengineering effort to a technical part- The other main technical obstacles, most Japanese and Chinese. The typical case for this ner that specializes in DBCS reengineering. of which are locale-specific considerations that requirement is to double-byte enable the word- The model that Witness Systems, a large need to be addressed in order for the global- based English search engine. provider of call center software, followed was ization effort to be successful, should be Word wrapping rules. For CCJK word to launch its eQuality software suite into included in this plan. For Asian locales, the wrapping (line breaking) rules, it is common Japan using a Japanese subsidiary. Witness set main locale-specific up an office in Japan considerations are and researched firms to Address Formats for CCJK Locales date/time format, perform the interna- currency issues, first/ Locale Postcode Address Format Address Example tionalization and local- last name fields, ad- ization of its product [
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED
Single Language Company for Asian Translation and English<>Japanese Internationalization Localization Solutions Pacific Dreams has over 11 years of expertise in Engineering High-tech localization and translation are our specialties, technical document translation and software/Web site and our client list includes Intel, H-P and many other localization. We use TRADOS Team Edition, and our Manjiro International works closely with software technology leaders. If you’re looking for quality and experienced in-house translators collaborate to make development teams to design, implement and test timely completion of your projects, call Arial Global. our clients’ projects successful. products for global markets. We have fifteen years’ We offer: We provide: experience developing software for East Asia. Our • Specialization in Asian languages • User manual translation software internationalization services include: • Streamlined globalization processes to optimize your • Content and help file translation • Engineering Web translation and software localization results • UI (User Interface) translation • Project management • A highly experienced desktop publishing team • Double-byte enabling • Testing ready to polish your corporate image • Japanese search engine submissions • Training • Multilingual e-mail automation solutions to stay in • Web site marketing consulting touch with your overseas customers We work directly with clients and through alliances • Desktop publishing • In-country teams placed throughout Asia and with localization firms. coordinated by our US offices Pacific Dreams, Inc. 525 Glen Creek Road NW, Suite 230 Manjiro International Arial Global, LLC Salem, OR 97304 Box 9930, Philadelphia, PA 19118 1760 E. River Road, Suite 302, Tucson, AZ 85712 503-588-7368 • Fax: 503-588-7549 267-972-1034 520-615-9620 • Fax: 520-615-1957 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.pacificdreams.org www.manjirointernational.com www.arialglobalreach.com
Chinese-to-Chinese Conversion in a Nutshell Standard Chinese is written in two forms: Simplified Chinese conversion, takes this into account by “translating” SC to TC. For (SC), used mostly in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and example, the SC (computer) is converted to . This is simi- Traditional Chinese (TC), used mostly in Taiwan and Hong Kong. A lar to converting American truck to British lorry. common fallacy is that conversion between the two requires noth- The greatest difficulty that dictionary specialists, in collabora- ing more than character substitution. In fact, many converters tion with Chinese universities, faced in compiling comprehensive implement this fallacy by performing code conversion: substituting mapping tables (about 1.4 million entries) was determining the cor- characters by looking up in a one-to-one code-mapping table. Since rect lexemic equivalents, especially for information technology terms there are hundreds of one-to-many mappings, this leads to many and proper nouns. The table shows correct lexemic (L) and ortho- conversion errors, such as SC (hair) being converted to the graphic (O) conversions and shows errors resulting from using only nonsensical instead of because SC maps to both TC orthographic conversion. (hair) and (go out). Chinese conversion is important to software developers aspiring A much better approach is orthographic conversion: replacing to penetrate the East Asian market. A source of further information is strings on the word level. This requires segmenting texts into “words” the CJK Dictionary Institute (http://cjk.org/cjk/c2c/c2centry.htm), by sophisticated morphological analysis and using word-based ortho- which builds large-scale CJK lexical databases. graphic mapping tables. For example, the Simplified Chinese — Jack Halpern (comb one’s hair) is segmented into (comb) and (hair). Each is Orthographic English SC (PRC) TC (Taiwan) L/O TC (Hong Kong) L/O (Red wrong looked up in the table and then con- for Taiwan) verted to . is treated as a single unit, not unlike converting software L O British colour to American color. hair O O Orthographic conversion is good but not good enough because characteristic O O the vocabularies in the PRC, Taiwan computer L L and Hong Kong diverged significant- ly, and there are often distinct words Osama Bin Ladin L L for one concept. A more sophisticat- taxi L L ed approach, meaning-based lexemic 15 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA
Many American companies, especially small businesses, have realized the benefits of having a Web site to expand their potential WWebeb SiteSite TTranslationranslation market from just local customers to anyone in the world with Internet access. But many of these businesses have yet to tap the potential of for Japan on-line sales because of the language barrier. for Japan A case in point is Japan. Japan is an expensive country to advertise in, thus mak- ing on-line advertising through a company Ken F.. SakaiSakai Web site even more sensible. Only a small percentage of Japanese people read and understand English well enough for a Web providing Japanese pages on their Web sites. better communication with the linguists and site in English to be of any help. Web site Nearly 82% of Japanese international travelers engineers who perform the actual localization. translation helps defray the cost of advertis- go abroad for leisure, so this is not surprising. Another way to save money when hav- ing globally, as well as creates a direct link to Businesses in the travel and tourist industries ing your site localized is doing the string Japanese businesses and consumers. stand to benefit from Web site translation. But extraction yourself. Many businesses copy the According to Global Reach, an on-line with a growing percentage of Internet users and text of their Web sites into spreadsheets, resource that tracks Internet use by language one of the richest nations in the world, the using such programs as MS Excel, for easy and country, 65% of Web surfers live in non- Japanese market has an untapped potential reference between the English text and the English-speaking countries. Ten per cent of the waiting for any company with a Web site. target language. From there, linguists using Internet users are Japanese. Japan’s population translation memory (TM) software can has one of the world’s largest percentages of Web Site Localization translate the strings. TM software such as consumers and companies with Internet access. TRADOS not only provides consistency Interestingly enough, while 10% of This raises the following question: How between linguists, but also allows translators worldwide Internet users is impressive in itself, does one go about having a company’s Web to directly access various formats, including Japanese purchasing power could be much site localized? Although larger corporations spreadsheets or even HTML, PHP,XML, RTF more. According to a report published by the usually have people who specialize in local- and other types of files that use tags, saving World Bank, Japan’s gross domestic product ization, almost always projects of this nature, the step of extraction and compiling. (GDP) in 2002 was nearly four trillion dollars, which include Japanese translation, are out- As with string extraction, once extracted second only to that of the United States. That sourced. With the right translation company, strings have been translated, you can either amount is more than the combined GDPs of the process can be surprisingly simple. choose to have the translation company com- the third- and fourth-ranked countries (Ger- Because most translation companies pile the translation or insert the translated text many and the United Kingdom). network with other translation companies as yourself. The question on the need for string Furthermore, according to the Japanese well as freelance translators in order to han- extraction and compiling depends on the TM Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, dle a great deal of localization projects, software that is used by the translation com- even in a slow economy, 17 million Japanese researching and finding a few companies can pany, project requirements and client prefer- enjoyed overseas travel in 2002. Almost 82% are suffice for making contact with someone ences. Some businesses want to just give the sightseeing. The number increased by 10% over who either can localize a Web site into translation company HTML files in English the previous year. Thirty per cent of Japanese Japanese or at least knows someone who can. and get them back in Japanese. Others want to travelers visited the United States. However, going the extra mile and contact- have more control over the text by extracting With such market potential, as shown by ing those companies that actually handle the strings into spreadsheets. In general, using the nation’s international travel, GDP and Japanese localization directly can usually TM software that eliminates the step of Internet use, much opportunity is lost by save on the bottom line as well as result in extracting and compiling can move localiza- American companies simply be- tion along more quickly. At the cause of the language barrier. Total GDP 2002 Ranking Japanese Travelers same time, having extracted Shozo Kyutoku, a freelance trans- (in millions of US dollars) strings available for future site lator and director of the Japan 1. United States 10,416,818 Overseas Travelers: maintenance may be preferable in 17,818,590 in 2002 (16,216,000 in 2001) Translation Federation, says, “It is 2. Japan 3,978,782 some cases. A translation company wasteful for American companies 3. Germany 1,976,240 Travelers to United States: with the right software and expert- who spend substantial amounts of 4. United Kingdom 1,552,437 5,073,600 in 2002 (4,120,000 in 2001) ise should be versatile enough to money for their Web sites that can- 5. France 1,409,604 handle projects either way. 6. China 1,237,145 Purpose: Sightseeing 81.8% not be read by Japanese.” 7. Italy 1,180,921 Once Web site text has been One industry in particular Business 15.0% translated by linguists and com- 8. Canada 715,692 Other 3.2% that has already taken advantage 9. Spain 649,792 piled, whether manually or auto- of the potential Japanese market 10. Mexico 637,205 matically by the TM software, the is the Hawaiian hotel industry. References all-important QA check is a step Hotels such as the Sheraton that is all too often neglected. Make Global Reach: http://global-reach.biz/globstats/index.php3 Waikiki, the Halekulani, the Pa- sure from the start of any localiza- cific Beach Hotel and dozens of World Bank report: www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf tion project that you not only have others have increased their num- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport statistics: a QA check of the translated site www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/kankou-hakusyo/h13/000_.html ber of Japanese guests by simply included, whether by the same 16 GETTING
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED
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We • Japanese business cards localization solutions on time and on budget. are reliable, responsive and committed to quality. • Pamphlets • Software and Web site localization service • Product sheets • Korea’s software and Web site localization leader If you need professional and reliable Asian language • Logos and corporate identity material • Unsurpassed quality control and security management services, Golden View is your best choice! • Best personnel and latest equipment Golden View (China) gate39MEDIA, LLC Prolangs Co., Ltd. Technologies, Inc. 117 N. 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Sans serif fonts part of making sure the localized site comes of the market and warn against any conven- are not only more legible, but also lend a styl- across as it should, without any terms that are tions used on the site that would not be ish look to the site. out of context. For example, sometimes appropriate. With that in mind, remember Beyond the text of the Web site, site terms that appear by themselves can be trans- that depending on your target audience, not colors and graphics can be either the life or lated incorrectly because the translator does all of your content on the site always needs death of your localization project. Although not have the context. One example of this is to be translated. Not only may there be you want your Web site to look trendy and the word date. In most cases, if this term were pages that are irrelevant to the potential eye-catching for the Japanese market, you to appear by itself, linguists would translate it Japanese viewer, but also sites that contain should steer clear of using shocking colors, as the day of the month. However, if the Web industrial data and terms often only need such as bright red or yellow, for the domi- site is an on-line dating service, it could have partial translation for Japanese engineers to nant colors on your site. Less glaring shades a different meaning. This underscores the understand them. On the other hand, if the in smooth patterns tend to be popular importance of the QA check. site includes an order form or customer sup- among Japanese users. Animated graphics, In addition to a QA check, since no one port area in order to make the same services rather than static images, are standard on knows your product or service better than available on the localized site, those pages Japanese Web sites for getting the attention you, open communication through a desig- should be translated. of Japanese users. nated contact person during translation to Other issues of localization to be Companies whose Web sites already fea- answer questions translators may have is addressed include text size and fonts. Due to ture pages translated into Japanese include essential to ensuring the Web site translation the intricacy of Japanese characters, Japanese CNN, Google, Yahoo! and MSN. As the per- reflects the same meaning and tone as the Web sites tend to have larger text sizes than centage of Japanese consumers and compa- English site. Providing linguists with informa- those of their English counterparts. You will nies with Internet access grows, we can expect tion, such as terminology lists from any previ- want to take into account that Japanese text this trend of Web site translation to continue. ous translations done for the company or a will thus take up more space than English text, After establishing a site by which people any- temporary username and password for sites as sections of the site may have to be adjusted where in the world can learn about your com- that require log-in so that they can view the accordingly. Although the Japanese language pany, translation is the next step in breaking source text as it appears on the Web site, can has several fonts, traditional serif fonts should down communication barriers between your also help produce higher quality translation. be avoided in favor of more modern sans serif business and your customers. Ω 17 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED GOING GLOBAL: ASIA ExperiencesExperiences inin MarketingMarketing MTMT forfor IndonesianIndonesian
Helen McKay
If you think that you will find all the Before choosing English-to-Indonesian This was made extra difficult by the answers here to marketing language products as our first product, we had done our mar- inevitable fact that someone had beaten us to into Asia, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. keting homework. Or so we believed at the the punch. Just in the month or so before we After four years in the Asian market, we’re still time. Indonesia has a huge, educated and released Kataku, a translation system was learning, but we offer the following experi- thriving middle class. PC penetration is sig- placed on the market (a tool on CD for the ences in the hope that others will benefit from nificant, as the Indonesian language does not PC) at a cost that was high but still affordable. our mistakes and our successes. use a special script but the normal English And the uptake was tremendous. Was this tool For the last four years, our company, letterset. In effect, a PC off the US shelf can about to put us out of business? ToggleText, has been in the business of develop- simply be put straight into the Indonesian A quick request to an Indonesian col- ing a machine translation (MT) engine that will home and plugged in. league, and a copy was heading our way. This focus on translating the Pacific Rim languages. And so it was in those initial days that we tool had obviously been created by someone Our first product, translating English to made our first misapprehension of the with access to statistical programs, which Indonesian, was branded Kataku. It was released Indonesian marketplace. We assumed that if allows a very quick translator to be built. We in early 2003, and our focus has been to sell this one has a PC, a phone line and an Internet had used a mixed technology of statistical and product to its primary market in Indonesia. provider, then everyone can have access to the other techniques, so we felt our engine did a In those four years of lead-up, so much Web. And at the start, the number of Internet better job in most cases and had far better changed around us. We had begun develop- accounts was definitely multiplying by leaps promise for future quality. After all, we are in it ment in an atmosphere of positivity. The and bounds. for the long run. Our aim is to continue devel- world market was buoyant. Babelfish had What we weren’t told, and what we didn’t oping Kataku as time and resources permit and proven that MT had a viable role in commu- realize, was that the landline infrastructure of to make it far more capable in the long term. nication across the Web and was translating Indonesia is so poor that making a simple But what use was that aim if we were to be many thousands of pages per day. But during phone call is a case of hit and (generally) miss pushed out of the market in the initial stage? those years came the downturn in the Asian — let alone the near-impossible feat of con- Despite the obvious risk and the compe- economy, the democratic revolution in necting and maintaining an Internet connec- tition, ToggleText did decide to continue Indonesia itself, the sourness of the dot.com tion. With the upheavals of the last few years, because we believed that our solution would revolution, the failure of many other MT the downturn in the Asian economy has ultimately appeal to a wider audience than the development companies and on and on. resulted in a complete lack of significant PC version. While the world changed, our small improvement to the landline infrastructure. The initial business answer to making Melbourne team held its course to create our To sidestep the limitation of the country’s Kataku financially viable seemed to be to sell first product, Kataku, an MT system that landline system, Indonesians have in the last “accounts” with full functionality to Indone- would translate English to Indonesian. This couple of years unhesitatingly adopted the sian businesses. So I found myself in Jakarta, entry product was finally released in January mobile phone. sitting in an office, discussing possibilities with 2003, our initial step being to create a Web site So now, four years on, the market picture a number of interested parties. offering “free” translation of text and Web has changed considerably. Internet penetra- We had done the right thing. When pages (limited in size to 300 words). tion in the form of personal and home negotiating, always take your own interpreter. The response was immediate and defi- accounts has simply not materialized in It shows respect and gives you your own ally. nite. Each morning our e-mail box held notes Indonesia to the extent it had promised. So I looked over at our young interpreter. He sat from unknown users throughout Indonesia. where did that leave us, a provider of MT over to one side, trying to self-efface, silent, a “Thank you,” said one. “Now I see the Web.” the Web? strange yellowy-green color. He had been sick Said another, “Hello ToggleText! I want to say, Today, most Indonesians do have access out the car door at every traffic light on the Nice! I knew your site few months ago. It’s so to the Internet, but they don’t have accounts way in — carsick in the heat and fumes. nice. I hope the development never stops.” in their homes. Instead, they access the Web But at that moment, he wasn’t my main Linguistically speaking, the development team either through their workplaces or through concern. All the parties around me spoke felt their efforts vindicated. Indonesia is a local Internet cafés. This wide accessibility immaculate English, high-powered English, nation of 220 million people, most of whom, was reflected on our limited “free” translation the type of English that comes from education in one way or the other, have access to the site, as use of the site grew exponentially. It in the top business schools of America and Web. But 85% of the Web is still in English — quickly became necessary, though, to reassess Europe. As I fought to keep the Ockerisms out a language which for the bulk of people in how we would keep ToggleText financially of my speech, I heard every Ozzie drawling Indonesia is unknown or at best limited to a viable. We needed somehow to “sell” our vowel suddenly magnified. This group didn’t few words or phrases. product as well. need an interpreter, but fortunately they did 18 GETTING
GOING GLOBAL: ASIA GUIDE STARTED understand the problem of communication. surprised us because as linguists we are only to-English system, compared to what we had The support for our product was immediate, too aware of its failings). But something else considered to be the massive need to read the and the ideas flowed thick and fast. Finally, I happened. We got note after note asking, 85% of the Web in English? There seemed to felt that we were on the right track. demanding, begging for the opposite direction be no general answer evident at our end. So, So that is where we are at the moment. — Indonesian to English. Now, as those read- back to Jakarta. Working with ideas that are locally born and ers who are also developers will know only too It seems that there is also a “social” need bred, we are trying to reassess just what pre- well, creating a new language pair is a major in Indonesia — the need to know and speak cisely the market requires rather than what we undertaking, both technically and financially. English. This need is felt widely as a doorway thought it required. We don’t have any great We had prepared for this eventuality by to jobs, to position, to knowledge and oppor- answers yet, but we have a few that are defi- designing the architecture of Kataku in a way tunity. We had thought that it would be suffi- nitely different and worth pursuing. that would make most modules easily trans- cient to be able to read and understand a The most pressing issue in entering any ferable to the new language pair or direction. translation of English, but the true situation is new market, and this particularly applies in But linguistically, this is still a long way from that people also want to meet the challenge of Asia, is finding the right business partner. anything that translates even half-heartedly. learning to read and speak English, to eventu- That partner must have the right credentials What to do? At first we simply agreed that ally not need Kataku or its like at all. Asia does in the local market, must have a sound exist- this language pair was beyond our resources to not want to merely look on as the rest of the ing business and must share the same vision attempt at this point. Then we searched hard world moves forward. It urgently wants to for your products. We are still negotiating for more investment funds, but without our participate, fully and equally. with a number of parties, and it will probably first product proven in the marketplace and as We’ve finally had it brought home to us take another visit or more before we have a dot.com company, we just didn’t rate. Finally, that once we have developed a tool, the use to built the relationship and trust so important in March 2003, we gave in to the pressure of which it will be put is something we have to sit to a successful business partnership. requests and released a “trial” system, which back, recognize, accept and run with. And this In the meantime, something else had comes with large and conspicuous warnings of is especially so in Asia, so different a market- gone awry. Our carefully researched and con- its primitive developmental status, to our free place to the West, so difficult to predict with its trived business plan was subtly off-track again. site. The popularity of Kataku rose by leaps and vibrant, seemingly chaotic, day-to-day changes. In January 2003, when we first released bounds. In September 2003, the free site took ToggleText also has another language pair our “free” translation site, we received many just over a quarter of a million hits. And no in the pipeline, which is to be released once notes of thanks from users (and as I write this, one complains. Kataku is bedded down. This means another only one note lambasting the quality — or So how could we have got it wrong? market, again different. It’s a challenge. We’ll lack of quality — of the system, which really Why do so many people use our Indonesian- keep you posted. Ω Resources The continent of Asia stretches from the Middle East to Japan and is home cross-cultural communication issues and complex writing systems. These on- to more than half of the people in the world. Asia includes important line resources provide a starting point for exploring the business culture and information technology markets and increasing opportunities for offshore technology of this diverse region. development. Localization for Asia is complicated by time-zone differences, —David Fine Name Description Link Asia Society AsiaSource Provides information on culture, business, politics and history www.asiasource.org Asia Times Examines political, economic and business issues from an Asian perspective www.atimes.com Asia-Wikipedia The free encyclopedia entry for the continent of Asia www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia Asian Studies http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ Collaborative project that provides links to Asian Studies resources WWW Virtual Library WWWVL-AsianStudies.html Asia-Links Business and technology information www.asia-links.com NE Asia Online Business and technology content from Nikkei Electronics Asia www.asiabiztech.com US-Asia Technology Education and research center located within the Stanford University http://asia.stanford.edu Management Center School of Engineering Mobile Media Japan Information about Japan’s mobile marketplace www.mobilemediajapan.com E-commerce Legal Guide A practical introduction to electronic commerce legal issues in Asia www.bakerinfo.com/apec SIL International Ethnologue Describes the languages of Asia www.ethnologue.com/web.asp Unicode Consortium Information on the Unicode Standard www.unicode.org Omniglot Guide to writing systems www.omniglot.com The CJK Dictionary Institute Resource for Chinese, Japanese and Korean dictionary data www.cjk.org/cjk National Library of Australia Resource for government listings www.nla.gov.au/gov/asiagov.html Asia Pacific Web site for on-line magazine providing a unique strategic view www.apmforum.com Management Forum of Asian trends Asian Open Source Aims to promote open source software and free software in Asia www.asiaosc.org Centre (AsiaOSC) and to be a key resource of Asian Open Source information MIMOS Berhad, a technology R&D organization, acts as an advisor to the Malaysian MIMOS Open Source government on technologies, policies and strategies relating to technology development http://opensource.mimos.my
19 GETTING
GUIDE STARTED SubscriptionSubscription OfOfferfer
This supplement introduces you to the Wide Web for e-mail, for purchasing more complex. Leaders in the development magazine MultiLingual Computing & services, for promoting your business of these systems explain how they work and Technology. Published nine times a year, or for conducting fully international e- how they work together. filled with news, technical developments commerce, you’ll benefit from the informa- and language information, it is widely tion and ideas in each issue of MultiLingual Internationalization recognized as a useful and informative pub- Computing & Technology. lication for people who are interested in the Making software ready for the interna- role of language, technology and transla- Translation tional market requires more than just a good tion in our twenty-first-century world. idea. How does an international developer How are translation tools changing prepare a product for multiple locales? Will Language Technology the art and science of communicating ideas the pictures and colors you select for a user and information between speakers of dif- interface in France be suitable for users in From multiple keyboard layouts and ferent languages? Translators are vital to Brazil? Elements such as date and currency input methods to Unicode-enabled opera- the development of international and formats sound like simple components, but ting systems, language-specific encodings, localized software. Those who specialize in developers who ignore the many interna- systems that recognize your handwriting or technical documents, such as manuals for tional variants find that their products may your speech in any language — language computer hardware and software, industri- be unusable. You’ll find sound ideas and technology is changing day by day. And this al equipment and medical products, use practical help in every issue. technology is also changing the way in which sophisticated tools along with professional people communicate on a personal level; expertise to translate complex text clearly Localization changing the requirements for international and precisely. Translators and people who software; and changing how business is done use translation services track new develop- How can you make your product look all over the world. ments through articles and news items in and feel as if it were built in another coun- MultiLingual Computing & Technology MultiLingual Computing & Technology. try for users of that language and culture? is your source for the best information and How do you choose a localization service insight into these developments and how Managing Content vendor? Developers and localizers offer they will affect you and your business. their ideas and relate their experiences with How do you track all the words and the practical advice that will save you time and Global Web changes that occur in a multilingual Web money in your localization projects. site? How do you know who’s doing what Every Web site is a global Web site, and and where? How do you respond to cus- And There’s Much More even a site designed for one country may tomers and vendors in a prompt manner require several languages to be effective. and in their own languages? The growing Authors with in-depth knowledge Experienced Web professionals explain and changing field of content management summarize changes in the language indus- how to create a site that works for users and global management systems (CMS and try and explain its financial side, describe everywhere, how to attract those users to GMS), customer relations management the challenges of computing in various lan- your site and how to keep it current. (CRM) and other management disciplines guages, explain and update encoding Whether you use the Internet and World is increasingly important as systems become schemes and evaluate software and sys- tems. Other articles focus on particular countries or regions; translation and local- To subscribe, use our secure on-line form at ization training programs; the uses of lan- guage technology in specific industries — a wide array of current topics from the world wwwwww.multilingual.com/subscribe.multilingual.com/subscribe of multilingual computing. Nine times a year, readers of Multi- Be sure to enter this on-line registration code: Lingual Computing & Technology explore suplmt language technology and its applications, project management, basic elements and advanced ideas with the people and com- panies who are building the future. 20