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South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) and global internet payment system PayPal announced their new partnership at the end of March. This means that South African internet shoppers can now carry out transactions to and from their FNB accounts, and sell and purchase services and goods with 190 markets worldwide swiftly and safely. The move highlights ecommerce opportunities for foreign markets at a time when, thanks to the World Cup, South Africa is in the spotlight, and reflects the general progress being made in SA to improve and encourage international ecommerce.

Previously, South Africa has been considered an almost ‘no-go’ area for foreign businesses wanting to carry out ecommerce. A low internet population, poor connectivity, and issues with fraud and payment problems being a few of the hurdles they would have been expected to jump. However, the internet is moving forward in SA, and this is opening up windows of opportunity for businesses worldwide.

The 17,000 km SEACOM undersea cable system was launched in July 2009, and is the first in a series of undersea cable systems expected to vastly improve South Africa and neighbouring countries international internet connectivity by linking them to various regions across the world. The cable has increased bandwidth enormously, and the hope is that it will support South Africa’s economic and technological growth. Already, the effects the cable has had on internet usage in South Africa are evident. Between 2002 and 2007, internet population growth never rose above 8% year on year. In 2009, there was a reported 15% growth from 2008, from 4.6 million to 5.3 million, and by 2011 the internet population is expected to be at 11 million. Plans for further cables are underway, and if all are carried out, the international internet capacity of SA will have increased 150-fold since 2008.

The undersea cable has also had a positive effect on internet pricing in South Africa. Before 2009 Telkom held the ISP monopoly in the country. Now, although Telkom still holds the market share, there are a range of competitors, including Neotel, Vodacom and MWeb. With such competition, operators are now working on providing users with the best rates. MWeb and Vox Telecom have just announced plans to provide customers with an uncapped ADSL broadband tariff, and Vodacom offer a 50% off deal for their business customers. In a country where, for many, internet has been inaccessible due to expensive rates, these price drops should open up access for a much wider demographic of the country.

The outlook is promising for ecommerce in South Africa. Statistics show that there was a 7% increase in internet retailing in 2009, and with higher rates of employment and disposable incomes, people will be looking for quicker and convenient ways to shop. Previously, trust in online shopping has been low, however, with some of South Africa’s leading retailers such as Woolworths and Pick ‘n’ Pay opening online stores, trust is expected to increase. The Mastercard Worldwide Online Shopping Survey 2010 showed only 5% of respondents use only offline channels to browse and purchase goods. With these statistics in mind, South Africa could hold a lot of potential for UK businesses. Research into South African ecommerce and internet usage should be carried out in order to develop an international SEO and web marketing strategy. By doing this, businesses can not only expand into a market which holds great potential, but also assist in the economic and technological advancement of 2010’s most celebrated country.

Multi-national companies are on the rise, and India is at the forefront of the expansion, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has announced. Over 2200 Indian companies are set to develop their operations outside of India in the next 15 years, highlighting the importance for UK businesses to forge relationships with businesses from overseas.

Some businesses in ‘emerging’ countries such as Russia, Malaysia, India, and parts of Eastern Europe, are finding it hard to establish themselves due to rising levels of competition, and are looking to set up camp outside of their home countries in order to secure resources and build better relationships with foreign markets.

It’s important for UK businesses to form alliances with these multi-national businesses in order to secure their own place in the market.

“UK companies need to work hard to interact and deal with the new players and also to expose their own goods and services to rapidly growing markets around the world. Companies that are able to build early alliances with emerging market multi-nationals will be safeguarding their business models for the future.” said Chris Hemming, Global Head of Corporate finance, PwC.

Anna Pearce, Oban Multilingual, International SEO

International online retail giant ASOS have announced they are to launch an online marketplace, allowing users to sell their new and second hand clothes at a fixed price via the ASOS site to buyers in all of it’s markets.

The global success story that is ASOS will advise sellers on how best to present their clothes in order to help them maximise their sales, and will also allow independent retailers to set up their own stores, similar to the marketplaces of Amazon and EBay’s fashion outlet.

The company, who saw a massive 102% growth in overseas sales last year up to March 2010, and a 35% growth in overall revenue, are keen to pursue the same successes for 2010, and chief executive Nick Robertson has highlighted the company’s plans to focus further on its international players by launching country-specific sites in Germany, France and the US.

ASOS have said they are in the ‘advanced stages’ of launching the marketplace and it is expected to arrive later this year.

It looks like 2010 could be another exciting year for the company, and also international fashion etail.

By Anna Pearce, Oban Multilingual SEO

Today is an historic day for internet users across the globe, a report by the BBC announced on its news site earlier, as it marks the day that non-Latin web addresses have gone live.

Net regulator the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have switched on the long awaited system which allows full web addresses to feature no Latin characters. This means the arrival international domains which can be written in scripts such as Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic.

More than 20 countries have requested approval for international domains from ICANN in 11 different languages. In some parts of the world, such as Russia (where the ICANN approved Cyrillic IDNs in November last year), the registration of native character based domains has been going on for a while, and the launch means that millions of people will finally be able to type web addresses in their own language.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are the first counties to have Arabic country codes that will look like this:

• Egypt: مصر
• Saudi Arabia: السعودية
• United Arab Emirates: امارات

“All three are Arabic script domains, and will enable domain names written fully right-to-left,” said Kim Davies of ICANN in a blog post.

When ICANN first announced its plans for non-Latin web names it said it was the “biggest change” to the net “since it was invented 40 years ago”.

“Over half the internet users around the world don’t use a Latin-based script as their native language,” said Mr Beckstrom at the time.

“IDNs are about making the internet more global and accessible for everyone.”

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10100108.stm

By Anna Pearce, Oban Multilingual.

The world’s top fashion designers and luxury retailers are looking to Asian markets to increase sales, a Reuters article has reported.

Singapore, which has the highest density of millionaires in the world, last week hosted the Audi Fashion Festival, a showcase of some of the world’s leading designers. Singapore hopes to join cities such as Paris and New York as a renowned fashion capital, and it could easily achieve this, as the city’s abundance of luxury malls attract people wanting to spend big from all over Asia.

“Western designers have realized there’s a great deal of money to be had in Asia and they can see that customers in China and India are moving very quickly toward becoming consumers of the very highest level,” Colin McDowell, creative director of the Audi Fashion Festival, told Reuters.

Consumers in prosperous Asian markets such as China and Singapore haven’t slowed down their spending on luxury goods since the recession unlike other parts of the world, and in a culture fixated on branding and image, the prosperous demographics are determined to spend on designer labels. Some designers have even reported that their biggest markets are in China.

With Asian markets showing so much potential, and with reports stating that the West are still slightly reluctant to splurge on luxury goods, designers and high end retailers might want to think about heading East, and with the Asian internet market being so promising, what better way to do this than online?

By Anna Pearce, Oban Multilingual SEO

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63S0TL20100429

The internet savvy youth of China are going gaga for English words and phrases, an article in The Times reported yesterday.

According to the article, the phrase ‘Oh my Lady Gaga!’ is popping up all over Chinese blogs and forums, replacing their past fascination with the English phrase ‘Oh my God!’.

Other examples of English phrases creeping into China’s forums and blogs are the acronyms ‘LOL’ (Laugh out Loud) and ‘IMAO’ (In My Arrogant Opinion).

The trend is causing debate amongst linguists and government figures, some of whom believe that the influx of English terms on the internet could result in diminished use of the Chinese language. Others argue that taking on words and phrases from other cultures is a sign of being culturally aware and in touch with the modern world.

Certain English acronyms and words have already been restricted on television and in newspapers in China. The acronym NBA (National Basketball Association) now has to be pronounced in a Chinese ten syllable phrase, a bit of a mouthful for the sports commentators who follow Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball player who’s one of the NBAs biggest stars.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7103634.ece

Russia’s government last month announced possible plans to launch a national search engine, their aim being to have tighter control over filtration, and to ensure the ‘safe access of information’. The venture would set them back around $100 million (around £65 million), and it would be a long and lengthy process to overtake the market leader Yandex, who currently hold 62.8% of the market share in Russia. Despite the plans being questionable, the announcement does bring to attention certain aspects of the Russian search market.

Yandex is the world’s fastest growing search engine, with a massive 80% growth between December 09 and 10. Its popularity in Russia is mostly down to its in-depth and through knowledge of the “complexities and nuances of the Russian language”. The semantics of the Russian language differ from those of the English language, such as the notion of the ‘perfective’ and ‘imperfective’ verb. Whilst Google is able to function reasonably in the Russian language, it still has the foundations of a search engine which was built to work for the English language and Latin script, and therefore can have problems understanding the finer details of Russian semantics. Yandex was built and developed for the Russian language, and understands it as well as Google understands English, which is undoubtedly why it’s Russia’s search engine of choice.

So, what does this mean for UK businesses wanting to improve on their SEO in Russia?

Firstly, it important to stress that, as with all multilingual SEO, simply translating a site from English to Russian will not suffice. Research needs to be carried out into the intricacies of Russian search behaviours, such as popular key words and phrases. Oban Multilingual SEO found that Russian searchers often use plural phrases when searching i.e. ‘search engines’ rather than ‘search engine’. Yandex does have its own keyword tool, Wordstat, which provides users with a better insight to Russian search behaviours than the Russian Google keyword tool.

Backlinking is important when it comes to search engine optimisation in Russia, however, carrying out the process effectively can be tricky. Many link directories can be spammy and irrelevant, and although there is the possibility to sign up to lots of them, websites who do will be penalized in Yandex search results. Instead, it’s best to follow the same rules as when backlinking for Google – select quality and industry related links, and essentially with Russian-based sites.

Some examples of relevant business related directories in Russia are http://www.ipag.ru/,  http://navigator.yp.ru/ and http://www.allbusiness.ru/.

Yandex, like other ‘local’ search engines such as China’s Baidu, prefers sites hosted in Russia, with a Russian domain name i.e. .ru. In 2009 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced its approval for the use of top level domain names i.e.com, .net, .ru, featuring non-Latin characters. This means that Russia’s most popular top level domain name can now be written in Cyrillic (‘.ru’ becomes ‘.рф’, which stands for ‘Rossiyskaya Federatsiya’ – Russian Federation). Yandex haven’t yet made it clear whether they are planning to hold preference to Cyrillic domain names, but if they do, it will have a huge effect on SEO practice in Russia.

Russia holds a promising online market. By looking at the trends of local search, the complexities of the Russian language and by adhering to the principles of Yandex, UK businesses can improve their search rankings, and reap the rewards of what Russia has to offer.

Greig Holbrook

London and Brighton, April 12, 2010. TranslateMedia, the award winning global translation agency, and Oban Multilingual, the Brighton-based consultancy agency specialising in multilingual SEO and international SEM, forge an alliance to offer a complete localisation service.

As both companies are contributing with years of expertise in their respective fields they are able to offer a highly customised service for international businesses wishing to optimise their SEO efforts.  Patrick Eve, Managing Director at TranslateMedia, states, “We saw a need to offer a more digitally focused translation service in addition to our more traditional offering, and we therefore wanted to collaborate with a successful SEO agency that had the necessary technical expertise and track record. Oban Multilingual was therefore a natural choice as they have been offering expert advice in this field for years.”

“There is huge potential for businesses to expand into emerging foreign markets, however, with around 70% of those searching the web not speaking English, companies need an effective multilingual strategy. That’s where Oban and TranslateMedia step in.” says Greig Holbrook, MD of Oban Multilingual. By joining forces, Oban and TranslateMedia will offer businesses the highest standard of multilingual SEO and translation services.

Oban Multilingual is a world leader in multilingual search engine optimisation and marketing, and has been at the forefront of multilingual SEO/SEM for several years. Oban’s core strength lies in its unique ability to be able to produce multilingual SEM services of the highest quality. Their teams of experts, based in over 26 countries across the world, are able to offer clients local solutions to global SEO/SEM campaigns ensuring that the most effective search strategy is developed for each market. Oban have worked with some of the world’s leading businesses in retail, travel, property and technology amongst others, and has a unique and critical understanding of local search vocabulary, behaviours, trends and engines in over 26 different markets.

TranslateMedia is one of the fastest growing global translation companies, with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Munich and Brussels. TranslateMedia employs 5,000 specialist translators and covers 80 languages. The company has recently been selected for the Media Momentum Top 50 List of the fastest growing Digital Media Companies in Europe for 2010.The company works primarily with the largest global firms and provides a round the clock service for technical, marketing and legal translations. It is one of a short list of global agencies to be certified the highest quality assurance standard for translation services (EN 15038:2006) and has developed a corporate portal for clients to post jobs from anywhere and at anytime online.

With the popularity of other, China-based search engines set to rise thanks Google’s threat to close down their Google.cn site, in turn freeing up the market, businesses need to optimise their site to suit their search processes. However, simple translation of websites will not suffice. Taking an example from Oban’s area of business, the phrase ‘to Twitter’ translates to ‘织围脖’’ – ‘to knit yourself a scarf’ in English. Localised research needs to be carried out in order to ensure UK businesses can successfully tap into the expanding Chinese market. Here are a few pointers on how to improve SEO in China:

• After recent changes, China’s biggest search engine, Baidu, no longer automatically ranks pages with an overly high keyword density above others. Before this the recommended amount was between 6-12%, it is now 3-4%.

• Baidu may be the major player in search in mainland China, however it is barely used in Hong Kong, so businesses should look at local search behaviours when targeting specific provinces of China.

• Unsurprisingly, Chinese search engines prefer sites hosted in China. Businesses would have more success in terms of SEO by getting hosted in China, or at least adopting a local domain i.e. com.cn.

The popularity of social networking sites in China is also a factor that needs to be addressed when it comes to marketing. One third of the 384 million domestic internet users are also regular SNS users. Again, locality is important. The top SNS sites in China are QQ and RenRen, and businesses are more likely to reach the Chinese demographic if they develop marketing strategies here than on the popular Western sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

A localised approach and a good understanding of search dynamics are essential to the success of websites in overseas markets. By adapting websites to improve SEO and SEM in China, UK businesses can open themselves up to the biggest online market in the world.

Oban Multilingual SEO Director Greig Holbrook

http://econsultancy.com/blog/5686-why-you-should-avoid-twitter-in-china