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Who knew that Indonesians were such an active online crowd? The country, which boasts the world’s fourth-largest population (at 230 million people), is the third biggest Facebook-using nation in the world, and has the most Facebook and Twitter users in Asia.  (more…)

The first few catalogues from travel agents have already arrived in mailboxes throughout Denmark, full of glitzy pictures of white sand and sapphire oceans. But when it comes to finding inspiration for the summer holidays, Danes prefer the internet. (more…)

China’s largest search engine, Baidu, and Japan’s major online e-commerce site, Rakuten, have recently opened China’s largest online mall. The two companies announced a few months back that they would invest £32 million for three years to create this B2C online mall, called JV (Joint Venture).  (more…)

It was a historic day for the web. On May 6th, the first Arabic language web addresses became available for public use. (more…)

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

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

Britain’s universities are working hard to attract international students. With the government announcing British Universities are to expect a £950 million cut in funding over the next 3 years, higher education institutions need to look elsewhere for financial support. The average non-EU student tuition fees for arts and science undergraduate degrees are around £10,000 per year, and with the potential to reach £20,000 depending on the course and establishment, the financial benefits for cash-strapped UK universities to recruit international students is obvious.

Having a strong online presence is vital. Statistics show that 31.7% of the 338 million Internet users in China are students. It is likely that students already look to the Internet as their primary source of information on UK universities. Here are a few steps universities can take to ensure they target the right market, and that usability is optimised:

• Identify key phrases specific to the target market. Incorporating them into the site will vastly improve SEO. Oban Multilingual SEO/SEM found that in China, for example, great importance is placed on the prestige of the university. Therefore it would be beneficial to feature a section on the university’s ‘ranking’ – a popular search phrase for Chinese students.

• Localised research will give an insight into what students are looking for. A prominent London university points out that whilst business, law, and economics degrees are popular with their Chinese students, performing arts, media and psychology degrees are the chosen topics for Japanese. Marketing the subjects that are more likely to be popular within a nationality is more likely to bring ROI.

• Social network sites are an effective way to market to potential international students. A vast majority of SNS users are young people (aged 16-24). Again, it is important to keep in mind the locality of the market. Although Facebook and Twitter maybe the initial SNS that spring to mind in the UK, in China www.renren.com is popular with the student demographic.

Although Britain is currently second only to the USA in attracting overseas students, the competition is growing. France, Singapore and Germany are just a few of the countries who have employed strategies to attract potential international students, and with recent and upcoming changes to the UK’s student visa policy, it is more important than ever for the UK’s higher education institutions to up their stakes in international marketing. The key to their success is to embrace modern technological advances.

By Anna Pearce

If there’s one area of the high street that has been less affected by 2009’s financial downturn than others it is fashion retail. In fact, some high street giants such as Topshop and Miss Selfridge, both part of the Arcadia Group, reported record profits for last year.

What’s even more evident is the marked, and continuing growth reported by online fashion retailers. The e-commerce industry body IMRG reports that online sales of clothing, shoes and accessories were up by 18% from Dec 2008 – 2009, and that fashion e-tailers were the leaders in the UK online market.

It is generally acknowledged that internet shopping has provided customers with a whole new shopping experience, making it far easier and quicker for us to get our hands on the most recent must-haves, and allowing companies to maximise sales by reaching a market of consumers who might not have easy access to their stores.

By taking the notion of online retailing one step further and going international, the opportunities for growth for the retailer are taken to a whole new level. Cross-border e-commerce has proven to be hugely successful for online fashion retailer ASOS.

Launched ten years ago, ASOS (As Seen On Screen) currently sells to 150 countries. From France to Fiji and from Ireland to Iran, ASOS reports having 2.9 million registered users worldwide. These days, an image of a British celebrity wearing the latest trend can be published instantly around the world on the net, potentially creating a huge demand for the exact look. By grabbing this opportunity with both hands, ASOS managed to up their international sales by 102 % last year alone. In fact, the site has done so well in the USA that the company plan to start up a US-specific site later this year, a project fellow retail giant Topshop has already taken on, and is currently reaping the rewards of.

ASOS states that it increases its multicultural usability by sticking to the guidelines set out in the Plain English Campaign by keeping the English language on the site clear and concise. It also features a currency converter for all of the countries it markets to. By making the website as culturally ‘friendly’ as possible, ASOS broadens it potential customer base.

Ensuring a website’s usability maximises its full potential provides companies with the ability to gather far more detailed consumer data. By using the information gathered from cross-border purchases and subscriptions to e-newsletters etc, companies can target popular trends, age groups and sizes, and ensure that their sites reach a global market in the best possible way.

With such a globalised fashion and celebrity culture, now is the time for online fashion retailers to take full advantage of international e-commerce. Statistics show that shoppers are gradually becoming more and more confident buying products from abroad, with cross-border purchasing having more than doubled since 2003. And while both businesses and customers have expressed concerns over fraud, payment problems, and logistics when it comes to overseas online purchasing, with today’s advanced security software, safe payment options such as PayPal, and with the benefits of selling internationally being so evident, surely now is the time to reach out to the global fashion community.

Source http://www.imrg.org/8025741F0065E9B8/%28httpPressReleases%29/546442736834C8CE802576B200597E8A?OpenDocument

By Anna Pearce

Need to communicate with customers in different languages, but don’t have a keyboard for each specific character set? No problem! Check out Keitor.com, where you can find virtual keyboards in just about any alphabet you seek, from Arabic, to Greek, to Hindi, to Polish, Russian, and even Mongolian.