Going interna+onal
new scopes and new problems
for web services
Mario Ruckh, 1st June 2008, elektrischau.de

Agenda
Reasons for going interna@onal?
•
How interna@onal is interna@onal?
•
Mul@language or Mul@local?
•
How to get transla@ons done?
•
PiDalls in interna@onalisa@on?
•
Case: Kindo.com
•

Reasons for going global
• Background
– Globalisa@on offers new possibili@es
– Technical development lowers entry barriers
• Reasons
– Reaching to new markets
– Niche markets might be too small in one country
– Heading the compe@@on (stay independent)
– Leverage technology
– Different cultures, preferences, usage paRerns
– Interna@onal iden@ty, interna@onal brand

Europe is interna+onal!
• \"The most difficult thing about being in Europe is that the
online‐ad market is very fragmented.”
Bogaert (Netlog)
• „European start‐ups have to extend beyond their comfort zones and
globalize much sooner than U.S. ones.“
Neil Rimer (Index Ventures)

Mul+ Language or Mul+ Local

Admin backend

Community‐based Transla+ons

PiFalls in going interna+onal
Technical Problems (le_‐to‐right, character sets, gender/cases,...)
•
Problems with scalability
•
Management and administra@on effort
•
Cultural differences in how to work together
•
Language problems
•
In e‐business:
•
– Currency problems
– Different payment methods

Get your family together…
Please treat this informa@on as confiden@al

…learn more about them…
Please treat this informa@on as confiden@al

…share memories.
Kindo Team, 7 devs, 3 marketeers, 10 country manager (part‐@me)
Please treat this informa@on as confiden@al

Business Model
Kindo Team, 7 devs, 3 marketeers, 10 country manager (part‐@me)
Please treat this informa@on as confiden@al

Discussion
Go global vs. get 50 mio German‘s first
•
Professional translators vs. Volunteers vs. Part‐Timers
•
Crowdsouring vs. Admin backend
•
What market to go to?
•