IsraelStartUpNetwork - IBM, Israel
October 12th, 2010
Using Languages
for
Market-Entry
by Tom Mueck
Prelude

Before main topic

A few words about selecting technology

Experiences gained in a start-up
Start-up with an Edge (1of 6)

Early on we discussed technology platforms: Multi-core hardware





The Free Lunch is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software – Herb
Sutter
The Trouble with Multi-Core – David Patterson (ParLab UC Berkeley), IEEE Spectrum July
2010
In contrast with: Programming Languages Popularity
The situation in Israel

Blog: Hummus Manifesto: Tommorrow's Technology

By Michael Eisenberg who is partner @ Benchmark Israel
Functional, Parallel & Concurrent Programming

Endgadget article: 26 core mobile phone

NoSQL data storage technology

Scalability
Starting-up with an Edge


Paul Graham “Beating the Averages”

Start-up: do something odd to be better: LISP

Power of programming languages

High-level language < > machine language

“for application software, you want to be using the most
powerful (reasonably efficient) language you can get, and
using anything else is a mistake...”
Y-Combinator a well known VC firm

Y Combinator does seed funding for startups. Seed funding is the
earliest stage of venture funding. It pays your expenses while you're
getting started.
Start-up with an Edge (2)
Source: www.langpop.com
Start-up with and Edge (3)
Source: David
Patterson, The Trouble
With Multi-Core 2010
Next Slide

Overview of programming languages

Chart with explanation


Article: Programming Paradigms for Dummies :
What every programmer should know
Resources

Source: Catholique Univ of Louvaine
“Markets are Conversations”

ClueTrain Manifesto: 2000


“The End of Business as Usual”
Still true today

Just more complex: more communication channels than
in 2000

More opportunities to make mistakes

Languages as a way to enter new markets

Multi-language apps: a way of concurrency
Main Part

Start-ups in Israel, United States & Europe

How to do better than the competition

Languages are the first step

Localization is the second step

Payment systems, local office, customer service, etc.

Languages are another type of API

Languages are an inexepensive resource

1,000 words: from $ 36 – 200

Crowd sourcing is an established practice
Example of a Pioneer

Joel on Software, Blog by Joel Spolsky

First wave of translations (2002-2005)

2006 moved to a wiki

Crowd sourcing



A few hundred volunteers

Over 30 languages
Provides guidelines to volunteers

Guidelines for Translators

Clarifications and Explanations
Blog post on Translation
http://www
How does the Disconnect Happen?
Start-up Culture

Computer science graduates/ classmates

Google code, github, …

Industry conferences

English the lingua franca of the Venture Capital community

High-tech culture not in tune with the major global trend

Entrepreneur never met a Translator

Translators are freelancers: app & API developers to markets & customers

High-tech start-up culture far removed from a multi-language culture

Small teams are international, but not the companies they start

A new mind set?
The World Wide Fish Bowl



95% of links in the U.K. lead to other sites in the U.K.

Probably similar in other countries

State capitalism favors that trend
U.S. International News Coverage

1970's 35%

2000's 12%
Geo-coded Wikipedia



Elite country authors writing about elite countries
Facebook

Meet your friends

Does that widen your world
Twitter

24% of U.S. users are African American

Many Brazilians

Topics segregated by ethnic groups
Social Spaces & Back Draft

Designing Social Interfaces

Activities

Community

Self

Social Media Marketing

Social Networks

Location based services

Next Slide
English Language

Total Speakers :

1st Language
.309 - 0.40 BB

Total Speakers: 2nd
.199 - 1.40 BB

Overall:
.500 - 1.80 BB
Global Perspective
Trends


Global Urbanization

Intensifies access to and need for information

The shift is “a watershed in human history, comparable to the Neolithic or Industrial revolutions,” urban theorist
Mike Davis wrote in his book “Planet of Slums.”

Immigrant language communities (parts of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s)

Video about Dhaka (Bangladesh), by definition residents not registered where they actually live, water crisis
Mobile internet: languages are more important because of higher market penetration of mobile terminals
vs. desktop terminals



Translation is not yet popular among non-multinational corporations
Markets less free & dynamic

State capitalism & financial crisis vs. Globalization (flat world)

States vs. corporations: less agreement (G8 > G20)

“The End of the Free Market” by Ian Bremmer, video
WWW in 2015: Competition & Diminishing returns

Web presence: web site, blogging, twittering, etc.

Aggregation of content and connections: Social Networks - App stores
Start-up Outside the Fish Bowl

Ethan Zuckerman, co-Founder of Global Voices
Online


“sharing news and opinions from citizen media in over
150 nations”

translating content from over 30 languages

publishing editions in 20 languages

Senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Center

Video link (on TED which is in 17 languages!)
Get out of your Fish Bowl

“Open up your Twitter world”

“Read the news in languages you don't even know”.
Fun -Fact: Content Strategy
Kenzaburo Oe


(Japanese writer,
Nobel prize)
“Football in the First
Year of Man'en.”

Published 1967

English Translation.

“The Silent Cry”
Remote Markets
Starting in Out-of-the-Way Places




Tested and proven strategy
Start in the country and then
move to main street
Walton's Five and Dime Store:
Bentonville Arkansas
Enterprise car-rental

Enterprise residential markets
not airports
Rapidly Developing Economies (1)

Dynamic Local
Companies

Ingenious business model

Home advantage

Latest technology

Latest business practices

Obstacles for Multinationals become
opportunities
Source: Boston Consulting Group

Bollywood


Focus Media


Khosla ka Ghosla
Largest outdoors
advertiser in China
Grupo Positivo

PC maker Brazil

Larger than Dell + HP
market share combined
Rapidly Developing Economies (2)

Shanda (China)


CavinKare (India)


1-child families in China, willing to spend more than multi-child families.
Independent Media (Russia)


Cheap sachets of shampoo: small local retailers using educational marketing.
Goodbaby (China)


gaming-company combating software-piracy / overcome a lack of a financial infrastructure
pre-paid cards.
Dutch entrepreneur: selling Russian version of western magazines in Russia: hired street
kids: newspaper boys.
Amul (India)

Collects and pays for milk locally, while tracking all operations via satellite and uses ERP
solutions to analyse demand.
Rapidly Developing Economies (3)

Wimm-Bill-Dann (Russia)


which works local partners, leasing schemes for expensive machinery, serves
280 million consumers nation-wide.
Tom's little pet peeve

Muze provider of media information, metadata, and digital preview samples

enables search, discovery, and purchase of digital entertainment content.

Support the sale of entertainment products


music tracks and albums, videos and dvds, books, and video games

attract and retain subscribers to Internet, mobile, and social networking sites.
Based in New York City with operations in North America and the United
Kingdom

Acquired by Rovi Corp

English only => other languages and markets
Rapidly Developing Economies (4)

BCG study of local dynamos
Source Tech IT Easy
Positioning

What differentiates Israeli start-ups from their
competitors elsewhere in the world?


Innovation, ingenuity, creativity, sophistication, onestep-ahead of the curve
Well connected to the world?
Market Research on behalf of Israel's Foreign Ministry
India, the most pro-Israel country.
58%
56%
52%
52%
50%
India
United States
Russia
Mexico
China
34% Great Britain
27% France
23% Spain
Source: DanielPipes.org
World Population
Bettina Speckmann Universiteit Eindhoven
How are the top ten internet
languages represented
among start-up companies
in U.S. or in the E.U.?
How about Israeli start-up
companies?
Languages of Internet Users 2010
Source: Internet World Stats
India

A market that will integrate domestically first and then globally

Language integration still a problem

Population: 1.1 BB 2010, 1.6 BB 2050

National Translation Mission


Government project to translate key texts into 23 languages
listed in schedule of constitution.

Government in Delhi uses automated translation

E.U. smaller population but also 23 official languages (27 states)
ԘԘԘԘԘ ԘԘԘԘ ԘԘ ԘԘԘԘ?

Fonts sometimes not available.
Languages on a 20 Rupi Bill

Asomiya

Marathi

Bangla

Nepali

Gujarati

Oriya

Kannada

Panjabi

Kashmiri

Sanskrit

Konkani

Tamil

Malayalam

Telugu

Urdu
Standard Hindi
Bengali
Telugu
Marathi
Tamil
Urdu
Gujarati
Kannada
Malayalam
Oriya
Punjabi
Assamese
?
83 (230)
74
72
61
52
46
38
33
33
29
13
Map: Source
Other map
2001 Census data
India


Blogger.com (Google)
Transliteration feature
(for phonetic input)

Traditional Business
Languages

Hindi

Hindi

Punjabi

Kannada

Gujarati

Malayalam

Marwari (Rajistan)

Tamil

Bengali

Telugu
Hollywood enters Bollywood Market

2007 inflection point for
Hollywood in India

Also 2007


Spiderman 3 (dubbed)


Record number of prints 588


Pirates of the Carribean 3
vs 500 of major Hindi releases
400 prints


80 (20%) in English
Pirates of the Carribean 2

Hindi 261

198 prints

English 162 (27%)

All in English

Telugu 81

Tamil 78

300 prints

Bhojpuri 6

70% Hindi, Tamil, Telugu
Record $ 6 MM first week
Source: Asian Pacific Post

Harry Potter
Facebook Growth - June 2010
July 2010
Facebook 21 MM unique users
Orkut
20 MM unique users
Source: Techcrunch
Market for Corporate Translations
Multinational Companies
Market for Corporate Translations

Market leader SDL plc as indicator for market demand

These are logarithmic charts (not linear)

Online interview with CEO

Translation services to customer’s multilingual content (software and CMS)

Share price US 595.0 - Market cap: 463 MM

20 Jul 2010: acquires Language Weaver LLC



Statistical translation technology
CEO: market will double in next 3-5 years
Translation is also about intellectual property protection and plagiarism.
Market for Translations: SDL plc
Source:
Google Finance
Market for Translations: SDL plc
SDL plc vs. FTSE (listed in London)
Source:
Google Finance
Market for Translations

Consumer Services

MySpace

Facebook Connect

Google Translate

Microsoft Translate

Corporate
Back to Start-up Companies
Start-up Companies

Language comes first,



localization (in country) second
What languages?

What markets are you targeting?

Online, mobile, clean-tech, etc.
How many?

More than your competitors
Example: Android App Market

Search on AndroLib

June 2010
Number of Apps:
60,000
Localized in Spanish:
1,400
2.3%
Localized in French:
1,800
3.0%
Source:
Mobile Developer Economics: Taking Applications to Market
VisionMobile.com
by Andreas Constantinou, 13 July 2010
Report sponsored by "Telefonica Developer Communities"
High-Tech Start-up: Time to Market
Umbrella Today?

Production
Browser widget for consumer market
Search engine optimization
 Buzz: tech-crunch, New York Times
 blog
 API: Application programmming interface
 Mobile: AppStore, SMS connect to carriers

Language can be your bottleneck
All languages
English only 30 % of bottleneck
Market
Start-up Strategy
2005
2010
IBM, Apple, Siemens, P&G, Facebook,
Harry Potter
2005
2010
Start-up companies
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 20
Number of Languages
High-Tech Marketing


You are really in the publishing business

37 Signals, high-tech evangelism

2 books: Getting Real + Rework in English only

Harry Potter in over 60 languages
Translations increase the audience

Core translations through agencies

Non-core translations crowd-sourcing

Create a publishing platform

Translations posted elsewhere, not on your blog
High-Tech Example

Where Software & Hightech start-ups begin?




1. Home market, 2.
English, 3. 2 more
languages



API vs. Language
Language is part of the
platform
Software stack –
language stack



Many disconnects on the
web
If everyone does it, it is not a
competitive advantage
Multi-nationals use 20
languages on average
U.S. Start-ups use English
E.U. Start-ups European
languages
Israeli start-ups can easily go
beyond
Resources
FYI: Contacts in Israel

Israel Asia Center, Jerusalem

Technology Asia Consulting, focus: Indonesia

Israeli Chamber of Commerce

Shanghai
Local Professional Networks

LinkedIn.com

Xing.com

Viadeo.com (Paris, Madrid, Milan)

ApnaCircle (India)

TianJi (China)

Odno Klassniki (Russia)
Resources for Web Developers
Internationalization

UTF8 and JavaScript+ JS for web forms + Unicode & SQL Server

Collation Algorithm + International Components for Unicode

W3C: Checker + Quick Tips + Int'l Activity

Check: jpost.com sets language, conduit.com doesn't
Multilingual Web Address (Int'l domain name)
characters included

http://www.амиро.рф

http://Amiro.ru http://xn--80aqljj.xn--p1ai/

ICANN: Int'l DNS + Introduction

I18n test Can user agent handle IDN in address bar?
Web-hosting: IPv6 relevant in Asia
Non-ASCII
Resources for Web Developers
Mobile: Unicode Standard 6.0.0 beta

Emoji symbols supported for mobile phone

Excessively used in Japan
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iPhone, Android and Blackberry platform, ...
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