Advertisers face cultural barriers
p2pnet news view | Advertising:- As companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft seek to force advertising down the throats of global citizens “in anticipation of the next billion people coming online,” American companies which, “merely translate their U.S.-focused sites into other languages risk losing to homegrown businesses that can better respond to cultural nuances,” opines the Associated Press.
“Google Inc. discovered that in South Korea and China, where it initially held its minimalist approach, only to see local rivals thrive by acknowledging their users’ preference for sites rich with entertainment and visual complexity,” says the story, quoting Pali Research analyst Tian X. Hou as saying:
“A lot of times, the U.S. companies, because they were successful in the U.S., they tend to repeat their current business models. Most of the time, that doesn’t work.”
To take on China and Korea, where it trails rivals, “the normally sparse Google site for those countries now displays icons that jump as users move the mouse,” says AP, going on:
“In China, Google also took the much-criticized step of filtering [read 'censoring'] its results to avoid revealing search results blocked by the government.
“But Baidu is still the Chinese search leader, thanks to its willingness to add music video and other entertainment features.”
However, US companies have “technical know-how, financial muscle and global reach,” says the story, although, “U.S. companies are often hampered by global codes of conduct”.
“Take nudity,” it says.
“Many Mideast cultures are averse to displaying women’s skin, while Europeans are far more tolerant of public nudity than Americans. A U.S. company trying to impose its standards for user-submitted content elsewhere risks complaints of banning too much or too little, yet it wants uniform policies because the Internet crosses borders.
John Strand of Strand Consulting in Denmark puts it like this.
“Creating a national company is like rocket science,” he states.
“But creating an international company is like proton physics.”
Meanwhile, ordinary Netizens communicate with each other across all language and cultural barriers with no trouble at all.
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.Stumble It!
Associated Press – An un-American feel aids expanding US Web firms, July 28, 2008
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July 29th, 2008 at 8:56 am
This “internet advertising” is waiting for something called “Bubble 2.0″.
http://blog.quinthar.com/2008/07/second-collapse-of-internet-economy.html
July 29th, 2008 at 11:59 am
American companies that seek to force US prejudices on the rest of the world risk more than complaints. They do offend people, they do make people angry and they do often make the US look ridiculous. We recently decided that we would have to campaign for legislation to protect us from the irrational prejudice forced on us by some US companies.