Guide to Website translation / localization

Due to  Internet technologies virtually any company can look for customers or partners not locally only but internationally as well. Originally almost all communication in the Internet was in English. In the course of time the Internet came to every more or less developed country, whereupon their companies started making sites in their own languages. However according to the statistics overwhelming majority of web-sites are still in English or, at least, have their English version.

Undoubtedly, English is very widely spread all over the world, but the number of people who are able to read and comprehend texts in English without any problems is not as big as it seems to be. How many French or Italian people speak English? But Western-European languages have many things in common. And now just fancy what percentage of the Russian-speaking population understands English! For us, Russian-speaking people, that is really a burning issue. Firstly, because Russian is very different from any Western European language, that is why the number of people who comprehend English or any other Western European language is insignificant. Secondly, among Russian-speaking top managers this percentage is even smaller.

As the latest surveys show, the great majority of Net surfers only visit sites in their native language. Thus, if a European company posts the information about its goods or services in its own and perhaps English languages, it runs a risk of never being recognized by most potential customers or partners outside their language zone.

To turn into a global player a company has to start speaking the language of its potential customers or partners.
The main trade and cultural partners of Russian speakers are European countries. Russian-speaking businessmen more and more often attend business exhibitions, browse the Internet looking for partners to import goods. More and more Russian-speaking tourists rush to Europe to spend their holidays or to get medical treatment.


Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done