News

Online business losing up to $10 million a year in sales

Businesses on-line are missing an untapped market of over 100 million people.

These 109 million people make up nearly 50% of Internet users, and none of them speak English.

Inktomi and NEC Research have found that less than 14% of websites are in a language other than English, which leaves 50% of web users only served by less than an a sixth of the Internet's websites.

The high percentage of websites in English has created the next Internet business opportunity and WorldLingo is ready to help companies reap the benefits of this poorly serviced market.

WorldLingo, founded in Dec 1998, is a specialized translation agency focused on e-commerce and Internet communications.

The company provides clients with free on-line translation software, which translates eight languages to and from English.

WorldLingo also has a staff of specialist language translators, who will improve the machine translation if required.

WorldLingo Chairman Phil Scanlan said the company's main market is Internet businesses.

"Many of these have one office in one country, but they service the whole world," Mr. Scanlan said.

"These businesses need to be able to communicate in a multitude of languages, and we can help."

Mr. Scanlan said WorldLingo would also target large global companies.

"Soon a whole new market will open up in relation to multinationals."

"Our service will help communications between offices in different countries, increasing the efficiency of a multinational's global communication."

WorldLingo's translators have a high degree of professionalism and integrity because they all have to sit and pass an entrance examination.

The examination covers the translator's language capability, translation skills, and learning capability.

Customers have the option of using three native speaking translators for each document conversion.

The first translator translates the document into the designated language, the second is responsible for proof reading, and the third translator edits the final document.

"Each team member is an expert and is there to ensure that the services meet with your expectations," Mr. Scanlan said.

The languages covered by the software, which can be found on the WorldLingo site, include Japanese, German, Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian, Russian and Portuguese, which makes up 77% of all non-English speaking Internet users.

"In the near future we will be increasing the number of languages considerably. The system is designed to easily plug in other machine translators underneath," Mr. Scanlan said.

The importance of translating email information is explained by Global Reach.

"Recent figures show that 68% of the world's purchasing power and 92% of the world's potential customers live in countries where English is not the native language."

This was emphasized by Cambridge based Forrester Research in a recent survey it conducted.

Michael Putnam was quoted in Infoworld as saying that a remarkable 46 percent of the companies interviewed said they turn away international orders because they do not have processes in place to fill them.

"It was a surprise how high that number was," Mr. Puttman said. "That is just money left on the table...as much as $10 million turned away annually."

WorldLingo will help businesses tap into non-English speaking markets.

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About WorldLingo

WorldLingo is a leading provider of integrated, online translation solutions. The company's services range from cost effective machine translation solutions, to professional human translation and culturally sensitive localization. A global network of over 5,000 professional translators produces human translations. WorldLingo also offers unique, real-time translation solutions for two-way email and instant messaging. These solutions make it easy for businesses and professionals to interact with internal and external multilingual audiences anywhere in the world. By combining accurate and cost effective translation, WorldLingo is taking great strides towards breaking down language barriers in the world of commerce.

WorldLingo produces thousands of translations every day. Clients include AT&T, Sony, Eli Lilly, Belkin, Cadbury Schweppes, Qualcomm, Priceline, and Tribal DDB. WorldLingo is also an official supplier of translation services to the European Union. In addition, Microsoft has integrated WorldLingo's technology into Office XP and Word 2002. WorldLingo is a global organisation with offices in the US, Australasia and Europe.

For more information: contact WorldLingo