The professional’s perspective “There are also difficulties every time cultural and political differences are ignored” Kindle, only able to be purchased in dollars from Amazon’s US website. The numerous other obstacles for acquiring and using the device —paying with an international credit card, picking up the article at customs, paying the tax, finding content in their mother tongue and so on— were left of to the user to resolve. Rather than following the motto “think globally act locally”, these platforms tended to take on the opposite
approach: “think locally —i.e. exclusively in terms of the American user— and act globally.” That is why, in our 2011 report we stressed that, ceteris paribus, it wouldn’t be that easy for the companies from the North to market their products on a massive scale in the Southern countries, which were already beginning to show signs of autonomy. Nevertheless, recently, perhaps as a consequence of the acute financial crisis —and particularly the decline of Europe as a market— we have seen a dramatic change in the strategy used by global platforms, which are now more willing to rethink their models to meet the needs of each context. For starters, Apple has launched its iPhone 4S in China, via China Unicom (an event that was not without some negative complications —see below). Likewise, a recent tax
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exemption agreement reached by Foxconn and the Brazilian government suggest iPads are to be locally produced in Brazil —something that should further enhance the appeal of the devices in that increasingly important market. Not sitting idly by, Amazon, has made it clear that it intends to open a new fulfillment center in Nanning, China, and another in Bombay— having opened for business in India earlier this month. Furthermore, after the failure of the first round of negotiations with Brazilian publishers in 2011, Amazon has hired a former e-book executive from Livraria Cultura, to speed up the launch of the Kindle in South America. Finally, Yahoo has announced it will include content in 8 languages from India; Twitter will adapt its platform to meet the “requirements” of the different national States; and Google, after countless clashes with the Chinese government, is now considering the possibility of adopting a “less tough” stance to accommodate the rules of the country.
by the parody “Siri doesn’t understand Chinese” —or in the misfortunes of a Japanese user who gets nowhere because of his accent. There are also difficulties every time cultural and political differences are ignored. We already mentioned the launch of the iPhone 4S. Unfortunately, the public event surrounding the launch had to be cancelled due to overcrowding. Apple tried to make it appear as an indication of the device’s popularity —since there were lots of people— when in reality it was taken to be a sign of serious negligence on behalf of the company. In the US or in Europe, a crowd outside a shop may appear to be an idle group of shoppers, but in China —due not only to the country’s current circumstances but also to its tradition of social harmony— that restless crowd was interpreted as an attempted uprising. Indeed, that is how the event ended up —with people hitting, shouting and throwing eggs at the store, something that can hardly be considered a success for the brand.
Ignore Cultural and Linguistic Differences at Your Peril
The International “Network Effect” Wanes in Influence
What is lost and what is gained with this change in strategy implemented by companies that until recently had not made many concessions to the peculiarities of each country? In our view, such a shift entails numerous risks for those key global players who tend to underestimate the complexities on the ground, giving a golden opportunity to local ventures. To begin with, there is always the issue of language. Apple may have introduced the iPhone 4S in Asia, but it should have first made sure its applications worked as reliably in Chinese and Japanese as they do in English. Unfortunately, this has not been the case, as demonstrated
We also find some problems developing as a result of what we might call the “loss of the network effect.” Originally, a platform like Twitter may have been conceived as a means of direct and horizontal communication between heterogeneous users —in this way, a Tunisian student was able to follow the messages written by an Egyptian professor, for example. And in truth, if Twitter has beaten other local sites, it has been because of a snow ball or international network effect: the more users it had, the greater the number of potential users. However, any platform must become profitable at some
Bibliodiversity - The Digital South / January 2013