The Race Is On As Internationalised Domain Names Unlock Door To New Markets

Nov. 4, 2009 - PRLog -- The first Internet addresses containing all non-Latin characters will soon be online thanks to approval of the new policy by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Currently only 37 Latin characters and numbers are used but this new move will allow up to 100,000 characters from all the world’s languages, including for example 28 characters from the Arabic alphabet and 22 from the Hebrew alphabet. It is thought that the move will make the web more accessible to billions of people worldwide (1) and has been lauded as the biggest technological change to the internet since its creation 40 years ago.

Many are set to benefit from the move, given that almost half the world’s population don’t use the Latin based script. Data updated in June 2009 reveals that China is the top ranking country for Internet usage, making up over 20% of Internet users worldwide. Others that will benefit from lesser reliance on the Roman keyboard include Japan (ranked 3rd) and Russia (ranked 9th) and Iran (ranked 17th). In fact, almost 40% of users from the top 20 countries listed do not use the Roman script.(2)

Simon George, MD of one of the UK’s longest standing translation companies, Thames Translations, believes that the move could open the door for businesses to tap into huge new markets of customers who don’t currently access the Internet because of language problems.

“Web localisation is becoming big business and there is a growing trend to translate company websites into the different languages relevant to their customers (both current and potential) and to adopt domains ending with country codes (such as .uk, .cn and .fr). This move will enable businesses to reach many people around the world that don’t use Roman character keyboards in their daily lives, but businesses will need to be quick to ensure they get their preferred domain names and translate their websites into the appropriate languages,” says George.

This will be the first time ever that the Internet has not been dominated by Latin letters but George warns that for some looking to capitalise on the new domain names, it may not be an easy transition.

“This move now makes it possible to take multilingualism online a step further but website localisation is as much about culture as it is language itself and takes into account variations in dialect, country buzzwords, ‘slang’ terminology to draw up those all important key words, as well as the usual changes to dates, time etc. It also takes into account the significance of colours in various countries and inter-country conflicts, which might influence the placing of different countries within a list or the site map for example. That is why it is always worth seeking advice from a translation specialist before embarking on any web localisation projects.”

ENDS

Editors Notes

(1)   See http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/ for more detail from ICANN on the new internationalised domain names

(2)   Internet users top ranking countries - http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm
About Thames Translations

Hertfordshire-based Thames Translations is renowned for providing high quality translation services to a broad range of professional and commercial organisations, utilising over 2000 ‘mother tongue’ qualified translators.

The company was founded in 1972 and was acquired by successful entrepreneur and businessman Simon George 11 years ago. Its success continues to be built on a long-standing reputation for excellence, reliability and innovation.

Thames Translations boasts an impressive client portfolio including British Gas, Arriva, Black & Decker, Direct Line, Dixons, Eurostar, IPC Media, Microsoft, Monarch Airlines, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Tesco and Virgin.

For more information visit www.thames-translations.com

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