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To: energyplay who wrote (61998)	3/14/2010 4:57:40 PM
From: dybdahl	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 217860

It usually requires a lot of work to talk a foreign language. If you meet people from Europe that talk English well, you will find out that their English-skills deteriorate significantly, if they are trying to solve a complex problem, whereas their native language does not deteriorate in a similar way. Denmark is one of the European countries where the population is best at English, but even though you can ask for directions in English everywhere, only few can read a license agreement, security instructions or other legal texts in the consumer space. Last, but not least, English is not the second language for many - for some, like me, it's the third language. And many people never learned the language. I know many people that know two languages well, where English is not one of them. Just 2 decades ago, English was totally unnecessary for normal people here. Local TV was Danish, foreign TV was Swedish or German. In similar ways, shopping across borders was usually done in Swedish, German, Polish or Dutch. Tourists were usually talking German, some Japanese, some Dutch, some Swedish, and maybe some English. American movies were subtitled or synchronized, so you didn't need to know English here, either. In order to study M.Sc. in mechanical engineering, you needed to know German, not English. Today, the internet and the breakdown of communism changed all this. German could not regain it's strong position as the universal language of Europe because of the internet. Even my 6 year old daughter now knows English words, and can hear the difference between a Danish music group singing English or an American music group singing English. With proper training, she will hopefully be able to use English almost as well as Danish. But until the population has been replaced with her generation, it will not make sense to sell non-localized products widely to consumers around here.

To: energyplay who wrote (61998)	3/14/2010 5:16:26 PM
From: dybdahl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217860

My background is not in economics or marketing, but the more I learn about marketing, I believe that localizing a product is not only about the language and culture. For instance, if you would create a new webhosting solution, you would have to go up against the dominating giant 1und1 in Germany, whereas there is no similar competitor in Denmark. Some companies may be absent in some countries, enabling some business opportunities that may not exist in other markets. Google Streetview exists in Denmark but not Germany, and Google Android Market exists in Germany but not Denmark. This gives Google some headache with regard to how to do business well in Europe, and gives European companies many ways to stay competitive against Google. In similar ways, many European companies stay out of USA, or keep products out of USA. Nokia is a good example, many of their phones are marketed on all continents, but not in USA.