'Bricks and Mortar' ahead of Internet companies when responding to foreign language email
Over 95 per cent of the top 50 Internet sites fail 1 to respond to foreign language email messages according to a survey conducted this September by WorldLingo, the professional online translation company and IDC the market research company. Only 4.54 per cent of the Internet companies in the survey could respond accurately to a non-English email. 'Bricks and Mortar' companies fared better with a response rate of 11.06 per cent in an equivalent survey 2 carried out in August 2001.
The email messages were written in the following languages - German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or Japanese. Only the messages written in French (14.28 per cent) and Latin American Spanish (14.28 per cent) registered any correct response. Most of the target companies did not even answer the email request. Those that did answer often asked for the email to be re-sent in English.
Phil Scanlan, Chairman WorldLingo said, "with over 50 per cent of web users preferring to speak a language other than English, Internet sites are going to need to use multilingual communication if they are going to maximize their consumer base."
Mr. Scanlan said the email message could have been answered correctly and quickly using WorldLingo's low cost email translation service. The service is integrated easily into existing email systems.
"After implementing WorldLingo's translation system, the company will receive a machine translation of the foreign language email automatically, allowing the receiver to ascertain the importance of the message," continued Scanlan. "If the message is deemed important enough to be human translated, the company can accept WorldLingo's automatic quote which is provided with each translation."
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