Geo-Targeting Your Traffic
The Summer slowdown was an ideal time to target more active markets overseas- but you really should have been thinking about doing that all along. Ah, those lazy, crazy days of summer-vacations, barbecues, swimming, sailing, and all that. But generating new traffic is challenge enough without summer distractions pulling surfers outside and away from their computers. Just as with bricks-and-mortar retail, summer means a summer slowdown for e-commerce, usually hitting the low point in June and not picking up again till September.
It's an annual fact of life-not the end of the world-and a good time for re-vamping the site and other housework. Even a vacation, and you know you deserve it. But maybe you don't have time for a vacation just now, because, although it's summer here, it isn't summer everywhere in the world.
Summer Slump
The seasons are out of phase in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. When it is summer in the north it is winter in the south. Mr. Science recently explained to Klixxx that the primary cause of the seasons is that the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees off its rotation axis, which means that as it goes around its orbit the northern hemisphere is at various times oriented more toward and more away from the sun, and likewise for the southern hemisphere.
In "Summer Slowdown: Myth or Fact?" (YNOT News 10/04/01 LINK) Greg Geelan Esq. questions the summer slump theory. For several years, YNOTmasters.com has polled webmasters about their summer slowdown. The results show that about three-quarters of webmasters did, and mainstream data tells the same story. What about the quarter who don't have any problem? Geelan suggests: "Those responding that they had no decrease in sales from June through August may receive most of their traffic from surfers located in the southern hemisphere." He also offers a few suggestions for dealing with a summer slowdown:
- Offer discounted membership fees during the summer months to keep membership levels up, even though revenues will decline a bit.
- Sign up surfers for long-term memberships at a discounted rate that carry the surfers through the summer months.
- Use dialers to fully maximize and monetize your international traffic. Some of your surfers may be residing in cooler parts of the globe during the June through August months.
Users and Languages
Apart from North America and Europe, there are 186.97 million potential users in other regions-at least 34% of the world market and bigger than either North America or Europe alone. Most recently, eMarketer says that Asia/Pacific may account for 33% alone, and predicts that through 2004, North America will see declines in its percentage of the world's Internet users as the European and Latin American percentages increase.
Non-English speakers outnumber native English speakers on the Web, according to new research from Global Reach (LINK). About 59.8 percent of the total world online population is in non-English speaking regions, compared to 40.2 percent from English speaking zones. That means 338.5 million non-English users and 228 million English-speaking users.
Speakers of European languages (excluding English) account for 33.9 percent of the total world online population. Spanish is the number one European language for non-English speaking Internet users. Around 40.8 million Spanish-speakers are online. This compares to 38.6 million German speakers, 22 million French speakers, and 20.2 million Italian speakers.
Chinese is the number one language in the Asian-speaking zone. Around 55.5 million Chinese speakers use the Internet, compared to 52.1 million Japanese speakers and 25.2 million Korean speakers.
Webmasters should not be missing the opportunity that the Fortune 500 seems to be missing. A recent NUA editorial (Charlie Taylor, "Mind Your Language," NUA Analysis 5/2002. LINK) says that:
Despite the growing globalization of the 'Net, most big multi-nationals fail when it comes to dealing with languages other than English. A report from APCO in April confirmed this, when it found that over half of the world's biggest companies' corporate Web sites were only available in English. An earlier study conducted by Worldlingo meanwhile, found that fewer than five percent of the 50 most visited Internet sites bothered to respond to foreign language e-mail requests.
The editorial concludes that, if companies want to compete effectively in a global setting, then it seems obvious that they need to open up to the idea of adopting multicultural, multilingual sites that will serve all users. Otherwise they may find that non-English speaking users decide to shop elsewhere.
Converting International Traffic
At the August 2001 CyberNet Expo, Jean-Christopher Gramont of GoodThinxx.com gave a seminar on The Internet Gold Rush: European Market for the Adult Internet Industry. Vienna, Austria-based GoodThinxx.com offers international dial-up software, voice-call, and other billing solutions accessible from nearly every country in the world. A summary of the seminar is available in the AdultChamber.com Newsletter 9/2001 (LINK).
Gramont, of course, thinks that international traffic is a great opportunity for webmasters, but still acknowledges the traditional challenges:
International traffic, in the past, has been a webmasters nightmare. Not only can they not convert the sales using a credit card payment option (only 20% of international surfers have, and even less will use, a credit card online), fraud from some countries is so common that credit card processing is blocked where charge backs are high and conflict resolution is difficult. And the traffic ups the bandwidth costs as there is no ratio for conversion to pay for the usage leaving the webmaster with lots of surfers, few members, and a high Web hosting bill.
However, he says that usually little effort is required to adapt US-originated sites to European markets (content, billing, language).
Since most of the world uses international versions of popular search engines (Yahoo, Lycos), marketing within your niche should be focused and targeted. Consider a marketing strategy that builds on partnerships with these regional search engines and directories.
Since language is a large factor in converting international traffic, dialers often provide banners and content in several major languages. Although the member content is translated (when provided by the Dialer), you may want to translate parts of your site to attract the eye of the international surfers.
A payment option that anyone from around the world can use is clearly the first step to converting international traffic. The most popular solution is a Dialer Program. Did you know that Dialers are the preferred payment method in Europe due to the privacy and security features?
Lost in Cyberspace
Sex.com, a pay-per-click adult search engine, has been expanding recently "to satisfy the demand for targeted international traffic." According to their site:
We have expanded globally by developing international sites, such as: UK.Sex.Com, Japan.Sex.Com, Turkey.Sex.Com, Korea.Sex.Com, Belgium.Sex.Com, Denmark.Sex.Com, Greece.Sex.Com, Norway.Sex.Com, Sweden.Sex.Com, China.Sex.Com, Australia.Sex.Com, and all the Spanish language speaking countries to satisfy the overwhelming demand for targeted international traffic. With our penetration of multinational sites, Sex.Com has presented further opportunities for internationally focused advertisers, and has found that our already high-converting traffic has become more targeted and effective.
The problem overseas isn't your site; it's finding your site. International users can use translation utilities just like anyone else, can probably get by in English anyway, and it's possible that they may not come to your site primarily to read the articles.
David Gikandi ("Success on Foreign Search Engines Made Easy," YNOT News 10/2001. LINK)
Half the world's Internet users either do not speak English, or they do speak it but prefer to search the Web in their own language. In either case, when they go to a search engine, they type in their search terms in their language and not in English. That is why they cannot find your Web site-because the keywords you use are not translated into their language. But remember, they can read English or use translation software to translate English sites. The only problem here is that they cannot find your site.
Gikandi says they tend to use localized search engines that are able to index words in their own language. Although the world has thousands of languages and dialects, he says 97% of the world speaks just 24 languages and suggests that, "You can make your own simple instant translator free at rohitab.com. Modifying it a little would enable you to have a single drop down instant translator that covers 30 languages."
The slow summer months are a good time to target international markets, but it's really something you should have been thinking of all along. Now is the time to do something about it and continue to reap the benefits for the rest of the year, too.
International Markets Waiting for You
There is no need to belabor the size and relative accessibility of the European market, and we discussed Asia in Klixxx Issue 9. However, some of the other international markets may be less familiar.
Africa
Webmasters may want to consider a different strategy when targeting Africa, where infrastructure (phone lines and even dependable electricity) has been the traditional barrier to Internet use. Kathy Foley says in a recent NUA editorial ("Africa Goes Mobile," NUA Analysis 3/2002. LINK) that, "wireless Internet access should prove the main driver in bridging the digital divide for Africa." Recent figures from the International Telecommunications Union indicate that there will be at least 100 million mobile phone users in Africa by 2005, up from 30 million last year. There are now far more mobile than fixed lines in the continent.
But, according to The African Internet: A Status Report (2/2002 LINK) Africa is not much of a fixed line opportunity for webmasters at this time. There is roughly one Internet user for every 200 people, compared to a world average of one user for every 15 people, and a North American and European average of about one in every two people.
Australia & New Zealand
According to a recent NUA editorial (Kathy Foley. "Follow the sun Down Under," NUA Analysis 2/2002. LINK)
About ninety percent of 16-20 year olds use the Internet regularly. Credit card penetration is reasonably high, and forms of electronic payment such as EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) have long been popular. Almost 55 percent of all Australians, or 10.6 million people, had Internet access in January 2002, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The corresponding figure for New Zealand is 49.7 percent, or 1.9 million people. These are higher levels of penetration than most European countries.
E-commerce is also strong Down Under-both countries were in the top-ten-list of countries with the most e-commerce potential, as reported by the Meta Group last year. About 32 percent of Australian Internet users have bought online. And of course, when it's summer here, it's winter there, and when it's daytime here it's the middle of the night there.
Latin America
South America is a mixed bag. While Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico have highly developed Internet markets with 85 percent of all dial-up accounts in the region between them, the rest of the area is trailing behind.
IDC Chile indicates that Internet penetration in Chile is currently 1.66 million users and should grow to 9 percent by the end of 2002 and reach 10.9 percent in 2003. Although 3.6 million Argentines were online last year, according to a Wired News story (LINK) Internet growth in Argentina is likely to come to a virtual halt this year, because of the country's continuing economic and social crisis.
The Boston Consulting Group (LINK) says that online retail revenues in Latin America reached US$1.28 billion last year. Brazil leads in the region, with revenues of US$906 million last year. Mexico will be next with US$134 million, followed by Argentina with US$119 million, and Chile with US$45 million.
Middle East
Israel has a couple million Internet users, and revenues in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reached nearly US$73 million in 2001, according to Arab Advisors Group (LINK) and the market is expected to grow substantially to reach more than US$137 million in 2006. According to Arab Advisors, the UAE enjoys the highest Internet penetration in the Arab world. However, with 80 percent of the population made up of expatriates, most Internet users in the UAE are not Arabs! Nevertheless, this along with China is one of the few regions where government censorship is a serious challenge for the webmaster.
The total number of GSM subscribers in ten key Arab markets exceeded 16.5 million by the end of 2001, according to the Arab Advisors Group (http://www.arabadvisors.com). The mobile penetration rate for the UAE stood at 58 percent at the end of last year, while Kuwait and Bahrain had penetration rates of 42 percent respectively.
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