Now in its 18th year, companies around the world rely on the Web Globalization Report Card to provide objective benchmarking, emerging trends and best practices.
Web globalization is challenging.
You must manage countries, cultures, content, and often coordinate between central and remote offices to ensure that everything runs smoothly. For nearly two decades, The Web Globalization Report Card has helped companies navigate these challenges successfully through a mix of hands-on tips, best practices and industry insights. Each year, executives turn to the Report Card for answers to questions such as:
This report, now in its 18th edition, answers these questions and many more. You’ll learn which companies have improved their global and mobile websites — and why. Through hundreds of website profiles, and a wealth of screen shots, you'll learn which practices to emulate and, of equal importance, which to avoid. More than a dozen industry sectors are profiled, with key web localization developments and best practices highlighted with visuals.
This year, like years before, we benchmarked 150 websites across more than a dozen industry categories. These websites comprise 80% of the companies on the Interbrand Best Global Brands list and more than 30% of the Fortune 100, ensuring a broad reach of the leading global brands and businesses.
Never before have companies been expected to support so much content across so many languages and across so many devices. And while this continues to be a very exciting time to be involved in web globalization, it’s also quite challenging.
This report serves two purposes. First, it calls attention to those websites that have excelled in the practice of web globalization. The companies that have made the top 25 did not get there by chance. The people who have helped raise their websites onto the top 25 list deserve recognition for helping their companies communicate effectively with the world, regardless of language, culture, or geography.
Second, this report identifies emerging trends (both positive and negative) to help you avoid the painful missteps that others have already taken. This report is designed to help you guide your web, marketing, content, mobile and local teams to positive, efficient action.
Founded in 2000, Byte Level Research was the first company dedicated to the art and science of website globalization. We have consulted with hundreds of multinationals and have learned what works and what doesn't work and how they stay one step ahead of the competition. This expertise is carried over into the methodology of the Report Card, the first report dedicated to best practices in web globalization. The report is relied on by some of the most innovative global and consumer product companies and we are proud to have many clients who have purchased this report for more than a decade.
Every year, we conduct a hands-on analysis of the world's leading websites, analyzing how web designs are shared across countries and mobile platforms, noting languages used on every website. We study local content, visuals, social media, website weight (in kilobytes), and navigation. This information, along with 15 years of historical and linguistic data, will help you benchmark your company against competitive and “best of breed” sites such as Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, IKEA, NIVEA and Airbnb. A combination of quantitative data and practical, hands-on advice make this report an invaluable resource for any company doing business across borders.
Included with the Report Card:
Absolutely not. We have never and will never accept money in return for inclusion within the report. We take great pride in creating a report that is self-funded and completely independent in focus, content, and findings.
Report author John Yunker reviews every website — and has done so for every edition of the report. No work is outsourced. This in-depth, historical understanding of each website (combined with one-on-one interviews with many of the executives who manage these websites) provides invaluable and actionable findings and recommendations.
We survey a wide swath of global companies across all major industries to provide a well-rounded overview of the state of web globalization. Within each industry, we include the leading companies with a focus on brand leadership. We include more than 30% of the Fortune 100 companies and 80% of the Interbrand 100 Best Global Brands.
Many of the companies benchmarked within this report have purchased the report for multiple years. Purchasers include Cisco Systems, Deloitte, Panasonic, FedEx, Philips, and The World Bank. There are companies not included in this report that also use it regularly, such as global consulting and web development firms, as well as government agencies.
Web globalization best practices may emerge in any industry. By keeping a broad focus on all major industries, we are able to point executives to those companies and industries that are doing the best job of presenting themselves to the world. Every company included does have peers by which it can be evaluated. In the end, our goal is to provide a truly global perspective on which companies and industries are the most active and successful in web globalization. Only through casting a wide net do we achieve this goal.
The Report Card analyzes each website according to the following four criteria:
Since 2000, John Yunker has helped hundreds of companies improve their global content, websites and software. He authored the first book devoted to the emerging field of web globalization Beyond Borders, as well as the most recent: Think Outside the Country (also available in Japanese).
John speaks at numerous industry events, including Localization World, Internet Retailer, and the Unicode Conference and has been quoted on global topics in publications including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He writes the popular web globalization blog Global by Design.
The Web Globalization Report Card is a trademark of Byte Level Research LLC.
Founded in 2000, Byte Level Research was the first agency devoted to website and content globalization best practices. Over the years we have helped hundreds of companies improve their global content, websites and software through our reports, consulting, speaking and training sessions.
"Think Outside the Country" is a registered trademark of John Yunker, Byte Level Research LLC.
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