This link has been bookmarked by 16 people . It was first bookmarked on 13 Mar 2008, by fulvius longhi.
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01 Jul 08
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1. Think global as you create the business
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3. Create an original product: new and different
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5. Try to raise funds from world-class VCs
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Cultural cross pollination is a wonderful way to stoke creativity.
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7. Register your domain names in the key countries you are interested in (and the large ones you are not interested in)
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8. Protect your brand Worldwide
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9. Make a site that is language ready day one, even if you launch in English
More non-English content is posted every day on the web than in English. It is ok if you localize when you have built the product, but at least make it very easy to do by separating the language text files of the interface. Obvious? Yes. Do not forget that many languages have words much longer than english words and they tend to break the interface, take Finnish or German and you will see what I mean.
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International starts the first day you launch the company. Having members from all around the World will give you different perspective and different uses of your own product.
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11. Talk to the most active members of the community to help you understand their market and become evangelists there
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12. Create an application that lets your community translate the site by themselves
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13. Languages are not the same in all the countries they are spoken
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Manage costs properly
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Never do a 50/50 deal with anyone
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Do key partnerships with large local players
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18. Never trust that if the partner is large your service will be a success
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19. Create an international reseller program
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20. Kill your local copycats
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22. Be very pragmatic
In some markets it could be a joint venture, in others it could be a partnership with a large player, and other places just creating your own team works
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31 May 08
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15 Mar 08
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13 Mar 08
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1. Think global as you create the business
It is very difficult because our natural tendency is to think local, to eat lunch and dinner with people around where we live and think in our own language. I lived in Paris most of my life and I was naturally addressing the French market first. Moving yourself and your family to a very international city like London, NY or San Francisco helps
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3. Create an original product: new and different
Digg or Twitter have created new social relationships and even though they have hundreds of copycats, they will remain the originals. The best way to succeed is definitely an original and great product.
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6. Hire people from all nationalities as much as possible
Americans hire Americans. French hire French. Spanish tend to hire Spanish people. Even if it is easier, you should hire as much as possible a team with as many cultures and languages as possible. Cultural cross pollination is a wonderful way to stoke creativity.
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11. Talk to the most active members of the community to help you understand their market and become evangelists there
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12. Create an application that lets your community translate the site by themselves
the way Facebook translated its site in many languages using an application where members could do inline translation and then vote when there was a discussion on the best term to use. This was a brilliant way to come back with high quality and fast translation. It also helps you have languages you would have not even thought of launching. Do not forget what it takes to maintain them though.
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Sharing a nice % of the business with your partners or resellers is a good way to get them motivated. Web hosting companies have been good at establishing worldwide presence by offering reseller programs, partner conferences, joint marketing, etc.
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20. Kill your local copycats
Despite all your efforts, you will have copycats in many markets if your product is successful. Try to kill them first, if you are the leader you should have more traction and means
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22. Be very pragmatic
In some markets it could be a joint venture, in others it could be a partnership with a large player, and other places just creating your own team works
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23. Do not apply any of this to Asia
I do not know the Asian market enough to judge what is happening there but it seems that most large US sites that launched in China pulled back or were not successful. The Japanese market has its own leaders, but I wont’ risk an opinion on an area I do not know enough, I would just be very cautious there.
24. Do not apply any of this to Russia
Everybody forgets the Russian Internet market, it is huge and growing fast, the leaders there are local and operated by russians. They even buy American startups - LiveJournal was bought from Six Apart by Sup.
25. This advice only ap
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