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How the challenges of multilingual tweeting are being overcome

The evolution of blogs from posts comparable to short essays in length to much shortened variations called microblogs has been positively adapted by web users. Microblogging services like Twitter have achieved widespread popularity with their use transcending most major language groups online. Twitter is rapidly implementing multilingual support to harness user generated content in foreign languages to appeal to the linguistically diverse web audience. However, with the post restrictions that limit text to 140 characters, some languages present a challenge for users due to their verbose linguistic structure.

Twitter’s 140 character limit is based upon the 160 character limit that was in place for text messages on mobile phones. The number was chosen by a German named Friedhelm Hillebrand who worked for German Telecom. In 1985, Friedhelm decided to count the number of characters in a large sample of sentences and he found that almost all of them clocked in fewer than 160 characters. This set the standard for text messaging and Twitter’s character limit is derived from this, it reserves 20 characters for the user’s address and leaves the rest for the tweet. For text messages, user inventiveness resulted in the creation of SMS language, which is now used on microblogs too.

Twitter users in English have furthered the evolution of a shortened form by making shorthand more widespread. As a global, many-to-many communication platform, new shorthand expressions have had the chance to spread and be adopted as a standard more quickly than a one-to-one or one-to-many communication method like SMS. Shorthand such as b/c for because and b4 for before already existed in text language but are now more widely known because of Twitter. A unique to Twitter trend has been the use of memes with a hashtag to encapsulate a concept or idea that has spread online. For instance, #fail is used to indicate disapproval or contempt and #ff, which stands for follow Friday, is a recommendation to follow users referenced in the message.

While English has had to be morphed into a shortened variation for communication tools where character limits are enforced, other languages are ideally suited for microblogs. Chinese, for instance, is a very concise language in terms of character length because single characters can represent whole words. Users tweeting in Chinese are able to convey messages of a few sentences long without having to exceed the maximum limit. Languages like Arabic and Korean are also well suited for use on Twitter as vowels can be omitted in these languages.

Twitter users who communicate in languages that are very verbose have also started to use shortened and informal abbreviated English to communicate. Text in languages like Spanish and Portuguese typically expands in length when translated from English. Native language speakers of these languages therefore have to find ways to convey their message in as few characters as possible. One such way has been to mix languages such as English into their tweets opting for the more concise of the two for particular expressions.

The continued expansion of language support on Twitter has been positively embraced by communities worldwide. Due to its mass appeal, language speakers have been brought together by a shared language and adapted their use of language to meet the needs of the platform and the community. Microblogging showcases not just how languages evolve but also how they can be preserved in an interconnected global community.

Latin America: Development of a major media market

In recent years, Latin American has gained a lot of prominence in the media industry and experts have noted its potential to become a major media market. Regional economic growth and consumer demand for media have been remarkable; this has caught the attention of Industry professionals who are focusing their efforts upon the market and evaluating the right approach to enter the flourishing market. There are a number of factors that are contributing the region’s growth, a large pool of creative talent and predicted increase in media consumption are two main factors that are leading the transformation. Digital marketing especially has grown leaps and bounds and the size of the market is such that Latin America can no longer be ignored by major digital brands.

The economic growth and resulting development of Latin America (1) established a burgeoning middle class whose interest in media is higher than their peers in any other region worldwide. Digital media growth in Latin America has been tremendous; social-media penetration is higher in the region than anywhere else in the world and 5 nations from the region are amongst the top 10 worldwide in terms of Facebook penetration. Notably, there are 217 million internet users in Latin America and the number will grow to 285 million according to estimates (2). For these reason, marketers and advertisers have developed a keen interest in the Latin American nations.

Increasing mobile-phone penetration and consumer habit of watching videos and TV content on mobile devices is widespread. Yet, a majority of Latin American’s population still do not have access to broadband internet but steps are being taken to expand internet use due to the important role is can play for economic growth.

The optimistic outlook has had a positive impact on the region’s image amongst the corporate world. World famous digital brands are gearing to invest and expand into these nations improving economic prospects of the previously struggling countries. The popularity of media, especially digital media, will have broader economic and political impact on the nations in the American continents. Ultimately, the confirmation of Latin America as a major media market and broadly an economic giant depends on the governments in place. However, the development path being taken is working well in establishing Latin America as a mature consumer market.

1. Latin America’s Economic Growth, New York Times.

2. Latin America’s Social Networking Report, eMarketer.

Astute language selection helps maximise global reach

Twitter recently announced that their social networking service is now available in five new languages bringing the total number of available languages to 17. Users can now tweet in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Hindi, Filipino and Malay. Twitter’s announcement also made a mention of a number of other languages that will be added to their Translation Centre, an online crowdsourcing hub, for eventual availability.

Like many other online utilities, the growing support for various languages on Twitter is an indicator of how important it has become to offer a multilingual website. In order to increase global reach, website availability in languages that have a sizeable internet user base is now a necessity. Language selection, however, is also based upon the popularity of a specific product or service in foreign language markets. Twitter and other social networks have based their language selection upon the population of native speakers online and their sites’ existing popularity within that specific demographic.

So far, Twitter has localised its micro-blogging service in all the major languages used online. It is now moving on to languages that will allow it to target specific regions that have low internet penetration at the moment. The selection of Hindi is an example of this approach whereby Twitter aims to target the non-English speaking population of India, which vastly outweighs its English speaking population. With continued improvements in the telecommunications infrastructure and the resulting increase in online population, selection of Hindi is an astute move to target a sizable number of web users in India.

The continual growth of languages on the internet is altering the way companies use the web to engage with a global audience. Just a decade ago, languages apart from English were non-existent on the web, but with rapid growth worldwide, web users have been bestowing it with local features. The business world is now taking heed and following user demand of offering localized content.

China’s Localized Internet

Online business in China has been growing rapidly in recent years creating a number of successful online companies which have benefitted from China’s gigantic Internet user base, the largest in the world. The upward trajectory of many online companies is being aided by substantial growth in Internet users in the world’s second largest economy. Just this year, Internet users in China grew by 6% to 485m and still only one-thirds of the country’s population is online. As China is steeped in preserving its own identity and culture, a noticeable trend exists in the Chinese online space; local companies, as well as the state, are bestowing it with distinct features.

Most foreign Internet companies have failed to achieve measured success in China, whereas local companies have been inspired by foreign Internet ideas and gone on to achieve great success. The localization aspect is the most important factor which has contributed to the success of local Internet companies. China’s Internet users are young and do not have a lot of disposable income, though they are getting richer, so the local Internet firms in China devised adaptations that will suit local consumers.

When Alibaba, a Chinese group of Internet based companies, launched Taobao, an auction website like eBay, they changed a few things that made a significant difference. Taobao didn’t charge transactions fees and they overcame the Chinese consumers lack of trust in online shopping by offering an escrow system which withholds payment until delivery of product. The result: Taobao boasts more than 370m users and accounts for three out of four online sales in China.

Similarly, Weibo, a Chinese clone of Twitter has been able to gain the largest market share by offering a utility that appeals to local users. Weibo allows users to attach comments, pictures, and videos as well as providing users to input higher number of characters than Twitter’s 140 limit. This is because an equivalent sentence in Chinese uses more characters than it would in English. Weibo has also been heavily promoted by local celebrities who use the service and in turn attract more people.

Chinese entrepreneurs have never been shy to take foreign ideas and alter them for local needs. It is because of this adaptation that great success has been gained by online companies in China. The Internet is still in its early stages in the country. The future is being set for websites that are catered towards the local market and provide a service that is in demand. Opportunities are aplenty in China; the ideas are already in place in the West, the only requirement for success is localization.

Social media: Aiding chaos?

As England came to terms with the mass riots that occurred in the country, questions have been raised on how the situation became so severe in a matter of few days. After the disorder was quelled, the authorities swiftly moved to punish the perpetrators and point out the methods employed by the rioters. Unsurprisingly, social media was blamed for aiding the rioters in organising themselves which resulted in looting and civil unrest. Similar incidents occurred in the US earlier this month where social media fuelled flash-mob violence in several American cities. These incidents prompted a debate on the negative aspects of social media with some sections calling for a curb on social communication channels.

Social media’s ability to turn communication into interactive dialogue allowed the rioters to mobilize themselves in numbers that were difficult to control. As social media is not under any regulation, the authorities could not take any action that would have resulted in better control of the situation. Now the on-going debate about negative uses of social media has reached the top echelons of governments in some countries. While some made social media as a scapegoat to hide their own shortcomings, others have raised justifiable questions about the problems that could arise through negative use of social media.

The debate on the negative uses of social media is certainly required, however, the entire premise of such debates cannot be focused upon blaming social media entirely. Violent gangs have existed in the past while riots have also occurred sporadically. Social media has just become a tool for the rioters to achieve what they intended to and that is organised looting and violence. Violent instincts in some sections of the population were the main reason for the unrest as some members of society were quick to embrace them.

Social media itself cannot be blamed entirely even though it was used by the rioters to organise themselves. Rather than curbing the use of social media, something that has been ferociously opposed by free speech supporters, a monitoring mechanism should be in place to limit and curtail negative use. As the use of social media platforms becomes more widespread, the solution lies in monitoring not fighting technology as the means to an end.

User driven social media localization

As social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter continue to make headway in emerging markets, a new trend is leading the way in creation of localized content on social networking websites. Users from different parts of the world use local terms, phonetically written, and country-specific social characteristics for their social media communication.

Even though English remains the most used language on the Internet, the non-English speaking world has seen increased use of localized social media content being created by users. The unavailability of local language support often results in local terms being used, often phonetically, and cultural characteristics being displayed in social networking sites. This is an indicator of how important localization is for different markets. As a result, localized engagement results in higher market penetration for the networking sites. Such findings are very useful for companies who operate in different markets and intend to have a multilingual social media campaign. Social media communication has to target all markets and a strategy should aim to be culture/region specific.

For companies, adapting social media communication for different markets can be challenging. Just consider the amount and frequency of communication that occurs through social networks and imagine having to replicate the same in many different languages. Add to that how cultural differences would significantly alter the messaging because of local differences and sensitivities. What might be acceptable in a western country might not work well in a conservative one. This is one such example of differences that exist, and this is why native users of social media can be used and studied to create localized strategy in social networks.

Social Media penetration is still considerably low in the non-English speaking world but it is increasing and with a higher number of users online. Targeting these users would require a social media strategy that is localized and caters to the target market. Users are already leading the way in localizing content for themselves; the trend should be an indicator of their preferences and companies should follow accordingly.

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