Elementary business logic suggests that companies doing business on the Internet should develop a global strategy as quickly as possible. The Net, after all, transcends national boundaries, and makes it possible for a widget vendor in Peoria to connect directly with a customer in Prague. Global economic integration really is happening - many U.S. technology companies, for example, now get nearly half their revenues from overseas - and the advent of the Internet Economy will only accelerate that trend.
The reality of international development, alas, is rather sobering. The Net might be a global medium, but localization - adapting to the language and the business and cultural norms of a particular country - is critical. And localization can be both very difficult (something as simple as its name can trip up a company) and very expensive; just consider the challenges that the U.K. travel site Lastminute.com has faced in expanding across the Continent (see "Glocalization: Easier Said than Done").
International expansion also subjects companies to a whole new set of macroeconomic risks. It's tough enough to figure out how the vicissitudes of the U.S. economy might affect a business; to anticipate events like the dramatic fall in the euro, or the Asian economic crisis of a couple of years ago, is all but impossible. The euro crisis is already hurting the best-laid plans of some U.S. companies - watch for Europe-related earnings surprises in quarters to come - and has undoubtedly given pause to many other would-be transatlantic players (see "The Trouble With Europe").
Indeed, what's striking about the global Internet business at the moment is just how local it is. Yahoo (YHOO) has had important successes in Japan and Europe, and Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) and a handful of European and Asian companies are pushing their international expansion hard. But in most countries, the local market is dominated by local companies emerging from vibrant local Internet economies. With the possible exception of Yahoo, the soon-to-be-born Terra Lycos and a few equipment vendors such as Cisco, there are no true Internet multinationals.
We are perhaps especially attuned to some of these issues because we are in the midst of an international expansion of our own. Already, there are editions of The Industry Standard in Australia and Norway and Switzerland, published in the local language by the local affiliates of our majority owner, International Data Group (dossier), and featuring primarily local content. Many more such licensed editions will be launched in the near future.
And in just a few weeks, we will be launching a European edition, created by our own London-based subsidiary, which will serve the U.K. as well as English speakers on the Continent. All of these new print publications will be accompanied by local Web sites, which will tie into TheStandard.com mother ship but will also have their own identities. Our aim is to make The Standard a powerful global presence, but we know we'll have to do it one tough local market at a time.
