“Google Inc. discovered that in South Korea and China, where it initially held its minimalist approach, only to see local rivals thrive by acknowledging their users’ preference for sites rich with entertainment and visual complexity,” says the story, quoting Pali Research analyst Tian X. Hou as saying:

“A lot of times, the U.S. companies, because they were successful in the U.S., they tend to repeat their current business models. Most of the time, that doesn’t work.”

To take on China and Korea, where it trails rivals, “the normally sparse Google site for those countries now displays icons that jump as users move the mouse,” says AP, going on:

“In China, Google also took the much-criticized step of filtering [read ‘censoring’] its results to avoid revealing search results blocked by the government.

“But Baidu is still the Chinese search leader, thanks to its willingness to add music video and other entertainment features.”

However, US companies have “technical know-how, financial muscle and global reach,” says the story,although, “U.S. companies are often hampered by global codes of conduct”.

“Take nudity,” it says.

“Many Mideast cultures are averse to displaying women’s skin, while Europeans are far more tolerant of public nudity than Americans. A U.S. company trying to impose its standards for user-submitted content elsewhere risks complaints of banning too much or too little, yet it wants uniform policies because the Internet crosses borders.

John Strand of Strand Consulting in Denmark puts it like this.

“Creating a national company is like rocket science,” he states.

“But creating an international company is like proton physics.”

Meanwhile, ordinary Netizens communicate with each other across all language and cultural barriers with no trouble at all.

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