Might be worth sending a link to  our video, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REDeEhvHwsU

Gwen Carlson

Senior Director, GDD Communications

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Telephone: +1 310 578 8653

Mobile: +1 619 322 3188

Website URL: www.icann.org

From: UA-discuss <ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org> On Behalf Of Tex
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2018 9:48 PM
To: 'Ashish Modi' <ashishmodi@xgenplus.com>; ua-discuss@icann.org; ua-eai@icann.org
Subject: Re: [UA-discuss] Why should a company adopt IDN

Promotion of IDN and EAI, like I18n and L10n, should be targeted to the audience. The arguments that appeal to a CEO can differ from the arguments that motivate marketers, developers, etc. (Sometimes they overlap.)

The appeal also depends on the stage of globalization maturity that the company is at.

I would start by asking:

• What experience do they have with i18n/l10n? If they do, which markets or languages do they already localize to?
• Do they have global clients or partners pushing them to be more global, prospective clients in a new market, or are they just at the tire kicking stage?
• Is the CEO asking for personal interest or do they need help motivating his/her organization or perhaps his/her board?

The list of responses that people supplied is good. I especially liked the speed dial analogy.

To be effective, there should also be a list of counter-arguments, and responses to those. (Typically, cost, English is the language of business, etc.) If I have time I will create a list, but I can’t in the near term.

My list of the positive arguments is the following. (Many but not all were represented in the others’ responses.)

Partners, Suppliers, Resellers, etc.

If you have global clients, partners, or affiliates they will require you to support EAI or move to a competitor that will.

Cost

If the company is already internationalizing and localizing, being UA-ready is a fundamental I18n requirement that should be included in product planning.

• It isn’t difficult or a significant burden over other I18n requirements.
• Delaying implementing EAI increases the cost of its eventual implementation as it could mean rewriting or re-architecting code that is in development now.
• Delaying implementation increases technical debt that will need to be resolved at some point.

Even if the company is not internationalizing its applications, EAI is a fundamental requirement. Users may have EAI email addresses when they communicate with you.

Brand Reputation

CEOs respond to opportunity and risk, often two sides of the same coin. Improving and protecting brand reputation is an example. Supporting native language in IDN demonstrates commitment to local markets, quality, good customer support. Lack of support puts the brand at risk of being perceived as poor quality, hard to use, insensitive to local needs.

Market Opportunity

CEOs are sensitive to financial and market opportunities. However, although native language support is an important factor to capturing a market, there are also many other factors that have to be resolved simultaneously. (For example, having native language speakers in customer support and call centers, native language marketing, social media, etc.) Therefore many of the arguments about market size and opportunity are not as compelling as most people think, until they are made specific to the industry and demographics of the company’s particular product space.

It is worth providing the market opportunity data, but it will be taken with a large grain of salt if it isn’t product specific and compared against competitors, etc.

Competition

Local competitors or other global competitors can leverage their support for EAI and native languages to take away market share. That is a cogent threat.

User Experience, Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Users may have pride or feel their status is elevated by having a native language and personalized email address or IDN. Employees may also take pride in an IDN for their company.

EAI offers ease of use including entry (typing, handwriting recognition, voice), visual and voice recognition, memory recall, and easier site navigation.

Also EAI/IDN makes it easier for users to communicate or transfer IDN to each other, since they can speak them or write them out on paper, etc.

Marketing

EAI may improve SEO.

An IDN reinforces and protects the localized company and product names.

An IDN may make it easier for users to recognize phishing or other malicious variants of the company domain name.

Registering IDNs can prevent others from infringing on your rights to the domain or using it to hurt your brand or trademark or hurt your SEO.

As with other features of I18n, supporting EAI enables more than one language. So, initially you may be interested in one market, but you automatically get the benefit of access to other markets. Often, supporting EAI improves revenue in existing markets, as other language speakers within the market increase their business with you.