case study ASHLEY JONES

A Case of Bridging the Language Gap

Founded by Ramu Yalamanchi and Akash Garg, hi5 is a social networking srte that is not just another Facebook or MySpace; its
main target is International markets. Headquartered in San Francisco. hi5 is a privately held company that today boasts more
than 80 million registered users in more than 200 nations. Alexa. a web information company, has ranked hi5 as a top 10
website globally and as the most-trafficked site in several countries, including many in Latin America and Asia.
Mtp://hi5.com

BUSINESS CHALLENGE
When hi5 was first launched in December 2003, its founders Yalamanchi and Garg noticed that the site was receiving a lot of
international traffic. The two wanted to adapt the site in order to best serve Its intemational users. So, in response, they
decided to make the site available in those countries' languages. The company began its intemational expansion by first adding
the ubiquitous Spanish, German, and French language options, but Yalamanchi and Garg did not want to stop there. As hi5
increased its presence in countries with various dialects and languages^Portugal, Italy, and the Netherlands, to name a few—
the company needed a well-rounded language translation vendor to meet the social networking needs of its clients,

VENDOR OF CHOICE: LIONBRIDGE

Founded in 1996. Lionbridge Technologies. Inc. is a provider of language, content, and technology outsourcing services. The
company focuses on localizing, translating, and adapting products and web content for international companies that want their
content and products available in local languages. The publicly traded company has 4,500 employees, including prequalified
human translators, across 26 countries. Uonbridge's translation technology offerings include Freeway, a hosted translation
management software platform that allows Lionbridge to interact with clients during the translation process via an integrated set
of functions that automates and manages the authoring, editing, reviewing, and updating of multilingual content.
¥fww.ilonbríílge. com

THE PROBLEM IN DEPTH
While hi5 first launched as an English-based social networking
.site, co-founder and CEO Ramu Yaiamanchi says, "We saw what
was happening in social networking, and going intemational was
interesting to us." Upon noticing the high rate of intemational
traffic that was occurring on its social networking site, the hi5
team decided thai the best solution for reaching these site visitors
was to offer a plethora of intemational languages so that nothing
would get lost in translation, Adds Yalamanchi, "If you look at
intemet users today, about 80% of them are outside the U.S.
Based on those numbers, we think it's safe to say that more of
the intemet users going forward in the future will be outside of
the U.S., rather than inside. So, we made intemational social
networking our niche."
The company started off by adding Gemmn, French, and Spanish
in the fall of 2006. and by that December, the company had also
added Portuguese. Italian, and Dutch. By the folhiwing s-ummer, hi5
offered Romanian, Polish, and Turkish language options.
By September 2007, things were going well for hi5: Tbe site
was achieving 10 billion monthly page views, and it had become
the third most-trafficked site in Romania upon adding the
Romanian language option. Notes Mukund Bhagavan, director of
strategy and operations for hi5, "From the beginning of 2007 to
the end of the year, our raw traffic went up three times in size."
And yet, the company wasn't completely satisfied with its
existing translation vendor, a company Yalamanchi chose not to
mention. Bhagavan says, "Our other vendors weren't providing
some of the requirements we were looking for; we wanted

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Using L/onßritJge s îransiation capabilities. íi/5 is able to provide users all over
the world with a social networking profile set exclusively to the larjguages
they speak.
high-quality translations and enhancements, and we wanted
them done quickly."
THE SOLUTION
In September of 2007, hi5 turned to Uonhridge for help. hi5
chose Lionbridge as its translation vendor for several reasons,
explains Yalamanchi: "When we met with [Lionbridge] initially,
they had a good client list; a lot of the companies they were
working with were web-based companies, like us. One thing that
was important to us was the turnaround of translation. We
wanted a vendor that could provide good coverage across many
different languages, and quickly. We were happy with what
Lionbridge could offer, so we decided to go with them."
Tlie way Lionbridge's translation process works certainly
allows for speedy translations, says Sara Buda, head of corporate
communications for Lionbridge. "When a client comes to us, we
already have a network of translators set up around the world
who are in-country. We send our translators the content our
client wants translated, via the web and our Logoport technology,
and as they translate, we capture that translation in real time for
our client." Using Lionbridge's Freeway technology, clients are
also able to communicate with Lionhridge in real time by linking
to content that needs translating.
TTie Freeway platform manages the authoring, editing, and
reviewing of multilingual content through an integrated set of
features, which includes a portal where lionbridge clients—including
hi5—can submit and track translation projects. It also features
collaboration tools, workspaces, and Lionbridge's Logoport lan-
guage management tools. Logoport is the internal engine that
Lionbridge uses to work in rea] time with its translators. It stores
translation memories and glossaries in a secure, central repository
and supports thousands of translators using the system concurrently.
Through Freeway, hi5 sends Lionbridge a multilingual project
that requires translating. Upon receiving the content, Lionhridge
sends its translators materiaLs that need translating through
Logoport. Once translated, materials are sent back to Lionbridge,
case study
We care about
how the
end result looks.'
again, tL<îing Logoport. Then, translated materials can be shared
and collaborated on with hi5 via Freeway. These collaboration
platforms that Lionbddge offers allow translators all over the
world, Lionbridge executives, and hi5 executives to always
remain active participants in an efficient translation process.
Speed in translations was not the only factor of importance for
hi5 when tlie company chose Lionbridge; quality mattered too.
Says Paula Shannon, senior VP and general manager of
Lionbridge, "It's not just about tianslation for us; there are other
things that have to happen before translated works get published.
We perform quality checks, we change the user interface so it
looks consistent with our client's, and we make sure everything is
culturally specific. It takes us from one day to just a few days to
make sure that content is of the absolute highest quality. We care
about how the end result looks."
hi5 was particularly impressed with Lionbridge's commitment
to quality and timeliness, and it approached the company about
performing a Japanese translation. This translation would tum
out to be a test for Lionhridge—one that the company wouid
pass. Yalamanchi explains, "Japanese was the first language that
Lionbridge did with us. At the time we decided to work with
them, we were looking to see if they could provide us translation
services across many different markets. But first, we wanted to
make sure that the product we got from them was up to par, and
based on their performance on tbe Japanese translation, we
decided to continue working with them."
JULY/AUGUST 2008 ECONTENT *•>
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Within the course of about a month, hi5 chose Lionbridge to
manage a number of other translation projects, and Lionbridge
got to work on providing complete translations of hi5's website in
Greek, Hungarian, Tbai, Russian, Czech, and Chinese, among
others. In total, Lionbridge has translated 12 languages for hi5 in
the 8 months since the relationship began.
Beyond complete translations, lionbridge also provided hi5 with
independent audits—known as Language Quality Inspections—in
order to better maintain the other languages that had been translated
prior to Uonbridge's involvement. In that pnxiess. Shannon says,
"we discovered that three of the languages were in need of an
overhaul... the tone was just off; it wasn't speaking to the audience
that hi5 had." Today, hi5 and Lionbridge have an ongoing
relationship in which Lionbridge maintains hi5's website in
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Uonbriages Authoring Assistant makes coHaborating on
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multiple languages, so that as content changes in English, It is also
quickly updated in the 22 other langiages that hi5 offers its end tisers.
THE OUTCOME
"hi5's international growth has far outpaced their English-
language growth, which proves that they have done a great job
at staking out the global community," says Buda. "Consistent
language translation is crucial for hi5's continued success, and
Lionbridge provides that." To keep up with the constant updating
that maintaining hi5's website requires, Lionbddge has since
embedded new features into its technology to help hi5 manage
quick turnaround of content. Notes Shannon. "hi5 wants to
continue getting more content oui to more markets, while also
maintaining quality, and we help them do that."
In the future, Yalamanchi envisions involving hiS's members in
Lionbridge's translation efforts. "Going forward, we are working to
make it possible for our members to actually participate in doing
translations for the service," he says. "The program will enable hi5
members to translate the site into different languages that we don't
have so far. People will be able to visit hi5's site and select text that
they can individually translate. Lionbridge will then be reviewing
and approving those member tran.slations for us, as well as, continuing
to update hi5's glossary and otber content." Adds Bhagavan, "By
enabling oui" members to become part of the translation process, we
are able to gel into different dialects and into smaller populated
countries that we can't reach now. "Hiere are multiple Üavore and
nuances of each language, and we want to reflect that."
Today, hi5's global presence in the online social networking
market is evident by its 40 million new users and 20 billion page
views per month. "We think a result of our huge growth in the
past five years is that we are able to provide a social network to
different people across the globe," Yalamanchi says, "Lionbridge
helps us speak to those people." E
ASHt.EV JONES (ASHLEYJONES@1NFOTODAY.COM) IS A FORMER EDITORIAL
ASSISTANT FOR EœNTENT MAGAZINE. SHE NOW LIVES IN PriTSBURGH AND
WORKS AS AN INVESTIGATIVE WRITER.
COMMENTS? EMAIL LEHERS TO THE EDITOR TO ECLETTERS@INF0T0DAY.COM.