Leaping the I18N Hurdle

1. Leaping the I18N Hurdle Corinna Kühn Content & Localization Manager mobile.international GmbH Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

2. Ingredients About the mobile.international GmbH International Expansion Hurdles in Sight Custom-tailored I18N Approach Possible Pitfalls More in Store Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

3. mobile.international GmbH mobile.de: Germany‘s biggest vehicle market online More than one million vehicles online 49 million visitors per month 85 % market saturation with regards to registered dealers (33.000 dealers) Number of Employees: 120; thereof Content & Localization: 3 mobile.de ranked among the Top-Ten German websites Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

4. mobile.international GmbH mobile.ro: First international vehicle market, launched in October 2008 mobile.eu: Follow-up marketplace launched in April 2009 Division in Public and Professional Domain Public Domain: Private users search and offer vehicles Professional Domain: Registered dealers search and offer vehicles benefitting from a range of features and tools Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

5. Localizing mobile.international 7 languages on mobile.de (DE, EN, FR, ES, IT, CZ, RU) German and English: Full scope available Other languages: of the platform available 2 new marketplaces launched recently: mobile.ro in Romania and mobile.eu in Poland Application Content in full scope Marketing Material Customer Service Documents Legal Documents Tools for dealers in several languages + Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

6. Former I18N format GNU Gettext: Format used until March 2009 Gettext (GNU internationalization and localization (i18n) library) PO format used to store translations I18N setup: Open source environment Content and Localization team worked in development environment (Linux, Eclipse, branch/trunk setup) Software Pootle used for access for onsite translators Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

7. Daily Trouble Overlapping Job Roles:Technology and Content/Localization Technical tasks (scripting, entering keys in templates, taking care of working environment, testing builds) take up lots of time Script for extracting new/edited message keys: min. 20 minutes per execution Bug fixing time-consuming and far from the usual task set Import/export to translation vendor Excel sheets via copy/paste Complicated import/export of PO files No ID; message = key  difficult tracking and historicizing Difficulties updating English source: Led to „fuzzys“ in all translations Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

8. The Goal: Efficient Expansion mobile.international startsextensive international expansion beginning of 2008 mobile.international starts using Scrum as a method of agile development Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

9. The Goal: Efficient Expansion II Technoloy is prepared for expansion: Base model of the software represents core for all countries Country-specific adjustments take place at the core piece of software Downside of setup: Any piece of texts is translated into all languages With regards to L10N, the preparations were based on the experience with the language versions of mobile.de  „It‘s only translation.“ Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

10. Efficiency? Hurdle Nº 1 Difference between language versions and full-blown marketplaces Mobile.de consists of two major sections:Public and Professional Domain Language versions available only for a limited section of the Public Domain Setup of Professional Domain requires content input of almost every department of the company: Customer Service, Billing, Dealer Sales, Marketing etc. Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

11. Efficiency? Other Hurdles Amount of content in need of localizing so far undetermined and unstructured Each department had its own set of content in need of localization Content and localization produced higher workload than expected  Overall number of words: about 90.000 Product set differs from marketplace to marketplace Legal and billing requirements vary (e.g. type of payment) Brand name, phone numbers, email addresses, and SEO content need to be localized individually Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

12. Variety of Systems • Each set of content was connected to a certain systematic environment • Content Management System (CMS) • Customer Relationship Managemant System (CRM) • Customer Support tool • None of these systems includes localization support • No convenient import/export functionalities • No translation memory or alignment functionalities • No history or tracking of changes Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

13. Variety of Formats Each system has its own specific format: Word InDesign JasperReports Database contents Expected from our department: Collect, adjust and translate content in all sorts of formats Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

14. Localization E… what?!? Yes, we really want an „Engineer“ Support was needed Hiring a Localization Engineernot an option Technical issues had to be addressed by the Localization team External support: Localization consultant Small knowledge within the company about I18N/L10N solutions Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

15. I18N Utopia Connect all systems to one localization tool and use only one database Use only one exchange format with translation vendor Translations pushed to our team instead of us collecting every content in need of localizing Track changes and versions of both source content and translated content for every system Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

16. Custom-tailered I18N Approach Most urgent problems: Unstructured source content Different storage places for source content and translations for all marketplaces Translation exchange format (PO format) Separate Localization from Technology Different formats of source content Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

17. 1) Unstructured source contentSolution: Sorting the Docs mobile.ro: Content wilderness: Several types of contents, unclear amounts, unknown formats, hard to know who takes care of what etc. E.g.: Estimates for about 5000 words increased to 13.000 words ;-) Excel solved the problem in a pragmatic way: Listing all contents/documents needed for one marketplace in one single Excel file Used for scheduling and communicating deadlines Reuse this file for each new marketplace Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

18. 1) Unstructured source contentSolution: Content Ownership Clear responsibilities for one designated person: Ownership for a type of content for all marketplaces First point of contact for all requests Filing and versioning of the document in source and target language Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

19. Custom-tailered I18N Approach Most urgent problems: Unstructured source content Different storage places for source content and translations for all marketplaces Translation exchange format (PO format) Separate Localization from Technology Different formats of source content Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

20. 2) Different storage places Solution:TortoiseSVN • TortoiseSVN: Open-source versioning software that works under Windows • One central filing system for different document types • Much more powerful than the network drive due to versioning capabilites • Document name remains the same • History of the document is kept • Reason for changes are tracked • Documents can be locked (e.g. during translation) • Each content owner has a login and password Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

21. Efficient exchange between departments and the localization team through TortoiseSVN  Arrividerci “final.doc, really_final.doc, really_really_really_final.doc“! Legal: Versioning of important legal documents (E.g. Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy) Creation of new marketplace:Copy sample directory and go! 2) Different storage places Solution:TortoiseSVN Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

22. Custom-tailered I18N Approach Most urgent problems: Unstructured source content Different storage places for source content and translations for all marketplaces Translation exchange format (PO format) Separate Localization from Technology Different formats of source content Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

23. 3) Translation exchange formatSolution: New Format, New Luck Format change strongly recommendedby consultant and vendor Huge step for mobile.international Evaluate requirements for format change Technology and the Localization team discussed options Project Study set up PO goes XML Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

24. 3) Translation exchange formatNew Format: Pilot Project Pilot project set up in January 2009 Key format and XML scheme defined Definition of new workflow and processes Reduction of tech tasks for content/localization Translation resourcebundles stored in trunk No more merging & switching branches Implementation of localization tool Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

25. 3) Translation exchange formatDecision Made Decision for format change after successful pilot Implementation of new format (XML) and migration in March 2009 Localization tool implemented for all members of the team LPU, source, and target files as shared resources on the network drive Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH Graphic: www.webdesign-guru.co.uk

26. Custom-tailered I18N Approach Most urgent problems: Unstructured source content Different storage places for source content and translations for all marketplaces Translation exchange format (PO format) Separate Localization from Technology Different formats of source content Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

27. 4) Separate Localization from TechnologySolution: New Setup Team preferred going back to text and language instead of code and linux Localization tool and new setup improved the situation Only Web Development team works in templates now and prepares keys and default text Content/Localization work with localization tool Good team work leads to efficient distribution of tasks Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

28. Custom-tailered I18N Approach Most urgent problems: Unstructured source content Different storage places for source content and translations for all marketplaces Translation exchange format (PO format) Separate Localization from Technology Different formats of source content Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

29. 5) Different formats of source content Solution: „Unifying“ the Format Actual goal - only one format – not met HTML, InDesign, Word, Excel still in use Only properties files were eliminated Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

30. 5) Different formats of source content Well … At Least Some! But! By using the Excel overview, TortoiseSVN, the new XML format, and a powerful localization tool we were able to get organized and scalable Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

31. Achievements mobile.international well-preparedfor international expansion Time savings within the Content & Localization team Clear separation between Technology and Content/Localization Cost savings due to efficient handovers Implementation of tool  Professionalization Benefitting from versioning systemsand scalable solutions Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

32. Pitfalls: Watch Out For … Is your team able to work individually? Some tools might need shared resources (LPU, source and target files) Agile Development & Individual Projects: Can content and translation develop separately from the existing codeline? Does the setup support scrum? Does the setup support your configuration management? Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

33. Guest translators or reviewers:How do they work with your XML? Source Language: Is English really the best choice? Should inhouse Content Managers be „translators“ or content writers by role? Development: Does any other department need localization? Localization tool as mandatory for any localization Quality Assurance: How is the handover done with QA if the Excel file no exists? Pitfalls: Watch Out For … Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

34. More in Store Go Agile: Completely integrate localization into scrum and Quality Gate concepts Introduce more standards: Brand, phone numbers, email addresses: should be stored as variables Benefit from changes: Review English source texts without harming the translations Improve Quality Assurance: Set up methodological linguistic and cosmetic testing Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

35. Thank you for your interest! Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH

36. mobile.de ranked among the Top-Ten German websites for six years Source: IVW April 2009 (eBay and Google not measured by IVW) Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH 37

37. 2008 we became part of the eBay Classifieds Group Founded 2005 Acquired in 2004 Acquired in 2004 Acquired in 2005 Acquired in 2005 Acquired in 2008 Acquired in 2008 • $ 250 Mio. revenue in 2008 • 86 Mio. global unique visitors • 4.7 billion page views per month • 24 Mio. total live ads • 20+ countries Source: Nielsen, Comscore, Internal metrics Corinna Kühn - mobile.international GmbH