The Change Mariner

American Web Sites Speak the Language of Overseas Users

New York Times:

The National Football League will roll out a Chinese-language version of its Web site this month in yet another move by American entertainment and media organizations to capitalize on overseas Internet audiences.

The new N.F.L. site, which the league plans to announce this week, will offer all the usual NFL.com fare, but with the text translated to Mandarin Chinese. The Web site will feature commentary from Chad Lewis, a Philadelphia Eagles tight end who speaks Mandarin as a result of a two-year stint as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan in his early 20's.

The N.F.L.'s move is in the vanguard as Web publishers respond to an expanding audience overseas. As Internet use grows rapidly abroad, people in other countries who can read English have been gravitating to the bigger American Web sites for news, games and entertainment. For example, Washingtonpost.com, which is almost exclusively in English and makes no extensive effort to attract overseas readers, has nonetheless built a significant foreign readership - about 1.5 million of its 8.5 million monthly visitors. Some of the site's advertisers now aim specifically at the international audience.