28 April 1996

Translation on the fly (TOF) - English <>Czech

this is not a new concept, there are few products available in the USA for the multi-lingual on line WWW translation with price around $30.

This is a "plug in" or ActiveX browser product. The product should be developed in collaboration with the existing PC translation program (there are about three products now available in Czecho-Slovakia)

Functionality:

1. Web page is displayed in original language (English, Czech, Slovak, ..).
2. The HTML document source is parsed for the text (controls like URLs, images, etc. are NOT translated)
3. The text is "machine translated" to desired language (English, Czech, Slovak,…)
4. The page is displayed in the target language as HTML document

The parts needed is HTML3.0 compliant parser, browser integration, text translator. The TOF can be used both for reading the foreign pages or for posting on the foreign servers.

The concept can be extended to the server - where the server "translates" the personal page see "personal workspace" concept on Netscape and MSN - http://home.netscape.com/netscape_news.html#personal_workspace on the server and is ready for the subscriber to pick up. The service can be extended to "private" subscribers who pay for it and the translation is edited by the human translator (before 5 in the morning!?).

Marketing Strategy:

Most of the selling should be done via the Internet. The version1.0/30 days evaluation copy should be available for free to download with the customer mandatory registration. Each time somebody registers on your server you have another client to sell to and advertise.

Before the 30 days expiration the customer is notified of the expiration and asked to pay for the software. After the payment is received the customer is provided with the "password" and can download the product. The copy can be also distributed via the floppy, CD-R etc. Paying customers should get something extra - like selected translated personal page each morning - Wall Street Journal, etc. - . Remember that with each service you can advertise to the targeted audience - and advertiser pays much of the cost (like the newspapers).

The psychology here is that the customer gets accustomed to the product and can not live without it. How to handle the "disconnect" is very important. I would never disconnect the customer after the 30 days period. Majority of people who do not buy either do not use the program, or can not afford to use it - but will buy it when they will have resources and/or program improves. I would display each time the message when they use the product that they "should buy the legal version for $30 calling 1-800-123-4567 (example)".