Some critics also charge that the company's network crashes too often. Sure enough, a few weeks after our story came out, eBay's site went down for 11 hours. US-based companies ignore international business at their peril, especially now that their business models are visible to buyers, sellers, and competitors worldwide. Many of these sites are produced in other countries for customers in those countries. They represent a big market eBay could own if it had focused on them early on.
Companies face problems when translating a site into several languages, however.
It can be a maintenance and financial nightmare. In response, a new industry has sprung up to address globalization, making the construction and oversight of multiple, localized Web sites more manageable. Global enterprises can now hire engineers who can produce software that allows a single version of the source code to drive many localized Web sites. Lower costs and greater business agility. An exploration of the globalization phenomenon and discipline would be a fine future article for your magazine.