Analysts are now predicting market domination for eBay, and perhaps an eventual buyout of its erstwhile rival. But while eBay had the financial resources to weather the storm in Europe, companies of shallower pocket simply cannot afford the kind of cultural myopia that hampered eBay's earliest forays into internationalization. By 2004, IDC predicts the percentage that globalize will level off at 80 percent. Globalized and nonglobalized companies have roughly the same percentage of foreign visitors. Globalization makes it easier for those visitors to buy, and that has an enormous effect on top-line revenue.
Globalization imposes both technical and organizational challenges.
Coordinating sales to foreign customers and purchases from foreign suppliers, allocating marketing resources and managing channels are the three greatest hurdles for companies, says Rosenthal. A Web site is a company's face to the world. Rather than going it alone, many companies find channel partnerships, mergers or even acquisitions as the ideal way to gain a foothold in new markets. Others are turning to specialist localization firms such as Sapient, SDL International, Idiom Inc. or Global Sight Corp. to handle multilingual content and workflow issues. Cultural differences can make or break fast-growth companies.