2014 Web Globalization Report Card is Released!

Every year for the past 10 years, John Yunker of Byte Level Research has produced his Web Globalization Report Card. John is clearly one of the leaders in the global content space. I have tremendous respect for him and the research he does.

John just released the Web Globalization Report Card for 2014. If you are involved in web globalization, you should get it, without hesitation.

Each year, John ranks the top 150 global websites. He uses a set of criteria and a scale that he has developed over the years. He also provides his valuable insights into trends and predictions. As per his custom, John has published a list of the Top 25 Global Websites. Here is that list for 2014, ranked best to worst:

1. Google
2. Hotels.com
3. Facebook
4. Booking.com
5. NIVEA
6. Cisco Systems
7. Philips
8. 3M
9. Samsung
10. Trip Advisor*
11. Starbucks
12. Microsoft
13. Kayak
14. Wikipedia
15. LG
16. Adobe
17. Intell
18. Autodesk
19. Nestle*
20. HP
21. Merck
22. IKEA*
23. John Deere*
24. PWC*
25. KPMG

The websites that have an asterisk (*) are new on the top 25 this year. Here are the websites that fell out of the Top 25 from 2013:

• Twitter
• Yahoo!
• American Express
• KLM
• Deloitte

Other things that are interesting about the list:

• Google, Hotels.com, and Facebook held the same top 3 positions in 2013.
• The following websites moved up on the list, indicating that their global presence has improved:
  • Starbucks
  • Wikipedia
  • LG
  • Adobe
  • Intel
• These websites moved down on the list. This doesn’t indicate that their global presence has gotten any worse. But, it doses indicate that other companies are doing more to improve their global websites:
  • NIVEA
  • Cisco Systems
  • 3M
  • Samsung
  • Microsoft
  • Kayak
  • HP
• Merck and KPMG stayed at the same rank for 2013 and 2014

John will be releasing more information and insights, soon. I’m interested to see who was on the bottom 10 this year. Here is who was at the bottom of the global barrel last year:

• McDonald’s*
• Hilton*
• Pepsi
• Four Seasons
• GAP
• MTV
• Ramada
• Thrifty
• L’Oreal
• Heineken
• Walmart

* Tied

Are you surprised by some of these names? Yes, so was I. That is, until I started examining their global websites and realized that the bottom 11 companies really need some help.

As John Yunker says, “Web globalization is a journey without end – which makes it exciting, but also challenging.”

I look forward to sharing more of his work as he releases it to the public. In the meantime, you can go get the entire report here.

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Val Swisher

Val Swisher is the Founder and CEO of Content Rules, Inc. Val enjoys helping companies solve complex content problems. She is a well-known expert in content strategy, structured authoring, global content, content development, and terminology management. Val believes content should be easy to read, cost-effective to create and translate, and efficient to manage. Her customers include industry giants such as Google, Cisco, Visa, Facebook, Roche, and IBM. Her fourth book, “The Personalization Paradox: Why Companies Fail (and How to Succeed) at Creating Personalized Experiences at Scale,” was published in 2021 by XML Press.

Val is on the Advisory Board for the Technical Communications Program at the University of North Texas. When not working with customers or students, Val can be found sitting behind her sewing machine working on her latest quilt. She also makes a mean hummus.

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