The software market in Korea

The information technology industry in the Asia-Pacific region has achieved explosive growth in the past years. The Software Publishers' Association (SPA) announced on December 23, 1996 that personal computer application sales amounted to $319 million for the third quarter (Q3) of 1996, a 15 percent increase over Q3 1995. For the first three quarters of 1996 combined, revenues from application shipments increased by 22 percent, surpassing the $1 billion mark." This is the first time that sales in the Asia-Pacific region have passed the $1 billion mark in such a period of time. This upward trend shows little sign of stopping.

The Korean IT industry has grown constantly and has contributed significantly to the unprecedented growth in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1996, Korean software sales ranked third in terms of total volume, behind Japan, and Australia and New Zealand combined. This is due in part to the fact that Korea does not have a large domestic software industry and thus has to rely on imported, localized products.

Software localization in Korea

Software products used in Korea are written in English, with the exception of "A-Rae-A Hangul (HWP)", a word-processing program produced by Hangul and Computer Co., Ltd. Localization is therefore an excellent way to improve software sales in the Korean market. To guarantee maximum profits and market share, software products must be localized quickly and properly, before the competition is able to do so.

For example, Quark Xpress was the first Macintosh DTP software to be localized for the Korean market. It quickly secured a monopoly in Korea. Other companies were slow to localize, which meant that competing products offering comparable performance and with an equally good reputation could not gain access to the Xpress-dominated market. Users who were familiar with Xpress were reluctant to learn other programs, even where these promised better performance at lower prices. Software publishers learned from this lesson and realized that consumers will opt for the first available localized products.

When choosing among localized products, users consider the performance of the products and the quality of localization. The software publishers are responsible for marketing the performance features of their product, while localization service providers are responsible for the quality of the localization. The publisher and the localizer need to work together to ensure that the best possible product is produced.

The boom in the global information industry has created a great demand for localization services. In Korea, professional translation service providers are constantly in short supply. The problem in Korea is the lack of fully experienced and qualified service providers. Most companies have short histories and little experience, especially with large projects.

Software localization issues in Korea

Common issues

In Korea, software localization generally means translation from English into Korean. However, literal translations from English into Korean makes little sense and in some cases, lead to inaccuracy and miscommunication due to the differences between the grammatical structures of these languages. Complete and accurate translation requires a thorough knowledge of both the language and the culture of the original and target markets.

Trying to comprehend the meaning of text translated by translation software (MT) is not unlike piecing together a puzzle. MT users working with English and Korean often become frustrated with the discrepancies and eventually abandon the translation programs. Translation from Japanese to Korean, on the other hand, is easily done by computer because Japanese and Korean are quite similar in grammatical structure and share a common cultural heritage. However, most localization in Korea requires translation from English into Korean.

Some providers are using or contemplating using Translation Memory (TM) as an alternative to MT. TM guarantees terminological consistency and reduces working time by reusing identical or similar sentences from previous translations. Localization vendors are well aware of the benefits of TM and of the need to reduce repetitive labor in order to enhance productivity. However, there are problems with the program in that it is expensive and that it takes time to get accustomed to.

Using Korean characters

Korean characters (Hangul) use a double-byte character system (DBCS), while English is a single-byte system. There are two ways to express Korean characters: the complete character set and the combined character set. The combined set consists of 11,172 characters. The national standard, KSC 5601, is based on the complete character set and uses 2,350 of the most common characters. Localized products in Korea are compliant with the national standard for this character set. Customers are dissatisfied with this because they cannot always express exactly what they want to. Unfortunately, DBCS is necessary for the localization process, and service providers constantly have to deal with a number of potential problems.

Difficulties for software publishers

Finding a professional localization vendor who can guarantee the quality of their service is the most difficult problem for software publishers wishing to enter the Korean market. Of the hundreds of translation service companies, half are located in Seoul and no more than ten are specialized in localization. Only a few of these have full experience of various kinds of localization projects and have more than 20 employees. The size of these operations makes handling large-scale projects difficult. For this reason, software publishers trying to localize their products for Korea have difficulty finding suitable vendors. Even when their search is successful, they are often not satisfied with the job the vendors have done for them; they are forced to change contractors but rarely get better service.

Difficulties for localization service vendors

Service vendors have a serious problem recruiting qualified, professional translators. It is very hard to find applicants with acceptable linguistic ability and in-depth software knowledge. Koreans have difficulty with English due to the dramatically different grammatical structure, cultural aspects and forms of expression. Applicants with English as a college major often have no experience of computer software, and vice versa. In order to secure the appropriate candidates, vendors need to offer high salaries and compensation schemes equal to that of first-class companies in Korea. Most cannot afford this.

Vendors often invest considerable time and resources upgrading the skills of staff who then leave the company because the job is too difficult. They are often under too much stress from time limits and delivery dates to concentrate fully on their work. Payments received by the vendor company are frequently insufficient to compensate them for their efforts. Worse still, some software publishers intentionally pay more attention to cost than to quality, in order to create competition between vendors.

Maintaining the appropriate number of employees is another difficulty. Since the scale and duration of localization projects are irregular, owners may have to pay staff salaries even if there is no work. Conversely, on occasion vendors must decline orders due to manpower shortages; they cannot employ more staff because of the intermittent periods between projects. As an alternative, they use freelancers, but have difficulty keeping them if they cannot offer regular work.

Solutions

To sum up, the greatest problem for software publishers in Korea is securing qualified and experienced vendors, while vendors have difficulty hiring and sustaining competent localizers. Long-term investment is needed to solve both problems.

Publishers must select and support reliable vendors with long-term plans and strategies. For example, they should use the same vendor when upgrading software, in order to enable the vendor to offer expert service for a specific product. As vendors become familiar with the product, higher quality localization can be expected. If publishers change vendors frequently, the cycle of inexperience and poor service cannot be broken. In addition to cost, they must take quality and experience into account when selecting a localization vendor. I have seen a number of cases in which publishers had to pay more and postpone the marketing of their products because they used the cheapest vendor, who then provided low quality service. It is better for publishers to have vendors compete for business on the basis of service quality rather than on price.

Software publishers must not hesitate to invest in and support competent software localizers. The quality of localizers directly affects the quality of localization; awkward localization spoils projects. Incorrect translation requires repeated modification and negatively affects the final product. Such situations lead to increased costs, and damage the software publisher's reputation.

In conclusion, software publishers should support qualified vendors who, in turn, should support and assist their employees in becoming true localization professionals, in order to create quality products on time.

Tai Young Kwon
Prolangs Co., Ltd.

Rm. 702, Samwhan Camus Bldg.,
17-3 Yoido-Dong
Youngdungpo-Gu
Seoul, Korea

Tel +822-783-9119
Fax +822-784-2286
E-mail: prolangs@bora.dacom.co.kr