Digital River in Japan

From what Mr.Brent Mori had presented in class plus my addition researches, I think one problem with Digital River is the localization. From what I know, Japanese people are very conservative; only a few percent can speak English. Therefore, when provided the solution for their client's customer, Digital River should also thinking about the cultural difference as well. The website of Digital River's client that Mr.Mori showed us in class, I think they are not very localize. And also from what Noi and Amina had said, Digital River didn't provided their website in Japanese either.

I also looked through some of the main competitors of Digital River in Japan included asknet and Synnex. I found one (very old) news release about asknet, "asknet Deploys Japanese eCommerce Solution for InterVideo". asknet working together with its client, InterVideo to find the solution for Japan market; they're emphasize on localization.

"Japan is one of the largest eCommerce markets in the world," said Chris

 Grell, Director of Business Development.  "Together with asknet, we have  localized our existing eCommerce solution.  This gives us the opportunity to  substantially increase our online sales to the Japanese market.."

"Since only around three to five percent of the population speaks English,  it is important to provide the order process in our native language," explains  Shunsuke Tanaka, President of InterVideo Japan, Inc. "To achieve broad  acceptance in the Japanese market, it is very important to adapt the eCommerce  solution to the preferences and cultural differences of the Japanese online  consumer."

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asknet-deploys-japanese-ecommerce-solution-for-intervideo-72209892.html

For Synnex, one of the founder is Japanese so its somehow quite obvious that it will under the Japanese culture and people. Therefore, provided a good solution. Their website is also in Japanese, http://www.synnex.co.jp/.