Just looking at it, its almost instinct to have your first pronunciation guess babble out something like "Weee". It gives one a confidence from the beginning that they are saying it right, instills a feeling of unity, and most importantly from a web 2.0 start-up companies perspective, a guy in China can say it just as easily as another in the States.



I began to think, this is a way that the marketing world is changing. Most folks realize that almost any product must now appeal to a global market, including software services. There has been effort to make games, adds, commercials, etc. appealing to people of any culture. However, it seems that the naming of a product is often overlooked. With China having over 1.3 billion potential customers, a product named "Wii" is sure to have more of a positive public relations response than one named "Play Station." Talking to other Asians about this, a prime example was brought up. The well known, and internationally loved Coca-Cola, which in China was found to be almost impossible to say. The company changed its marketing approach and tried a new phonetic pitch, writing it out as "ko-ka ko-la", to soon have the hard realization that this translates to "bite the wax tadpole". Hmm.. Most likely not what they had intended.



What will define the next generation of successful global web services? No idea. But a name that everyone can say, relate to positively on some level, and maintain a diet free from tadpoles can't hurt.