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CHRISTIAN FRIEDLAND: I think one of the challenges that
we're starting to face in regards to our industry has to
do with language and has to do with some of the changing
demographics.
So we're starting to expand into other countries, we're
finding that language is becoming a bigger barrier than
we anticipated.
So it's funny, so the world's evolved in the way that it's
evolved and we have this Tower of Babel problem that we're
still dealing with.
And I wonder, does the world eventually evolve to a single
unified language?
Do we all eventually move to the direction of where we all
speak some combination of English, Mandarin, et cetera?
And if we get to that point, that point of unity, what that
means not just for our industry, but what it really
means for all industries and how people cooperate and
collaborate.
Anybody that tries to come up with a national language, I
think trying to mandate anything--
it's going to just have to evolve on its own.
I think the natural connectedness and nature of
things, that things are continuing to evolve and how
connected we're becoming with social tools, with search,
with all of these elements.
And as people become more and more connected, I think we're
all drawn towards trying to be able to communicate more
effectively.
And I think more than Esperanto or any initiative to
try to drive that, I think we'll end up in a situation
where market forces drive that, where people just have a
desire to communicate.
Let me give you an example.
So the best way to teach somebody to type is to
introduce them to instant messenger.
Because once they have a text messaging client, they will
learn how to use a keyboard because they want to
communicate their thoughts faster.
I think that that same effect can happen
in regards to languages.
And I think that we can get to a point where people want to
communicate across borders, across languages, and they
will find a middle ground in language.
And maybe that language helps evolve to one
unified world language.
As we start to look overseas to expand the business, we
naturally gravitate towards other English speaking
countries because our cultures are the same and so forth.
As we start to look at like Europe as a continent, there's
so many different languages.
You end up having to not only be able to have technology
that supports multilingual websites, but you also have to
have the ability and the staff that can take your values,
your skills, and translate them into
their culture and language.
And that's been a really, really difficult
challenge for us.
Now that most of the people of the world are under 30 years
old, I think for our business, it definitely changes the
opportunity size in regards to who we're marketing to.
Our business is in the home improvement arena.
So traditionally, the people that are buying home
improvement goods, they're homeowners, they're settled,
they're remodeling.
So the stage of people that are entering into this market
is going to be dramatically larger than it has been
historically which I think gives us an amazing market
opportunity going forward.