Babylon.com Adds Single-click Currency Conversions, Creating Instant Global E-businesses

Business Wire, Jan 18, 2000

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2000

New Features Help Erase E-Business Barriers;

Babylon Now Offers Instant Translations into Ten Languages With the

Introduction of its Chinese Dictionary

Babylon.com Ltd., today announced that it has released a new version of its real-time, single-click freeware that will make e-commerce easier for international users by offering new features such as instant currency, time zone and metric conversions.

This new version offers translations into ten languages with the introduction of a Chinese language dictionary in both simplified and traditional dialects as well as a speech option that can be downloaded separately so users can hear the correct pronunciation of any given word, among other improvements in the freeware's technology.

According to the Global Report from eMarketer, more than 96 percent of e-commerce Web sites are in English, including metrics and currencies, making it difficult for the rest of the world to figure out prices, time zone differences and sizes. With the new version of Babylon, users can select the currency they are viewing on any Web site and convert it into their own, simplifying their online transactions.

"Many e-businesses are potentially losing customers not only because of language barriers, but because of currency barriers," said IT industry analyst and management consultant, Sam Albert, president of Sam Albert Associates, Scarsdale, NY. "Babylon allows international users to feel more comfortable on a Web site by instantly converting dollars and measurements into their own currency and measurement systems, creating a global environment on the Web."

Babylon's latest version also adds a Chinese language dictionary to its databases. Internet market research source, the Internet Industry Almanac, estimates that by 2005 China will have the fourth-largest Net usage share in the world. With nearly 80 percent of all Web sites in English, Babylon's addition of Chinese opens English content to this fast growing Internet population.

"These new features along with the addition of the Chinese database is another indicator of Babylon's commitment to making the Internet a truly global entity," said Shuki Preminger, Babylon.com's CEO. "Our goal is to assist e-businesses in reaching out to their international customers and to help their sites become easily navigable to any visitor."

Announced separately today, Babylon.com has partnered with CNN Interactive, a division of the CNN Network, to create a co-branded version of its translator exclusively for users of www.cnn.com. This announcement adds to Babylon's growing list of partnerships, including the New York Times, ICQ, PB-NEC Europe, Lycos Japan, ZDNet Japan, Sonnet Japan, CompuServe, Germany.net, UOL, Radar, Terra, Ciudad, El Sitio, ehola, Oglobo, Arrakis, Tiscali, Club Internet and Wannadoo.

Technological Features

Babylon.com's patent-pending technology, the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is much improved from the previous version. It now recognizes italicized fonts and text in bitmaps.

The new version of Babylon also offers online translations: users can translate to any language they want without downloading separate dictionaries by simply connecting to the www.babylon.com and switching to that language. Clicking on the languages icon will open a menu of ALL languages, divided into "Installed" and "Online." Also, the translation window can now be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging from anywhere in the yellow window.

Once the optional speech feature is downloaded, users can hear a pronunciation of any particular word, helping those who may not understand the phonetic pronunciation symbols. This feature comes in a male and a female voice, depending on the user's preference.

In addition, proxy settings can be enabled in the options window for users who are behind a proxy or firewall server. For corporate users restricted by a firewall, this option allows them to still be able to download Babylon.

About Babylon.com

Babylon.com Ltd. opens up English content on the Web to the rest of the world. Global understanding is just a click away with Babylon and BabyloNet's technologies, which level the international playing field for American Web sites by allowing users to better understand content. Founded in 1997 and based in Israel, Babylon.com provides single-click translation freeware and support to organizations and individuals around the world in nine languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hebrew and now Chinese.

For more information about Babylon.com and its products, visit the company's World Wide Web site at www.babylon.com.