Corus: Losing too much in translation

Over-extending the promise of dual-language content.

The Site

Corus is one Europe’s leading steel companies. Its website reflects the formation of the group in 1999 from the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens of The Netherlands, with alternate UK / NL buttons on most web pages allowing a switch between English and Dutch language versions.

This works well in sections such as Our Company and Social Responsibility where there is equivalent Dutch-language material. In other places, including the home page, only the main section headings and navigational aids are translated. For investors even this facility is missing. After clicking on Investeerders, Dutch shareholders find themselves in an English-only section of the site with no choice of language button.

The Takeaway

Corus is trying to do the right thing, acknowledging its dual heritage by offering content in Dutch and English and doing so from within a unified web presence rather than on separate sites. But its ambitions have outrun its resources, leaving it in danger of creating the opposite effect to that intended, most especially among Dutch shareholders. If they now want to use any of the shareholder services on the site, or contact the share registrar about their holding, they will need a fairly advanced understanding of English to do so. Many Dutch do of course speak excellent English, but this can’t help but strike them as second-class treatment.

Corus would do better to admit the limitations of its own multi-lingual capabilities and confine its offer of Dutch-language material to those pages where there is a genuine alternative. It can then add to these pages as and when resources permit – starting with some basic investor information.

First published on 06 May, 2004