Neopets discontinues Italian/Japanese/Korean languages

[Himmelsdemon]

At the end of 2008, the Italian/Japanese/Korean version of Neopets will not be updated. The good news is that however the site and your favorite activities will remain available.

If you can not do without the new content and speak another language, the Neopets site will be updated again in: Chinese, English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and German. To go to one of these languages just use the drop-down menu "Select the language" that you can find on any page of the site.

From the looks of it, this hasn't received much attention on the main page, so I hope nobody minds if I paste it here. Does anybody have a clue on what exactly is going on? I have heard rumors about the respective translators quitting, others claiming that Viacom just dumps the versions because they don't earn enough from them.

If it is really an issue with the translators, then I am honestly concerned. The employment page says they are looking for translators for other languages. I am worried they will close the other versions if they don't find translators for those :/

[Pixa]

I expect its the fact that there's not enough money being earned by those languages more than anything - I can't imagine finding people to translate would be a problem at all. If someone quits, find someone else to fill the gap. If it earns them money, I can't imagine them willingly stopping translation.

[Siouxper]

From what I have heard, the translators for those languages either quit or were fired, and TNT decided against hiring new ones. I cannot confirm the accuracy of that statement, however. They must not be making enough money from visitors to those languages and decided to cut back.

[Pudding]

Makes sense. Only 0.8% of Neopets users come from Italy, same for Japan, and Korea doesn't even show up on the Alexa page. None of those languages are widely used as a primary language outside their home countries.

Didn't Neopets have a full office in Korea at one point, though? That's a bad sign for the site, if I'm remembering it right.

[Mongrel]

Didn't Neopets have a full office in Korea at one point, though? That's a bad sign for the site, if I'm remembering it right.

They had one in Singapore according to this interview but I don't remember them having Korean offices.

[Pudding]

Didn't Neopets have a full office in Korea at one point, though? That's a bad sign for the site, if I'm remembering it right.

They had one in Singapore according to this interview but I don't remember them having Korean offices.

Yeah, I knew as soon as I hit submit that I was thinking of the Singapore office. Random Alexa fact: Neopets is more popular among Singaporeans than any other nation.

[Alex]

I can see where they'd be coming from if it's only a small demographic - however that said, I have to feel sorry for the small percentage who do use that language.