press release

Sept. 20, 2013, 3:02 p.m. EDT

Yappn Launches Global Social Platform

<:article itemscope="" itemtype="http://nik.io/v1/schema/Article">

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, Sep 20, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- Yappn Corp. /quotes/zigman/14864337/quotes/nls/yppn YPPN +5.15% is pleased to announce that Yappn (www.yappn.com), the online multi-lingual social community and powerful social tool set where people can meet, chat, engage and consume media in almost 70 languages will begin launching publicly today at 4 pm EST depending on domain propagation.

The open launch comes about after a successful beta testing period. Now all members of the public are able to participate in multi-lingual discussions with people around the world in their native tongues by removing language, geographic and social barriers that have made many other online and mobile platforms homogenous in nature by only engaging "friends" rather than those who globally, are interested in a particular brand, movie, artist, celebrity or topic.

"This is just the beginning as we continue to listen to our partners and users on how to globalize social media and engagement. Brands can now leverage their single language focused messaging around the world, in real-time, said David Lucatch, Founder and CEO. "Yappn compliments social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube and others by integrating the Yappn tool set into many other social platforms and allowing major social media to co-exist inside of Yappn. This provides a unique services offering that is already being commercialized and will continue to accelerate."

Yappn will continue to evolve and become more robust with additional feature sets, gamification and commercial programs already under development. "Based on the overwhelming positive feedback we received from our beta testing audience, we continue to tweak and edit the Yappn interface, platform and tools and encourage our users to continue to provide feedback to improve the experience", said Rob Cole, General Manager of Yappn.

Yappn has already seen commercial success with its set of multi-lingual social engagement tools in two large scale events. Recently, Yappn provided live video multi-lingual translation for the online broadcast of the red carpet arrivals for The Wolverine movie in London and also hosted a multi-lingual Twitter chat with Tom Hiddleston, who portrays Loki from the upcoming movie, Thor: The Dark World. International fans were able to participate in the Q&A on Twitter by submitting their questions to Mr. Hiddleston in almost 70 languages through Yappn's global social engagement tool.

Users are encouraged to go to www.yappn.com to register for the platform and start participating.

Like the Yappn Facebook page and follow Yappn on Twitter: @YappnCorp

About Yappn

Yappn (www.yappn.com) is a place where people can meet, chat, engage and consume content, individually, in group and by topic, regardless of the language they speak. By removing the language barrier, the entire world opens up to an entirely new paradigm of communication.

Yappn redefines global social marketing by also providing a set of stand-alone commercial tools for brands providing easy to implement and cost effective globalization solutions complimenting Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr and YouTube, web, mobile, online broadcasting, private networks and event virtualization.

Intertainment Media Inc. /quotes/zigman/461990 CA:INT -6.67% (otcqx:ITMTF) (frankfurt:I4T) has a controlling interest in Yappn Corp.

Yappn Corp. is publicly traded in the US on the OTCBB - symbol "YPPN".

TELUS International and Ortsbo Deliver Real-Time Language Translation for Online Chat Customer Service

Posted by Jennifer Bach

August 29 2013

In an increasingly global market, providing customer support across a wide range of languages is both costly and logistically challenging. In many cases, companies cannot deliver support in all of the languages represented by their customers.

There is a growing opportunity for real-time, cross-language communication capabilities in online customer service channels like online chat customer service and email support.

To tackle this challenge, TELUS International teamed up with Ortsbo, a company whose product enables real-time conversational translation for more than 50 languages, on a Customer Care Initiative and Partnership Program. Using Ortsbo, TELUS International customer service agents will be able to chat in real time over the Internet to almost anyone in their native tongue.

For example, an agent in on offshore location can now work in English, conducting web-chats with customers in a multitude of languages. During a chat session, agents can type in their native language with the customer receiving a response in his or her own language. Conversely, the customer types in their native language with the agent receiving the reply in his or her own language. Ortsbo technology tunes the language for the particular domain and customer care context. In the end, the customer experience can rival the speed and accuracy of staffing with multilingual agents.

But it’s not just about technology; it’s about enabling people – both agents and customers – with innovative ways to remove language barriers. And as shared in a recent news article – the software has “already lured a whopping 212 million unique users in over 170 countries and territories, and is attracting heavyweight partners such as IndyCar, Variety, Brooklyn's new state-of-the-art Barclays Center and Kiss's Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, who conducted a worldwide global chat with fans using Ortsbo.”

From our perspective, the ability to support multi-language client needs from locations that could traditionally only support one or two languages can be a game-changer, as companies typically pay a premium for multilingual agents (see "Five Keys to Multilingual Customer Support" for more on running an effective multilingual call center operation). Now a customer care center simply enables the current agents without having to make special staffing accommodations for each additional language.

This represents an order of magnitude value proposition for most customer care operations. For TELUS International, we are pleased to partner with Ortsbo and expand our service offering to customers around the world.

Read more in the news: Ortsbo helps TELUS agents avoid getting lost in translation

Thursday » August 22 » 2013

Ortsbo-Telus win in translation

Game Changer: Software allows customer service agents to speak in over 60 languages

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Flying cars? Nope. Robot maids? Sorry, not yet.

The future that was promised to us so long ago in The Jetsons may not be materializing as fast as we may have hoped, but actual progress can be almost as exhilarating.

The most recent example happened this week when Telus International teamed up with Ortsbo on a Customer Care Initiative and Partnership Program. Sound mundane? It isn't.

Using Ortsbo, Telus customer service agents will be able to chat in real time over the Internet to almost anyone in their native tongue. That's right; agents type in their native language and, instantly, customers receive a response in their own language.

It's technology that would make George Jetson jealous.

Ortsbo only pioneered its real time chat in 2009, but any thoughts of a prolonged beta-test are over. CEO David Lucatch says the software solution is ready for prime time.

"Ortsbo has gone head to head against native speaking agents in live customer care environments and the results were quite amazing," he says. Survey scores by end users actually rated Ortsbo as very good and even better than the experience provided by native speaking agents."

Lucatch says the software which can "speak" in 66 languages levels the playing field for customer service reps, who can now work from wherever they want, and offers immediate cost savings to companies, who typically pay a premium for multilingual agents.

Michael Ringman, CIO at TELUS International, says the solution puts the company on the leading edge of the race to deliver top-notch customer service.

"The ability to support multi-language client needs from locations that could traditionally only support one or two languages is a game changer for us," he says. "... we are pleased to be moving forward with our first live client program using the Ortsbo technology platform."

New data suggests that Ortsbo, which is a subsidiary of Toronto Venture exchange-listed Intertainment Media (TSXV: INT), may be hitting a sweet spot at exactly the right time.

A recent survey conducted by global research firm Echo Research for client American Express revealed that two-thirds of customers said they would spend more with a company they believe provides excellent customer service. And three out of four says they have spent more with a company because of "a history of positive customer service experiences".

Another report, from the U.K.-based Institute for Customer Service (ICS) illustrates a clear link between customer satisfaction and business performance. The 2012 study showed that company with the best customer satisfaction rating, Amazon, also achieved the strongest sales growth.

Until now, Intertainment Media has rolled out Ortsbo in a methodical manner, but the adoption of the product has always run well ahead of the company's seemingly humble intentions.

The software, in fact, may be the best kept secret in all the world of tech, having already lured a whopping 212 million unique users in over 170 countries and territories, and attracting heavyweight partners such as IndyCar, Variety, Brooklyn's new state-of-the-art Barclays Center and Kiss's Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, who conducted a worldwide global chat with fans using Ortsbo.

Lucatch says breaking down language barriers isn't just for rock fans, it is vital for businesses that operate in a world that is increasingly global.

"It's not just about the technology; it's about enabling people - both agents and customers with an innovative way to remove the language barrier," he says. "That's why we value our strategic partnership with TELUS International. They understand the value of customer experience and the deeper, cost-effective capabilities this will deliver to their global contact centre clients."

The history of machine translation dates back to the 1950s, when the famed Georgetown-IBM experiment translated sentences in Russian into English in real time. Researchers working on that project felt it would be just a few years before the technology became ubiquitous, but a working solution to real time voice translation proved much more difficult to realize.

Today, web-based services such as Google Translate and BabelFish provide a reliable, if static, sneakpeek into the world of instantaneous translation. But both services still feel somewhat stilted and toilsome, especially on a mobile device.

With Ortsbo, Telus becomes an early adopter in a major technology movement that has taken the better part of sixty years to unfold.

Ortsbo, which is Swedish for "local," may soon have Telus customers across Canada asking "Que vontils penser de la procaine?" (French) or "Ano and mga Ito sa tingin ng susunod"(Filipino), or "Cosa penseranno di prossima" (Italian). Translated, that means what will they think of next? This content is researched and written by InvestX Media Group. It is not to be considered as individualized investment advice. To be featured on The Province Focus pages please go to www.theprovince/focus.