Customer's Voice: Cerezo Osaka Co.

Cerezo Osaka, a J1 club team that is a symbol of Osaka, blooms in Asia and the world.

In July 2024, Cerezo Osaka introduced automatic website translation and MySite AI Translation Premium to its official website, which provides match reports, schedules, ticket information, event information, fan club information, merchandise information, and the latest team and player information.

We asked Mr. Shimada of the Business Promotion Group about the background to the introduction and his impressions.

Takadensha: First of all, could you tell us about Cerezo Osaka's overseas strategy?

Mr. Shimada: Yes. Cerezo Osaka has been promoting an overseas strategy centered on Southeast Asia for about 10 years, and we have been particularly focusing on local activities such as SNS operations, but recently we have seen an increase in inbound-related customers visiting the stadium. One of the factors is the success of international players such as Shinji Kagawa, and we believe that interest from overseas is increasing.

Kodensha: I see, so that's the background behind this.

Takaden-sha: Did you face any challenges in promoting your overseas strategy?

Mr. Shimada: Yes. With the increase in the number of overseas fans, the language barrier has been a problem. For example, there were cases where people could not smoothly purchase tickets locally due to language differences. To solve this problem, we first released an English version of our online ticket service in February 2024. After that, we decided to implement MySite AI Translation Premium in order to further enhance our multilingual website.

Kodensha: Thank you very much for installing Kodensha's service.

Kodensha: What were the deciding factors in your decision to introduce the system?

Mr. Shimada: The ability to handle Thai, Indonesian, and other languages and the fact that the loading speed of the website was not affected by the translation were major deciding factors. There were some issues during the implementation phase, but they were dealt with promptly and the site is now running smoothly.

Takaden-sha: How do you feel about the accuracy and speed of the translation?

Mr. Shimada: We are very satisfied with the translation speed. The accuracy is also in line with our expectations. Some corrections are needed for proper nouns, but overall, the translation has reached a practical level.

Takaden-sha: Thank you very much for using our dictionary registration to ensure that the names of players are translated correctly.

Kodensha: I believe that new results and issues have been created by this multilingual support.

Mr. Shimada: I think we will no longer need to operate the English version of the site, which was originally set up manually, starting next year.

Also, looking at the number of translations, we found that there are many accesses in Chinese and Korean, and we are beginning to see new markets that we had not previously envisioned. We believe that we can consider approaching not only Southeast Asia but also other newly discovered markets.

Kodensha: We are glad to hear that not only the human translation man-hours have been reduced, but also the language translation and access area analysis functions are proving useful.

Kodensha: Finally, please tell us about your future plans.

Mr. Shimada: We will continue to strengthen our Southeast Asia strategy and increase our contacts with fans through communication in local languages. By doing so, we hope to attract a new fan base and create business opportunities such as stadium visits, merchandise purchases, and ticket sales. We are also looking to expand our new fan base through matches with teams from other countries.

Kodensha: We look forward to helping you further develop your business in the future.

　　　　Thank you very much for your valuable talk today.

Company Introduction

Ltd. is a member of the J1 League, and in 2024 will celebrate its 30th season as a member of the J1 League.

The company's corporate mission is to contribute to the promotion of a sports culture full of dreams, hopes, and excitement and to the development of the local community by developing businesses centered on soccer.