The local and the global: an exploration into the Finnish and English Websites of a Finnish company

This paper compares the Finnish and English Web sites of a Finnish company to find out what culturally geared strategies emerge and what constitutes the genre of company information on the Internet. Drawing on genre theory and cultural studies, the paper further explores the relationship between linear texts and nonlinear hypertext genre. The paper shows how the Web sites aimed at the English-speaking readers are different from the sites targeted to the Finnish readers. It further illustrates the company strategies employed to establish the Web site in Finnish and English. These are endorsed by a company representative who was interviewed for the paper. The Finnish Web site meant for local Finnish readers contained detailed and itemized information and portrayed a retail-oriented strategy. The Internet presence targeted toward English-speaking readers portrayed an investor-oriented strategy. The characteristics of hypertext that distinguish it from linear texts are high rate of repetition and low macrolevel cohesion.