Success with app localization

Success with app localization

In the last post we saw that more than 1Bn users have no sufficient English knowledge to use English language mobile apps with comfort. It is a huge user base and grows day-by-day. So, how much more downloads, users and revenue can we get, if we localize our app?

It depends on several factors. Let’s look again what datapoints we can find on the internet. Very few. One great study is by Distimo looking at app monetization of developing markets:

Localized apps are overperforming more than 10x other apps in monetization. In Russia, the 7% localized apps deliver the 70% of the total revenue, while the 93% non-localized apps bring only 30%. 

Being curious we put together a simple market research app – Application Language Survey - to get more insights. We made a small promo to get sizeable feedback on some developing markets. (The app is still on GooglePlay – if you want to look at – and still sending us data). After 1,000 answers we found the following:

- 20% of users are happy with English versions – this is roughly inline with English knowledge.

- 5% of users are happy with the current portfolio of local apps.

- But the majority 75% would require more localized app.

So, how can we leverage this customer demand? As a developer, how do you know which market would demand your app, if it were localized? And how can users ask for more localization? App markets are not very helpful on this. It takes quite some time to realize if there is an opportunity in certain markets using only the download statistics. And users can articulate their voice only thru the feedback function – a rather complex activity. Can we do something about this? In the next post we look at what a developer needs to consider, if he plans to localize his app. As always, feedback is welcomed, let me know your thoughts.

The app market gets multicultural

Smartmobile market penetration is just accelerating ahead – this year 1,6Bn people will have smartmobile in their hands. Devices are spreading faster than language of the tech world - English. Soon the smartmobile market becomes a multicultural environment, yet a big piece of the ecosystem – smart mobile applications are still mostly in English.

Most of the developer community understands English and do not have any experience to be in discomfort of not knowing the language. Just how do you feel about this: Ha megérted ezt a mondatot – jelentkezz nálam egy üveg jó Pilsner sörért.

So how many people have this discomfort? There are no straight statistics available. Moreover, all app markets are quite shy about this topic. And if you try to find relevant data on the WEB, only very few articles are discussing it – mostly talking about the effect of localization, which we discuss in the next post.

So we decided to do this homework and calculate the population of non-English speaking smartphone users. For each country we took the

• Population - Wikipedia: List of countries by population
• English knowledge - Wikipedia: EF English Proficiency Index
• Smartphone penetration - Google: Our mobile Planet  

We used estimates for countries not having data based on counterparts in the same geo and having similar GDP. We simplified the calculation by assuming no correlation of English knowledge and smartphone ownership. You can argue about this, but hey, this is just an estimate.  Here is the result: 

The chart tells a lot – almost 3 out of 4 potential users are locked out from fully understanding your app, if you have only English version.

Moreover 4 out of 5 new smartphone users are not having English knowledge (404M non English growth v. 507M total growth). And – as we are progressing with cheaper devices into the 3^rd billion of smartphone users – this ratio will increase further.

So it's time to think about localization seriously – how much it can help to leverage the full potential of your app. In the next topic we will look at some success stories and what users were telling to us. Hope this data is kicking some thinking; please let me know your thoughts.

Catch you later

Peter

www.transround.com