Successes in Localization

Localization refers to the process of taking a product – typically a website or digital platform – and adapting it completely to a new region for the consumption of its local region. A localized end product should appear as if it was originally created in for a culture.

Translation companies offer an amazing opportunity to localize businesses with increased ease. In this highly competitive world, having a strong international validation is greatly essential to help in aiming forward against competitors. Whatever businesses that may engage in, if the company is extending influence to multiple foreign markets, gaining integrity would be much easy.

A lot of companies prove that the localization is a successful way of introducing their business deals in many countries. One of the companies that succeed on it is Netflix. Netflix began operation in 1997 as an online DVD rental store based out of California. In 2007, they launched their streaming platform primarily for the US market with about 7.48 million subscribers (most of who had subscribed to the DVD rental service). Since then, the viewer base grew year on year and soon Netflix started expanding the streaming business to different countries. Netflix able to capture such a vast global audience by allowing users worldwide to view subtitles in a language of their choice or choose a dubbed version of the show or movie.

Furthermore, they even localized the app navigation and UI for different countries. They scale their UI design using a technique called Pseudo Localization to account for 25+ languages and scripts. All these efforts have definitely paid off. And as result early this year 2020. Netflix has more than 167 Million subscribers from across the world, more than half of its subscribers (70% to be precise) are outside the United States, bringing the international total to more than million users.

Another example is the company of Pubg, a game developed in Korea by Irish photographer and avid gamer Brendan Greene in partnership with Bluehole, Inc is 2017-18’s most popular game with more than 400 million players worldwide. While it wasn’t easy, Pubg Corporation has been able to build such a massive player base by translating and localizing its content. The game is available in 11 languages apart from English helping players understand instructions and game hooks better while building a stronger connect with the game. The game has a bunch of instructions for players to follow. By restricting the language of the game of English or any other one language, players from different countries of the world won’t enjoy the experience as much as they would if the game was in a language they understood. And if players aren’t enjoying the game, there are high changes they abandon it and don’t come back. Countries also differ in their likes, perceptions, and the extent of violence they can take. For a game like Pubg and has been introduced in China, the Chinese government raised a concern that the game was too violent and inappropriate for release in the country. To counter this problem, Pubg offered to change characters and tone down the violence in the game for the Chinese audience. Two versions of the game, Army Attack (air, water and land battles) and Battlefield (similar to Pubg mobile) were released. Following NetEase’s strategy, Pubg also decided to include China’s socialist views in the game. This has moved China up to rank 2 as the country with most players with 19% of the world population playing the game from the country.

We can also take a look on how the localization comes from KFC. After its earlier slogan debacle, “Finger lickin good” in the US Slogan and translated into China as “Eat your finger off” KFC regained its footing in China by taking into account the cultural and literal tastes of its Chinese patrons. KFC added traditional Chinese breakfast breads, Chinese porridge, and side dishes featuring rice with Chinese spices to pair with its fried chicken, making Chinese consumers comfortable by offering culturally familiar choices.

These companies go through some ordeals and hardship before they get successful on their own fields. They experience a lot of failure and down situation. Yet, because of their intelligent use of science and technology and deep through research to give better performances for their consumer satisfaction, they gained a worldwide success.

Hence, having a strong and deep understanding of the cultures that will be exposed to your brand through international expansion is a key ingredient to your success in foreign markets. Working with an agency that provides business translation services, website translation services, and localization services is a good way to ensure that your marketing message will be understood and appreciated by international audiences. That makes Elite Translations PH is there armored with it years of experience and proficient skills, we will do our best to help your market reached the global recognition.