Why Localize?

of North

American execs

expect increase

in foreign

revenues

think their

company’s

number of

overseas clients

will increase in

the next three

years

admit that

communication

misunderstand-

ings have stood

in the way of a

major

cross-border

transaction,

incurring

significant

losses for their company

At VIA we’re often asked

“Why do I need to localize

my marketing materials

when everyone speaks

English?”

So we’ve compiled some

statistics to illustrate the

business value of localizing

content for each target

market.

Because it’s worth it!

95% of Chinese online consumers

prefer Chinese-only websites and

Chinese shoppers will outspend

the US in 2013

believe it is

important to

achieve

increased global

revenue

Number of

languages in the

world

of EU citizens state that they have

sufficient skills in English to have a

conversation

71%

9 in 10

What do

multinational

organizations

want?

74%

What do the people want? Non-English speakers declare

75% say they

want the

products in their

native language

60% rarely or

never buy from

English-only

websites

60% !

say information in their language

is more important than price 56.2%

What do they both want?

Key points

Buyers want

the information

in their first

language

Non-English Speakers

• They will often pay more to

get it

• Alternatively, they will go

elsewhere

Challenges and reality You can’t please everyone, but you can please most everyone

7,000 Number of

languages to

reach 80% of

global population

83

Budget restraints will always dictate localization strategy & support

9 out of 10 users would prefer to

visit a website in their own language .

Yes

Even in Europe where English

speakers are common?

Multinational

Organizations

More revenue

Assumptions we make

of the South African population has an

adequate proficiency in English for the

purposes of economic activity

Indian adults can speak English:

• 4% report that they can converse

fluently in English

• An additional 16% report that they can

converse a little in English

Only

38%

Only

25%

Everyone

speaks

English in

business

Lithuanians (80%),

Latvians (70%) &

Estonians (66%)

More likely to know

Russian

Few Japanese speak fluent English

Including business people. Fluent Japanese is

essential in Japan

Citizens of Slovakia (32%),

the Czech Republic (28%) &

Hungary (25%)

More likely to know German

When I travel,

everybody

speaks English

fluently

Quack comprehension of a

newspaper is

considered “fluent”

80% That’s about

4,000 words

10,000 words The average US high school student knows

20,000 words Average US graduate knows about

One Half

Evidence from India

suggests that being fluent

in English increases the

hourly wages of men by

34% and of women by

22%.

was the addressable

economic potential using

online communication in

2012.

$44.6 trillion

Only a third of that was

addressable in English as a

native tongue.

More people will buy

what you're selling if

you localize it

Is English-only enough?

Sources: Common Sense Advisory, Number of Languages Necessary to Reach 90% of Online Audiences around the Globe Climbs to Twenty-one, 2012 Forrester Research, Translation and Localization of Retail Web Sites, 2009 Bill Sullivan, IBM Globalization Executive, LocWord Keynote speech 2012 2005 India Human Development Survey, Financial Times, India www.pacificbridge.com/publication.asp?id=20 www.internetretailer.com/2014/02/20/m-commerce-saturating-globe www.economistinsights.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Competing%20across%20borders.pdf Common Sense Advisory, Can't Read, Won't Buy: Why Language Matters on Global Websites; Our 2014, larger-scale behavioral study

Assumption 1

English is

the 2nd

language

of choice

globally

Assumption 2

It costs nothing to do it in

English-only

Assumption 3

www.viadelivers.com Copyright 2014, VIA, Inc.

1 in 5

Number of

languages to

reach 80% of

online population

12