How the World Uses the Internet and What Localization Has to Do with It?

Ciklopea 6 years ago 3 min read

I can’t emphasize enough how much it bothers me to start an article with cliché phrases such as “more and more people are using the Internet nowadays“ or “technology is rapidly improving“, but these sentences are very important for what follows.

How the World Uses the Internet and What Localization Has to Do with It?

The fact is that computers, smartphones and other devices are more accessible than ever, necessarily changes of the ways we behave on the Internet. However, some countries have enviable increase of mobile users, like China, India or Indonesia, where wireless network and mobile devices are much cheaper.

According to an older research, more than a billion of people use the Internet for banking, streaming music or looking a job. More than two times more use it for e-mail communication and reading the news. The data also show that e-commerce and online shopping services are on a high rise, since online payment platforms are much more accessible and safer.

Of course, advertisers now have an eye on these trends and behaviour patterns and are adjusting their budgets towards advertising via Internet and mobile applications. Which brings us back to knowing your audiences and customers and showing them ads in their mother tongue. Showing them ads in Klingon has a little to none relevance for them, just like showing Europeans prices in yens is a waste of time and money.

With exception of e-commerce, a huge amount of money, even up to $120 billion per year, goes on mobile app downloads. Having in mind the high number of available apps, a very smart move would be to adapt and localize them for each particular market.

Software and app localization services are more and more requested, since software developers and company owners have figured out that they could approach their customers easier that way.

Incomparably higher consumption in regards to other activities on the Internet are the activities related to travelling, whether it be purchasing plane or bus tickets online or booking an accommodation.

Data from 2015 show that people spent over $810 billion on those kinds of activities. Looking at these high numbers, we’re coming to the conclusion that it definitely has sense to localize booking websites and other tourism materials. This increases the chances of buying decision and it’s easier to perform transactions.

In addition to the mentioned examples, active Internet users are spending money on books, CDs, DVDs and online courses as well.

This indicates that there’s the need for diverse and accessible content. However, in order to use it, we have to understand it first. Which is why now is the time to ask yourself why you haven’t thought of localizing your content before.

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