Marketers are often plagued with a dilemma when reaching out to a new market: to standardize or to localize? There are disadvantages and advantages on both sides, but when reaching out to a new market, it’s actually more advantageous for marketers to choose localization.
Localization
Global audiences, social media and content localization
Content localization is a relatively new realm that is rapidly gaining momentum. Its existence is necessary in the modern-day world of marketing if a business wants to reach wider audiences.
“Top” advertisements generate top dollar for companies — in fines
China’s state news agency, Xinhua, released two updated style guides on the tail of China’s 2015 advertising law overhaul. Faced with these new regulations, foreign companies have experienced increased difficulties in the last few years when promoting products in the PRC.
Localization and mobile in Asia
It’s happened: the most populous country in the world has almost reached peak smartphone saturation among internet users. 788 million people are mobile users, a whopping 98 percent of the country’s total user base,” Statista notes. This “illustrates just how efficient China has proven at rolling out network coverage as well as how mobile technology has become an indispensable facet of everyday life in the country.”
Terminology Glosses: Hikikomori and Ikigai
Let's talk about Japanese. In Japanese, the personal pronoun 私 (watashi, I) becomes 私たち (watashitachi, we) thanks to the suffix たち (tachi, mark of the plural). Moving up one level towards syntax, we then realize that the word order in Japanese is subject-object-verb. These two features alone should suffice to...
Localizing a job board
The mission of any job board is to create a platform where employers, candidates and recruiters can connect. I thought that localizing a job board would not present much of a challenge, but I was pleasantly surprised with the knowledge that I gained.
Are You A Startup Sherpa Or A UX Rockstar? Don’t Believe A Word
Shopping Around For Sherpas Check out this superb article by linguist, lexicographer, columnist, and self-described “all-around word nut” Ben Zimmer (@bgzimmer) in The Atlantic. Ben discusses the cultural misappropriation of words and how sherpas, ninjas, and gurus crop up everywhere: Why Do Supreme Court Nominees Have ‘Sherpas’? Ben argues that this kind of contrived lexical exoticism hides the complex cultural...
Haven’t an Iota About Fintech Localization? Try Cryptocurrencies
Money, Money, Money Meets Its Waterloo Apologies to ABBA fans about the cheesy introduction. But, mamma mia we need to talk about cryptocurrencies! The Chips Are Down For Fintech I enjoyed a must-read Medium article from Graham Rigby of Iota Localisation Services about the challenges of Fintech localization. Graham talks about how Fintech localization is different from...
Traditional versus Simplified Chinese
The word “Chinese” refers to a group of spoken languages which are as different to one another as French, Portuguese or Italian and to three distinct written languages: Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Classical Chinese. These written forms of Chinese are written and read by speakers of all of the different spoken Chinese languages.
The Irish Language: A Cereal Troublemaker Hits the Gaeltacht
I joined my son (aged 13) for breakfast and asked him if he knew the Irish for "cereal". Officially, the term would be "gránach bricfeasta" or similar, but he simply said, "calóga" (which basically means "flakes"). But I immediately thought he said "Cellógga", my Dublin urban Irish ear already tuned into expecting to hear brand names and slang as terminology.