The global market brings a lot of competition today. There are 7,000 live languages spoken in the world today. And only 4.83% of people speak and understand the English language. Moreover, cultures are further diversified apart from languages. If we take a simple example of colors used in the interface, the purple interface of software can be used when you are targeting a US or UK based audience.But the same interface is not suitable for the Brazilian audience as purple is a color that indicates death and mourning among these people. It creates many difficulties for companies targeting to reach an international audience for their business. The primary issue among them is localizing software to meet the necessities of a diverse workforce. This creates the need for software localization in the modern world.
Software localization is the process that makes any software adaptable to fulfill the requirements of a specific culture as well as language. The process requires very few changes on its back-end. It indeed is a challenging task to achieve software localization. Then what is the significance of this process in modern business? The following article will take you to a brief insight into the answer to this question.
Following are the roles of software localization in the modern world:
1. Boosting domestic and International sales:
Making your company ready for the global audience is a tough challenge in itself. When you are taking your sales from local to international markets, your potential consumers must access your software easily. It could be a shopping website, a game, or any educational web page.Localizing your software according to the language and culture of your target audience will boost your market internationally. Localization makes the information more understandable for consumers. And this drags them to buy and rate your products and/or services.
2. Bringing down the net investment of business:
Software localized perfectly fulfills the aspirations of target customers. It can replace many marketing activities and attract the audience. Localized contents build trust among the audience, and this is the base of any business in the market. So, once you launch your localized software on the internet, you can cut down on many marketing campaigns. This, in turn, saves them money, which can be utilized further for investment in the business. Apart from savings, localized software brings profit to your business. Thus, it plays a role in increasing the capital of the company.
You might also create software for your employees to connect them to the business. When you have employees from multiple nations, localizing your software cuts down the cost that goes into training them individually according to their language and culture.
3. Providing best experience to the user:
Sales can never be the only target of the business. The reputation of your company decides its future. Client testimonials attain this. And these testimonials depend on their reviews, which ultimately depend on their experience. For example, you are a game developer, and you launch a game following the English language and culture. People from the entire world may access the game, but the ones with poor English and belonging to a different culture will surely have a bad experience of your game. Localization solves this problem and improves the quality of your software for the user.
Thus, software localization is a unique arena of modern business targeting an international audience. Moreover, localization is the heart of the multinational company.
当今,全球市场竞争激烈。目前世界现存7000种语言。只有4.83%的人能说能听懂英语。且除语言以外,文化也更加多样化。用界面颜色举一个简单的例子,当受众为美国或英国人时,可以使用软件的紫色界面。但同样的界面却并适用于巴西用户,因为对于巴西人而言紫色代表死亡和哀悼。这给那些瞄准国际市场的公司带来了很多困难。其中首要问题是软件的本地化以满足多样化劳动力需求的问题。这就产生了现代社会对软件本地化的需求。
软件本地化是使软件适应特定文化和语言要求的过程。该过程几乎不需要在后端进行任何更改。实现软件本地化的确是一项具有挑战性的任务。那么软件本地化在现代商业中的意义是什么呢?接下来本文将简要地回答这个问题。
以下是当今世界软件本地化的作用:
1.促进国内和国际销售:
将您的公司推向全球用户本就是一项艰巨的挑战。当您将销售从本地市场推向国际市场时,您的潜在客户首先必须能够轻松访问您的软件。它可以是一个购物网站、一个游戏或任何教育类网页。根据目标用户的语言和文化对软件进行本地化能够扩大国际市场。本地化使用户更容易理解信息,这能够促使他们购买和评价您的产品和/或服务。
2.降低业务的净投资:
本地化的软件可以完美满足目标客户的需求。它可以代替许多营销活动并吸引客户。本地化的内容可以在客户中建立信任,这是市场上任何业务的基础。所以,一旦在互联网上发布了本地化的软件,就可以减少很多营销活动。同时这节省了资金,节省的资金可进一步用于业务投资。除节省开支外,本地化软件还能为您的企业带来利润。因此,它起到了增加公司资本的作用。
您的软件可能是用于管理、联系员工。当您在多个国家/地区都有员工时,对软件进行本地化可以降低根据他们的语言和文化对其进行单独培训的成本。
3.为用户提供最佳体验:
销售永远不是企业的唯一目标。贵公司的声誉决定了其未来。用户评价可以决定公司的声誉。这些评价取决于用户的评论,而评论最终取决于他们的用户体验。例如,您是一名游戏开发人员,发布了一款遵循英语语言和文化的游戏。来自世界各地的人都可以体验这个游戏,但是那些英语不好并且来自不同文化背景的用户肯定会对游戏体验不佳。本地化能够解决这个问题,为用户提高了软件质量。
因此,软件本地化是针对国际用户的现代商业的独特领域。而且,本地化是跨国公司的核心。
译后编辑:罗温馨(中山大学)
以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。
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