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Ask HN: Impact of i18n / translation on iPhone app sales?

5 points by egb ↗ HN
Does anyone have any stories and/or numbers about how translation into various languages has affected iPhone app sales?

I've got an app that has made it very high in the AppStores of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and a few others, and I'm wondering if i18n would make a difference or not. I'm guessing not, because English is common there from what I have read, but I'm wondering if there are other markets that aren't English speakers/readers that would open up with translation...

3 comments

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Zev
I'd focus more on l10n into Japanese, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Not necessarily in that order. Look at places the app isn't as highly ranked as you'd like it to be. Extra attention to markets where you've had a review or two that you had to go to Google Translate to read.
egb
Know anybody fluent in Japanese, French, or Italian? Spanish and German I've got covered :-)
richardhenry
Having spoken to foreign iPhone owners on a number of occasions and asked them about this (generally European countries where English is somewhat widely spoken):

Not having a native language version wouldn't necessarily dissuade them from the purchase of the app, but it's certainly appreciated if it has been translated. If anything, it just makes them feel like the developer cares about them and their market.

They would almost certainly choose a localised version of the same or similar app if it became available, over the English version (so it might be worth doing so for competitive reasons).

Many of the people I've spoken to said that they would generally not recommend an app to their non-English speaking friends if it were not localised, even if it was reasonably simple to learn how to use.

I've only spoken to a couple people, and they were pretty tech-headed, so it might be worth speaking to others.