
## Reaching global audience

Did you ever wonder which apps need translation management because handling translated content is time-consuming?
Especially when you provide more than 2 languages! Continuous changes in-app translation can take a lot of resources of
your team, and at some point, everybody will stop carrying about all languages except the default one. How to stop
wasting resources on app translation, and still provide high-quality translations?

![reaching global audience](/blog/global-audience.jpeg)

## 1. Travel apps

Travel apps need content translation to reach a global audience. A good example is our second project
called [PlaceFlare](https://placeflare.com) with hand-picked places from a few countries like Italy, Great Britain,
Spain, Czech Republic, and Poland. The app contains about ~250 unique translation keys which are gathered from the
application source code using [SimpleLocalize CLI](/docs/general/translation-hosting). All keys are
transferred to the [SimpleLocalize Web Editor](/translation-editor)
where everything can be translated by native speakers and volunteers. When they finish work somebody (translator or
project admin) can publish changes and voilà! Everything is done, there is no need for re-deploying the app or
re-building the project. Translations are fetched in real-time from the SimpleLocalize CDN where all translations sit.

![placeflare travel app with 5 languages](/blog/travel-app-with-5-languages.png)

## 2. eCommerce apps

The global market is one of the best things which gave us access to the Internet. Buying stuff has never been easier,
you can be based in Eastern Europe and sell your products to the locals, or the next day you will get an order from
Brazil. What stops your clients more from buying your products online than long-distance? Fear that they will fill up
order form wrong, and they will lose money. They will return to your page many times thinking about buying from you, and
on the second screen, they will be looking for local stores. What you can do with it? Make them confident that in case
of a problem they will be able to get help from you. Being a professional seller with a global audience gives you many
benefits.

![online shop with multi language support](/blog/online-shop-multi-language.png)

**Many online shops have great translations**, and they are perfectly faking that they are local stores. The client will
notice that it's not the local store only then when he will get the package. Numerous online shops and retail stores
offer from 4 to 20 languages for visitors.

## 3. SEO systems

If you are providing SEO service you know the best that application which is available for your customers in native
language converts much better than the others. Many professional tools have at least 5 languages to choose from because
SEO tools are the kind of services that are used globally to increase the audience. Not every SEO expert or SEO novice
knows English perfectly to understand how your search engine optimization app will work for him. He/she will be familiar
with the basic words but to explain them more you will need translation management.

![multi language SEO optimization](/blog/multi-language-seo-optimization.jpg)

I'm sure you heard about [ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com) we are also using this tool. Currently, the app supports 13
languages!
Wow! Maybe this is the reason why the page is so popular among SEO experts!

## 4. Business products

The most important apps need to be translated and have high-quality translations. **Mobile and web systems are must be
translated by humans** to achieve the best possible explanation. Specialized vocabulary which occurs in such systems
should be consistent with the other business apps. If the potential client won't find words which he is familiar in your
system or landing page, then he may leave your page. Try to reach native speakers to get the best possible translation.

Another way is to check your competitor's page and try to match words, so your potential clients will know that they are
on the right page. Most of our clients support more than 18 languages in their apps. A good starting point should be at
least 5 languages which include: English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German. In many cases, you will also want to
support your language. Selling service on your local market is always a little easier than going global right away.

![business apps add more languages](/blog/business-apps-add-more-languages.png)

### Example business apps with translation management systems

A good example of a business apps:

- Translation agency [Luisa.ee](https://www.luisa.ee) from Estonia supports 5 languages on their site,
- [VendingMetrics](https://app.vendingmetrics.com) is the vending company that provides mobile, and web app both of them
  provides 5 languages to choose,
- Estonian startup [Getid.ee](https://getid.ee) which provides fast identity verification for global businesses,
- [ReactJS documentation](https://reactjs.org/languages) supports more than 20 languages. Every documentation page has
  individual GitHub repository where people are translating content.
- Nederland company [print.com](https://print.com) that lets you order every print product at lightning speed!

## Conclusions

The rule of thumb on deciding if an app needs multi-language support is simple. If your app is targeted to people who
are not very technical, then **you should consider adding multi-language support.**
What if you don't have time or resources to translate the content right away? It's simple! There are libraries
like [FormatJS](/blog/posts/formatjs-reactjs-internationalization/)
provides an option to display default content. Using FormatJS you can determine the translation key which you will use
in the future, and the default language value for now if translation won't be found. You don't have to use any other
external tool to do it.

**A very good approach is to add i18n support, even if you don't plan to add more languages now.** Such an approach will
help you in the future in adding the next languages effortlessly. Not using specialized tools right away may cause that
your application will suffer from unprofessional and 'partial' translation. Developers often forget to add a special
piece of code to use translated content someplace.







Posts tagged with `software-localization`

4 app categories that need multi language support