Is it cost effective to translate your iOS game from english to other languages? For us the answer has been a clear yes. For example, here is a graph showing our downloads and revenues in Japan for a month before and a month after adding the Japanese translation.
That improvement in both downloads and revenue per download is due to the translation to Japanese. We had similar results in one other country, more modest improvements in others. When we translated to simplified Chinese we had a very big increase in downloads but hardly any increase in revenues.
Localization can improve:
- Chance someone will tap on your app listing when browsing (if you translate the app name)
- Download rate (if you translate the app name and screen shots)
- Amount of fun a customer has with your game (if you localize the app itself)
- Chance they will buy an IAP. (if you localize the app itself)
- Chance they will recommend to their friend. (if you localize the app itself)
- Chance of getting Apple promotions in non english markets. (if you localize the app itself)
Thats a pretty good list of potential benefits for a modest investment in time and money. If your app is performing well in its native language markets, and there is another market with a different native tongue where you are starting to get downloads, try localizing for that country and see how it goes. We’ve tried a couple of companies to help with translation, and the one that we like and recommend is Tethras.com. I like their pricing (which takes into account translation updates for app updates), they have great tech and a workflow that makes it convenient to move translations to and from your codebase, and they’ve been a helpful and supportive vendor.
Thanks for sharing! As someone that has had to market apps that started out with a non-English language, translation seems to be a no brainer especially if you just have the app to translate and not a lot of text content (which can then cost you more than a “modest investment”).
Really good advice to try it out on a market where the downloads are pretty good, I believe too that it’s the way to go.
From your graph you already got some download before the translation, If my app not get any traffic or ranked in Japanese, would you think localized will made the situation better ? Or should I go for country which I get some traffic.
It really depends on your app. Are you getting good downloads in countries with the apps primary language? If not, figure that problem out first. Is you app niche or does it have broad appeal? Is the icon good? Have you figured out how to get found in app store search? What about your competitor apps? etc.
Localizing increases reach, great article. We have been focusing a recent campaign on localizing for China – http://www.exiconglobal.com/blog/translate-your-app-to-chinese/ would love to hear your thoughts/comments.