Turning an idea into a product, website, or application is a labor of love, and it always takes time and effort to realize. Even once the building process is complete, finding success is a challenge on its own - and growing that success to multiple markets can be even harder.
Last year was one of tremendous change. Both personal and professional lives were changed for nearly everyone, as the COVID-19 pandemic uprooted everyday normalcy and replaced it with one that required a rethinking of every aspect of life.
This past year has thrown the world into a new state of “normal”, with companies and employees both struggling to catch up. The localization industry has been forced to change the way it operates, with new strategies, budgets, and technologies in play.
With the holiday season just around the corner, e-commerce business are bracing for high volumes of shoppers. And since so many consumers are foregoing in-person shopping due to the effects of COVID-19, many are staying at home and relying on online stores for the gift giving season.
In 1999, Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita kicked off a project to help streamline communication on an early internet system by creating small pictograms. Little did he know that instead, he was the catalyst for what would become one of the most popular ways of online communication. At first, these tiny emojis were mainly used in Japan only — especially when texting through mobile devices — but gained worldwide popularity when Apple released the first iPhone. By 2010, other mobile brands started adding emojis into their operating systems, and have since gone from a simple way of expressing emotions to a social language that has become part of many cultures and societies.
One of most critical aspects to a successful customer engagement strategy is localization - without it, your prospects and customers may seem disconnected and unable to truly interact with your brand.
Language is one of the most powerful influences in our daily lives - the way we learn, the people we interact with, and the information we have access is all heavily dependent on the language we are born into.
