Re:Why startups and small businesses need a multilingual web...
by caseysoftware on Sunday May 03, 2015 @12:44PM
(#9481985)
It may be leaving lots of opportunity on the table but at the early stages of a company - which includes many in the Hacker News community - they're not taking advantage of the opportunities that are already in front of them.. or they're still figuring out how.
Adding an additional market at that stage ranges from a waste of time/money (if it doesn't work) to a poor customer experience (if it does). How do you sell to and support a customer if you don't speak their language?*
This is not a decision you want to make lightly without some deliberate thought and planning with the rest of your organization.
* I work for Clarify.io which although we don't do translation services (and no interest in it), we work with multiple languages on a daily basis. Adding support in even one language the founders don't know is challenging at best. Luckily, between our two founders, we have 5 languages.
Adding an additional market at that stage ranges from a waste of time/money (if it doesn't work) to a poor customer experience (if it does). How do you sell to and support a customer if you don't speak their language?*
This is not a decision you want to make lightly without some deliberate thought and planning with the rest of your organization.
* I work for Clarify.io which although we don't do translation services (and no interest in it), we work with multiple languages on a daily basis. Adding support in even one language the founders don't know is challenging at best. Luckily, between our two founders, we have 5 languages.