Report: Asian Translations Could Pay Off for Mobile Apps

A new report from Distimo has some interesting insights for mobile development firms that are considering localizing their apps for various regions. In every country except China, English apps are the most popular in terms of downloads. But in revenue terms, localized apps do better in China, Japan and South Korea, while English dominates the rest of the top twelve markets. That suggests that developers might want to consider translating their apps for Asian markets.

To further examine the impact of translation, Distimo followed 200 iOS apps after their translation into an Asian language. On average, apps saw a 128 percent jump in downloads and a 26 percent increase in revenue following the localization efforts.

By contrast, local languages don't seem to be as important in Brazil, Italy and Russia, where the majority of the most popular apps aren't available in the native tongue.

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