Locally developed and well-translated content is the key to having mobile apps discovered by consumers, according to new data from the ABI Research Group (http://www.abirsearch.com).
In Apple’s Japanese App Store, 87% of the ten highest-ranked apps in all 21 categories were available in Japanese, as of February. Germany (83%) and France (82%) were other markets where over four-fifths of the highest-ranking apps were available in the local languages. In China, Chinese-speaking apps accounted for 76% of the highest-ranked apps — with about half of them developed specifically for the local market.
“Our findings confirm that apps that fit into the local culture, or at least speak the audience’s native language, see a measurable boost in their download rankings,” Aapo Markkanen, ABI senior analyst, says. “This means two things. First, domestic developer communities will always have a certain edge in winning over the consumers’ hearts and minds. Second, larger developer houses with global ambitions risk seeing their expensive releases go unnoticed if they don’t localize the content properly.”
