From the very beginning when these professional concepts of "localization", "internationalization" and "globalization" were unknown to the public to today when they are being paid more and more attention by enterprises, the connotations and values of them are gradually being recognized by the business world. Many multinational companies with extensive business all over the world have begun to seriously consider the significance behind these concepts. However, in fact, even many enterprises and organizations that have been conducting these professional activities specifically for a long time may not be able to distinguish well among them. In this issue, we will simply sort out these core concepts in the language service industry from a professional perspective again, and also hope to inspire more valuable thinking for everyone.

Internationalization

Internationalization, also known as i18n, refers to making advance preparations in the process of product research and development and design, so that the product can adapt to global needs with the lowest adjustment cost and the fastest speed. Product internationalization is most typical in software internationalization. After being fully internationalized, software products can be released and applied in different countries and regions using the same set of codes. Therefore, compared with localization, internationalization pays more attention to whether the core of the product or service is internationally applicable at a more fundamental level. Take software internationalization as an example, the most important aspects are:

Encoding format:

Many traditional encoding standards can only adapt to some specific Latin alphabet languages. However, when it is necessary to simultaneously accommodate many different types of Eastern and Western languages with huge differences, Unicode will be a better choice in the process of internationalization.

Language adaptability:

In the interface design process, the most important thing is to consider the adaptability to language and cultural differences. For example, the length of the language, the display length of the same context in East Asian languages is relatively short and takes up less space, while the space occupied by Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet languages will obviously increase. Therefore, when designing the interface, it is necessary to consider various language adaptation situations in advance and make advance reservations for space to avoid the occurrence of language overlength.

Data adaptability:

 In the process of product internationalization, it is necessary to consider various data formats and attributes of different countries in advance and make full reservations and preparations. For example, the display of time involves time zone configuration. In the process of internationalization, generally, the internal UTC time is first adopted, and then converted to a specific user time zone; in addition, such as adding an optional international area code in front of the phone number, allowing letters and numbers to be mixed input for the zip code, etc., are all necessary preparations in the process of product internationalization.
Of course, the most classic successful case of product internationalization is the well-known IKEA. In addition to the international aesthetic and design of IKEA products, more importantly, a fully graphical manual type is adopted, which not only greatly saves the cost of multilingual translation, but also simplifies the originally cumbersome text reading experience into a simple "copying as it is" that is suitable for people of all ages.

Localization

Localization, also known as l10n, refers to the process of adapting a product or service to make it suitable for a specific region. At first hearing, localization seems to be an antonym to internationalization, but in fact, similar to internationalization, the purpose of localization is to make the product or service go global, but its focus is on the implementation level of actual landing. In many large enterprises with mature global businesses, localization and internationalization are complementary processes. After a product has an internationalized core and architecture, the work related to localization can be carried out. Then what does localization mainly include?

Language localization: 

As we all know, translation is the most basic link in the localization process, but in addition to the most basic multilingual conversion, there are many factors related to language that will also directly affect the success or failure of product localization. For example, the completely opposite reading order of different languages requires full consideration in various presentation scenarios. When facing RTL (right-to-left, reading order from right to left) languages represented by Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew, any design needs to make mirror symmetry adjustments in advance considering the reading habits of RTL. Simply aligning all the text to the right is far from enough, otherwise it will not conform to the local user habits, and then the product failure is also inevitable.

Cultural localization: 

Cultural factors are also one of the most important considerations in the process of product localization. If the culture does not match, then it will become a fantasy for the product to land. For example, in China's traditional investment concept, red represents growth and development, and green represents decline and recession, while in major European and American countries, it is exactly the opposite. Therefore, if a European and American developer wants to directly transplant his green-themed financial management app to China, it is very likely that his product will be unpopular. In addition, in terms of data-level units, date formats, currency units, etc., they are also important localization items that need to be focused on.

Functional localization: 

The adjustment of functions in localization often determines the performance of a product in a specific market. If an app product with payment function enters China but only supports Apple Pay and does not support Alipay and WeChat Pay, or only supports Visa and Mastercard but does not support UnionPay, it is believed that most Chinese users will be discouraged at the payment link; similarly, if users on social platforms in Europe and the United States want to share content, they can only choose Weibo and WeChat, then no matter how excellent the function of this product is in its native place, it will definitely encounter a setback overseas.

Compliance: 

In addition to the localization adaptation of software, almost all products must do a large amount of compliance preparations to adapt to various standards and specifications in different regions. For example, the common Hong Kong version products in our lives are equipped with British three-pin plugs and need to be matched with adapters to be used. At the same time, the power supply voltage standards in many countries are different. Therefore, especially for electrical and electronic products, the localization of power supply voltage standards and plug specifications is a prerequisite for product usability. In addition, for example, Apple originally announced that in the newly launched product packaging box, the power adapter or EarPods headphones will no longer be included as standard, but after the release of iPhone 12, we found that France became an exception. The reason is that French law stipulates that every smart phone sold in France needs to be accompanied by headphones (or hands-free kits) to facilitate people to choose hands-free calls when making calls, thereby reducing electromagnetic radiation. Therefore, in order to meet the market access requirements in France, the French version of iPhone 12 will come with EarPods, which has been cancelled in other versions.

Globalization

Globalization, also known as g11n, although in the context of many industries, it is regarded as a synonym of internationalization, in fact, the "globalization" at the technical level contains the two concepts of "internationalization" and "localization", and has a broader meaning.
Compared with the two technical concepts of internationalization and localization, globalization represents a complete set of product and service processes from product research and development to global marketing landing, focusing on the interrelationship and overall layout of various links such as product research and development management, marketing, after-sales support, and even international trade from a higher perspective. And from the operational point of view, the specific contents that globalization may involve include but are not limited to the supply chain, channel cooperation, after-sales service, warehousing and logistics, franchise, compliance clearance, etc. Therefore, in other words, excellent globalization practice is to provide better "customer journey" experience for users in different regions.

Conclusion

Internationalization, localization, and globalization are all processes of preparation, adjustment, and optimization for products and services at different levels such as products, services, and organizational structures for a company or organization from local to global markets. The purpose is to make the products and services better adapt to the language, culture, habits, and a series of technical standards in different regions, and bring a better user experience to users around the world. In today's more and more integrated global world, for large enterprises that have achieved excellent results in their local countries, doing a good job of globalization means seizing the opportunity in the overseas market. Therefore, more and more enterprises are re-examining the value of language services from the perspective of operation.