Should I start working on internationalization or focus on one language content?
Have you ever thought about multiple language app? I thought about making my French application works with English in order to hit bigger market. But that means that I need to duplicate my content ( I don't trust translate with that) and adapt my API with my clients browser language. It's a lot of work and I haven't finished my MVP yet. Still need to work on client request/claim forms, FAQ and other legal content…
What would you suggest? Launch MVP with french language or wait until I get internationalization done?
If you have already validated your product idea and maybe have some traction, I would consider making an English version.
If you have no customers yet, I would start with French only. If you are not able to find enough customers for the French version, you would also have a hard time finding customers for the English version.
Also targeting the French market could be an advantage. It is large enough for most ideas, but probably not so crowded, which could be an marketing advantage.
With my recent projects I go the same strategy, but for the German market.
If you like to translate a lot of content, I would suggest DeepL (https://www.deepl.com/translator). It is a very good translator and the translations only require very little fine tuning...
Great advice. Localization/i18n slows everything down so you definitely want to make sure you've validated your idea first. Once you localize, every feature/tweak that involves text needs to be translated. That overhead is fine if you're making (enough) money, but otherwise is a huge distraction.
fair enough.
I'll have it done in a second version.
thank you very much.
Ok. Thank you for those hints. I'll check out deepL.
Starting with a smaller market is not a bad idea. But I think I don't want to miss out worldwide market with English version. Specially not being able to use some channels like indiehackers community to leverage growth on first days..
I'll have to think about it.
I had a similar problem. I wanted to launch my SaaS in two languages but after a few working days I decided to focus only on the English version.
But I created my API and front-end with internationalization modules so it will be easy to add new languages in the future.
In your case you have made the choice to hit the bigger market first. Not bad. I'll think about it.thanks
Exactly. Most of my potential customers from Poland (I planned to translate my app to this language because I’m from Poland) also speak English.
In my case, the language isn't very important (only in the dashboard navigation, payments and landing page of course). You can use every language while creating on-site messages in my app.
What I figured about internationalization is that the sooner you start, the happier you'll be in the long run.
Make sure you know beforehand if your software will be used in countries with different languages. This is easy when you really know what you're building.
Trust me, it can become really cumbersome in the future. Like @mxbe recommended, I suggest you use Deepl. The translations are so natural. And it helps if you already know the languages you're translating it into.
I'm really confused.
I don't know what to do.
Should I start working on it now or wait for another version.
I would like to have a bigger Market but I'm afraid that it could slow me down...
It may slow you down a little bit if you already have a lot of text to translate.
So if you have some serious deadline to meet, I wouldn't recommend you do it now.
But it's kinda like losing weight, the sooner you start, the better.