The app ecosystem is one of the first truly global markets as all major app stores operate in the majority of the countries. Despite the global characteristics of the app ecosystem, content in each store largely differs from country to country. The focus on localization explains these differences. Apps could be localized with local promotional campaigns, local relevant in-app purchases and local content such as news. Languages seem to be another good way to localize an application. Most popular applications offer their app in multiple languages like WhatsApp and Twitter. Other popular applications are only available in one language, e.g. local news apps. This publication focuses on the impact of translating your application. Alongside this publication, we organize a webinar on the impact of translations on Monday the 8th of October at 05.00PM CET (08.00 PST). Please register here.

The major finding in this report are:

• Developers have noticed the importance of apps that support multiple languages, and as such, the proportion of free downloads and revenue globally generated by all non-English languages has grown over the past few months. The introduction of the native language to an app boosts its download volumes and revenue. This effect is larger, however, for iPhone applications than for iPad applications.
• The largest share of total revenue is gained by native language applications in Asia (Japan, China and South Korea), while applications with English content gain the most revenue in the other countries.

• Publishing an app in a native language(s) appears to have more impact on downloads than it does on revenues on the iPhone. The impact is most significant in China, Japan and South Korea, which indicates that consumers in these countries are more eager to pay for applications that support their native language.