According to the IAMAI, 500 million Indians will become Internet users by 2017. And not all of them will be urban English speaking youth. Which is why a growing number of organizations are waking up to the importance of regional language versions of their websites and applications.
Potential of regional language boom sees big players jump in
Facebook grew its India penetration from 50 million back in 2012 to over four times that number and counting in 2015. A big contributor to this growth was an early decision to offer the service in multiple regional languages of the subcontinent including Hindi, as well as Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, and Bengali. Twitter now supports multiple Indian languages. Others like Snapdeal made announcements in December 2015 that they would make their site and service available in no less than 11 regional languages of India.
Culturally relevant websites and the need for language specialists
With a vast non-English speaking populace and promising mobile penetration numbers, the upside to this trend is virtually limitless. Services ranging from e-commerce websites to recruitment and job hunting portals like QuikrJobs are now increasingly being made available in regional languages to tap into this market.
Forward looking businesses are utilizing skilled interpreters and creating culturally sensitive and relevant content tailored to this new Indian audience. Many have turned to specialists who can help them understand the regional nuances of language to ensure messages are not lost in translation.
