Internationalization and Localization - Costs and Benefits

Costs and Benefits

In a commercial setting, the benefit from localization is access to more markets. However, there are considerable costs involved, which go far beyond just engineering. First, software must generally be re-engineered to make it world-ready.

Then, providing a localization package for a given language is in itself a non-trivial undertaking, requiring specialized technical writers to construct a culturally appropriate syntax for potentially complicated concepts, coupled with engineering resources to deploy and test the localization elements. Further, business operations must adapt to manage the production, storage and distribution of multiple discrete localized products, which are often being sold in completely different currencies, regulatory environments and tax regimes.

Finally, sales, marketing and technical support must also facilitate their own operations in the new languages, in order to support customers for the localized products. Particularly for relatively small language populations, it may thus never be economically viable to offer a localized product. Even where large language populations could justify localization for a given product, and a product's internal structure already permits localization, a given software developer/publisher may lack the size and sophistication to manage the ancillary functions associated with operating in multiple locales. For example, Microsoft Windows 7 has 96 language packs available.

One alternative, most often used by open source software communities, is self-localization by teams of end-users and volunteers. The KDE3 project, for example, has been translated into over 100 languages, and KDE4 is available in 68. However, self-localization requires that the underlying product first be engineered to support such activities, which is a non-trivial endeavor.