New Report Identifies Top Localization Trends for 2021 and Beyond
Lilt, the modern language service and technology provider, today announced its inaugural State of the Localization industry survey and report. Gathering perspectives from over 900 experts involved in localization across a range of enterprise departments, this new industry survey provides insight into localization team organizational structures, strategies, goals, and expectations for the future.
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“We’re excited to launch the inaugural edition of our annual industry survey and report, as we felt that there were valuable insights that weren’t widely available.” said Peter McCall, Head of Marketing at Lilt. “With this new annual survey and report, we are excited to provide localization leaders and their organizations a source of information and best practices as they look to build and improve their programs.”
COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated digital transformation across the world, and the demands and dynamics of localization teams are adapting accordingly. The following trends present key dynamics that teams face as they adapt in a digital-first world:
Trend 1: Volume and demand for localized content are growing.
The events of the past year have led to a corresponding increase in demand for digital enterprise content. 72% of companies report an increase in the volume of localized content they have had to produce over the past year.
“In a year of pandemic and a rapid shift to digital-first, many companies took a long hard look at the state of their global customer experience, and realized that supporting a variety of native languages was a core part of that experience,” said McCall.
Trend 2: Enterprises underestimate the complexity that localization involves.
While demand for localization is growing, internal support within enterprises is not. 78% of respondents are routinely challenged by internal issues and lack of support. Those responsible for localization spend a large portion of their time teaching others in their organization about how localization works and why it is important. Many also note limited bandwidth as a key pain point, indicating that time dedicated to internal evangelization could more aptly be spent on other more valuable localization responsibilities.
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Trend 3: “Status quo” is no longer good enough.
68% of companies report being satisfied with their language service providers, but 53% are also actively considering or evaluating new language vendors. Many noted that their current vendors were struggling to scale as new business needs arose, and content volumes and timelines increased. Others attributed their vendor search to a need for a more flexible, responsive vendor with fewer legacy processes given the pace of today’s digital world.
Lilt’s 2021 State of the Localization Industry survey was conducted by surveying over 900 respondents with quantitative questions, and supplemented with qualitative interviews across a range of those same respondents. Following this report, Lilt will release supplemental reports that delve into additional details by industry, company size, and more.
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