For companies wishing to achieve sustaining growth in the global marketplace, language support alone is not enough for new market adoption. The solution is making the product geo-fit when globalizing it, which means to integrate the cultural and regional factors in your product experience strategy.
Only 5% of companies can sustain a growth globally. If we take a look at some big companies, we may find out this is never an easy process. It took Windows 25.8 years to reach 1 billion daily active users. What’s App spent 6.8 years to reach 1 billion daily active users, and Uber spent 9 years before operating in 65 countries. Along with the international expansion is the idea to develop the global-first product.
How to develop a global-first product?
We may first want to think about what we are optimizing for and how we define success. That is to say, keep the goal clear. First, regarding the market readiness, we want to establish solid new markets entry strategy by doing TAM analysis, evaluate the competitive landscape, look into potential local strategic partnerships, etc. Then, in terms of product readiness, we want to optimize product experience on key funnel, for example the onboarding and core engagement of users. Additionally, we also should take organization readiness into account. We need to figure out the international team positioning within the structure because horizontal cross-functional effort requires alignment on the corporation core objectives for effective impact execution.
As global product strategy is actually the local product strategy on a global scale, after clarifying our goal, we also need to know local customers and local market. To take local customers into account, switching from US-first to User-first is essential.
By saying that, let’s image we are users. When introduced to a foreign product, what are some questions we may ask ourselves before we move forward? We may first want to identify whether this is something we’ve already know. Then, we want to know if we can use it and whether we care about it. If we can use it and we do care, we may get interested. The user-first model requires such thinking from users’ perspective. However, there are some common misconceptions in global product strategy: One size fits all global product experience can be created; we can get the product right for EN_US first, then optimize for international; EN market is the core because that’s where the money is. Sadly, these are ALL WRONG. In fact, the emerging markets have grown 2-3 times the pace of developed markets and are expected to account for >50% of global GDP by 2030.
Cases: Integrating Regional & Cultural Factors
Now, you’ve made up your mind to put your product on the global scale and started mapping out your globalization strategy. Taking an international brand to a local market is complicated and needs coordination between many different parties. But you always want to integrate regional and cultural factors into this process to make your product more locally relevant. Different companies may have different approaches, but I’d like to share some cases that I really like and hopefully can give you some new ideas.
Chitu (赤兔)：LinkedIn’s local App for Chinese users.
When LinkedIn decided to develop a brand new localized product to Chinese users, it grasped the idea that the importance of networking or “Guanxi” for career development is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. Inspired by the name of a horse of a Chinese ancient hero, the App brands itself as a social media targeting on young people without strong background, who mostly work at second-tier cities. Chitu knows what local customers want: they are eager to learn how to promote their career path and connect with each other.
Besides the difference of user targeting, Chitu involves more popular features like Live Mode and knowledge monetization.
It also launched three branding campaigns to establish trust from users. It also established partnership with local companies like Alibaba, allowing users link their Alibaba credit rating with LinkedIn profile.
Starbucks: Brewing brand trust in Mexico by hiring employees over 60
Starbucks Mexico opened its first shop staffed by people over the age of 60 this year. This not only contributed to the elderly community in Mexico but helped Starbucks gain local trust and good reputation.
Most of the times, the localization I’m exposed to is mostly about language localization, however in the there is a lot more to consider besides language: put user at the first place, integrate regional and cultural fact, and stay relevant and add value.
(This blogpost is inspired by Talia Baruch’s speech at Middlebury Institute on Thursday, September 13, 2018.)
