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Ask HN: Should a fledgling SaaS website consider internationalization?
Hi HN. My friend and I are working on a SaaS project. We're about 2 months from launching, and wondered if we should consider translating into other languages (eg cn, de, ru, jp etc) to help reach a wider audience. This type of service would likely have appeal in those countries too.
Or would it be better to only focus on USA/CA/UK for the first year (or two)? Hope to hear other HN'ers comments and experiences with this :)
- iancarroll 12y agoIt might be ideal to validate your idea in one market first before expanding.
- wamatt 12y agoYes, I'd agree with that. In this case there is an established market (eg competitors) which would suggest there is ongoing customer demand. Whether visitors will like our service though is anyones guess, but we hope so! We're placing most of our effort into making it simple to use, and helping users beam with happiness
- aggieben 12y agoI wouldn't worry about actually translating, but I for sure would do as much as possible to build out the infrastructure necessary to support it. In most cases I think it would be more work to shoehorn it in after the fact than it would be to get it done up front.
- wamatt 12y agoGood suggestion, Ty. We've at added support in code and data for the LTR languages. While that means Arabic and Hebrew won't be supported without refactoring, it should be an appropriate compromise.