A new report from translation service OHT-Mobile found that less than half of mobile apps are in users’ native languages. In English-speaking countries like the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia, the majority of users said that all of their mobile apps were in their native language. But that wasn’t the case in countries like the Netherlands, where only 14 percent of users said all their apps were in their native language, and 16 percent said none or only a few of their apps were in their native language.
Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they would like more games and news apps in their native languages, and the numbers were much higher in Japan, Italy and the Netherlands. “Many of the tech giants in the app development space are based in native English speaking countries, and as such, developed apps solely in English,” said Ofer Shoshan, CEO of One Hour Translation, the parent company of OHT-Mobile. “As an increasing amount of countries have gained access to smart phones and mobile associated technologies, the demand for localized native language apps has increased dramatically.”
