The first thing that strikes your mind when you imagine China is, how big it is! With the world’s largest population (in billions!), this puts a lot of things into perspective. China has a greater appeal for foreign markets that includes software technology. As it is the second-largest economy of the world, China offers plenty of opportunities for the software magnets to increase their size and provide its software products and services. Software companies, interested to enter the Chinese market, need to understand the complexities of software translation and localization. One cannot survive without localizing the software or the product would be dead in a matter of test launches.  

There are certain challenges associated with software localization for Chinese encoding. Linguistic and cultural differences present an equal challenge and can be very demanding. 

What is software localization?

Some may confuse localization with internationalization, both are different concepts. The internationalization of product, application, or document specifically allocates the design and development which is localized for the target audience. The code picks up the desired target language for the user. 

Localization is the translation of any content that occurs after internationalization. It can include multiple content sources like accounting standards, websites, software, dates and time, spelling or phrasing, and so on. 

So to better allocate this definition, here are two common forms of software localization to consider;

1. Waterfall localization takes place during the development cycle of the software. It happens either at a post-release method or the string freeze method. After completion of localization, the software is manually updated for merging and publishing. 
2. Agile localization means localization takes place during the development stage. Localization software automatically picks the new and modified strings. But this can be time taking, especially if you are dealing with the Chinese market. 

Time to apply the best tricks for software localization in China

China with the majority of smartphone users tops the app/software market. If you want to talk about high revenue, let’s just say $544 million not even begins to cover it. It comes as no surprise that software localization leads to drastic sales and revenue generation for the Chinese market. So to adapt according to the locale, you need to remember some essential points. 

1. Separate resource files 

To make your localization process a success, any solid software localization will begin with internationalization. This is important to unwieldy a huge amount of text. You can begin by separating the text from the files for the easy import and export of texts from the code. 

You need to keep the content as organized as possible, assign it to the certified Chinese translator and name each string clearly for references. Then a translation file can be uploaded easily and managed. 

2. Use of symbols and images

In the design phase, during localization, you need to pry out the images and symbols that may become offensive on a cultural basis. Feel free to slide away from any graphic detail that does not align with the Chinese culture. 

For instance, the hand wave emoji means “hello” and is commonly used in the USA, but in mainland China, it means “to break up the friendship”. It’s the opposite meaning, so the illustration and images need to be double-checked. Not one ounce of the material should be offensive or meaningless, that could be confusing. 

3. Be precise 

Going into a lot of detail can jumble up the actual coding system. Even phrases in English for the UK, USA, or Canada differ from one another. So the cultural cues do exist and you need to localize the software that can be easily adapted in the Chinese language. 

The mainland Chinese is different the further you move away to sub-territorial regions or provinces. In China, both simplified and traditional Chinese are in use, so you better identify the target audience you have been meaning to sway. 

4. Follow a style guide 

Software localization adheres to the brand image as well. To be consistent in your localization process, you need to create and follow a style guide that adds to consistency. When localizing the software, you need to include the branding, tone, value propositions/audience information, grammar, etc. that may have a long-term influence.

5. Software localization tool

Getting help from software localization services always does the trick, but it’s not a onetime process. Get your hands on a localization tool that helps to organize, track the changes into native Chinese, and embraces the automation and workflow transparency. Also, focus on the local specific issues, this can be easily dealt with the right localization tool. 

Challenges to keep an eye on for the software localization in China 

Talking about linguistic challenges, the Chinese writing system is far different from the one in the States or European countries. Written horizontally and vertically with no pure alphabet makes the software localization a complication. Some of the technical challenges may include 

• Lack of space for separating characters
• Minimum backward computability to support multiple encoding 
• Different font and point size required for user interface 
• More testing and engineering required to localize software in Chinese
• Encoding must support traditional and simplified Chinese 
• Cultural sensitivity will always remain in question

Software localization focuses on the cultural differences of the source and target country. Currently, the most popular software development tools are Unicode-compatible. But it is not with its technical set of challenges either. The software may be susceptible to issues after localization, which ultimately leads to one of the challenges that you may face during software localization. 

Conclusion 

Because of the complexity of the cultural changes, you need to be careful about choosing the localization partner to represent your business in the native market. With a considerable amount of localization, pick the perfect partner, get the on-hand knowledge, detailed analysis to meet up the challenges. There is no debate that China is a progressive economy and to become a part of that economy you need to upgrade your localization game.