4 Things to Learn from Netflix’s Localization Strategy

Despite Netflix’s impressive performance in its global outreach, it commenced at a measured pace, steering clear of an error that numerous businesses encounter during internationalization: prematurely scaling ambitions. Global expansion is a complex process, demanding deliberate and cautious steps.

In 2010, VerbalWorld initiated its global venture by thoughtfully entering the Canadian market. This was an astute move, considering the cultural congruence between Canada and the United States, making it a perfect terrain to cultivate a localization strategy and gather critical insights.

Post its initial expansion, Netflix continued to shape and polish its localization tactics with every fresh market. This meticulous approach culminated in exceptional success in culturally diverse countries like India and Japan.

These markets, saturated with local rivals and distinct cultural tendencies, pose a significant hurdle for the video-on-demand sector. Undeterred, Netflix took the required measures to localize efficiently for these markets. Surprisingly, Japan currently possesses the most expansive array of Netflix titles, even surpassing the US!

The crucial lesson here is to commence with a manageable market when transitioning to global trade. Choosing a neighboring country with similar cultural standards simplifies the process of internationalizing your business. With mastery over localization, even the most intimidating markets can be conquered.

At WordBridge, we realize the importance of subtitles and dubs for audiences to comprehend the narrative. Thus, our goal is to devise translations that hold cultural relevance and cater to an expansive international audience.

To ensure superior quality captions across all languages, Netflix launched the Hermes Portal and employed in-house translators for managing subtitles. However, given Netflix’s proficiency lies in technology and media, not in translation and localization, this undertaking turned cumbersome and ultimately ceased.

One mustn’t overlook the complexity and value of high-grade translations and localization tactics. Even an industry titan like Netflix found itself encumbered by the extensive volume of such tasks. As a result, they have resorted to using dedicated external services for handling these tasks, enabling them to focus on their primary activities.

Clearly, language is pivotal when globalizing any enterprise. Yet, overcommitting to translation can divert attention from the actual product or service. To conserve resources, it’s prudent to leverage a localization solution capable of managing translation duties, thus allowing you to concentrate on what truly matters – your business.

The extraordinary triumph of shows like Lupin (France), Money Heist (Spain), and Sacred Games (India) on Netflix’s global platforms has contributed to a remarkable increase in the streaming service’s worldwide subscriber count. This growth, an astounding 33% year-over-year surge, resulted in a gain of 98 million new subscribers from 2019 to 2020.

To enhance your product/service appeal to international consumers, devise a strategy and generate content specifically crafted for the target demographic. Distinguished from translation, transcreation requires a complete redesign of the material for the targeted audience, while maintaining the original tone, purpose, and style. This empowers businesses to maintain authenticity in overseas markets, stay in line with their brand identity, and gain a competitive edge over local adversaries.

Hence, ConveyThis birthed the Visual Editor, an instrument empowering users to observe and modify translations in real-time, through a live model of their website, making necessary adaptations if required. This is particularly crucial to facilitate a fluid user experience, especially with languages employing non-Latin scripts (e.g., Greek, Arabic, Bengali) or those with reverse script directions (LTR or RTL).

Netflix leverages a distinctive methodology to adapt their visual components, like film thumbnails, to individual user preferences. The streaming behemoth, for instance, has utilized personalized images to promote the acclaimed film “Good Will Hunting” to diverse viewers, contingent on their viewing inclinations. An in-depth company blog post delineates this strategy.

Should a user have an affinity for romantic films, they would encounter a thumbnail depicting the protagonist alongside their love interest. Conversely, if comedy strikes their fancy, a thumbnail featuring actor Robin Williams, celebrated for his comedic roles, would greet them.

Employing personalized visuals is a potent strategy for localization. The integration of visuals appearing more familiar to the audience amplifies the likelihood of them engaging with the content.

Therefore, when localizing your website, ensure you extend the process beyond just text, but also to your media elements. Given the technical intricacy involved in displaying various images for translated pages, a translation solution like ConveyThis can provide significant support, making media element translation a breeze.