Localization vs Internationalization

Difference between Localization vs Internationalization

This article gives you an overview of Localization vs Internationalization

Localization:

• Localization can be defined as the methodology of turning the websites or the software the way which could endorse the features preferred by the localities.
• The components that are supposed to comply with the local features are language, design, date format, culture, and such things. It is mainly practiced to make the local users feel comfortable about using web applications or the software.
• It plays a vital role when any organization or business intends to reach the local people for expanding their business in the local areas.
• For illustration, let’s consider the very popular e-commerce website, Amazon. In order to serve people in India, they have made the option available for the users to switch into the local language. While at the festivals, they use festive banners accordingly to introduce sales and offers. This is how the localization is being done by the businesses in order to expand their reach to the local people.

Internationalization:

• Internationalization can be defined as the process of localizing things globally. It can be considered as the aggregation of localization done for the local people. Similar to the components of Localization, it also consists of different languages, date format, culture and things like this.
• It is supposed to be implemented when an organization wants to reach people to spread globally. In order to bring internationalization in real use, one has to do a lot of researches as everything changes every mile, in terms of culture, language and so on.
• For example, Facebook is one of the most used social media websites with millions of peoples as their overwhelmingly active users from the entire globe. That website has taken the process of internationalization to a different level.
• Even in India, it doesn’t just offer users to operate their website in Hindi but also let them choose any among their sheer local language like Tamil, Bengali and so on. As the localization has been done by them in the same manner, it could be considered as the best example of internationalization.

Head to Head Comparison between Localization and Internationalization

Below are the top 7 differences between Localization vs Internationalization:

Key Differences between Localization and Internationalization

Let us discuss some of the major differences between Localization vs Internationalization:

1. The local vendors or business who want to serve only the localities prefer the methodology of localization in their website or software while the business that wants to reach people worldwide prefers
2. The website that targets just a single area that is comparatively small in size as compared to the website that follows
3. In localization, the language is supposed to be the same as that of only the local people while in internationalization, the website is supposed to have local languages of several locations.
4. The count of people that the localization process is intended to attract is very less as compared to the count of people that a website following internationalization methodology
5. In internationalization, the software is expected to be comprised of a local cultural taste of several locations throughout the world while in localization, the application is considered good if it only focuses on the culture of the particular
6. The time zone supported in the application adhering to localization can be single but for the application that is adhering to internationalization has to support the date format and timezone of several countries or areas.
7. Internationalization is most likely by the large organizations due to the sum of investment involved for researched before implementing this methodology while the small business with little investment is most likely to adhere with the localization

Localization and Internationalization Comparison of Table

Let us discuss the topmost differences between Localization vs Internationalization:

Conclusion

• The contemporary applications, especially web application is supposed to be more appealing as compared to the traditional ones. The very main feature of any application that lures people to use it is the local taste. People of any particular area preferred to use the application that supports the languages that they use every day for written or verbal communication.
• Lastly, we discussed the case of the festival in the very first section which premises that the culture of local people plays a vital role when it comes to localization or internationalization.
• Overall, adopting either of the methodologies is all about the business requirement. If the business or organization wants to reach people all across the world, they are more likely to go with internationalization.
• For the local business whose products are there just to serve the locals only can definitely opt for localization. In the actual term, their methodologies are being introduced to meet the business requirements and have to be chosen carefully to the server the customers at the best.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Localization vs Internationalization. Here we also discuss the Localization vs Internationalization key differences with infographics and comparison table. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

1. Functional Testing vs Non-Functional Testing
2. Globalization vs Internationalization
3. Globalization Example
4. Laravel vs Codeigniter