Distimo told how the translation of the application affects its downloads

Distimo has published a study on the difficulties of translation in the App Store. Analysts found out which language was the most popular in applications in August 2012 and how much localization affects revenue. 

The study affected Apple stores in 12 countries: USA, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, China, Brazil and Australia. During it Distimo found out:

1. In terms of downloads and income, English is a priority (no one doubted it). More than 90% of all free downloads and 90% of generated revenue, if we are talking about the top 200 most popular applications for iPhone and iPad in the 12 largest markets, account for programs that support English.

2. Developers have begun to understand how important it is to support multiple languages. And in this regard, the proportion of free downloads and global revenue generated by applications not in English has grown over the past few months. 

3. Native language support directly affects downloads and profits generated from the app. However, this effect is more relevant for iPhone applications than for iPad applications.

On average, downloads of those iPhone apps that had localized versions released in August rose by 128%. Their revenue also increased, on average, by 26%. As for iPad applications, surprisingly, their number of downloads has not increased, but despite this, revenue from them has increased by 5%.

4. China is the only country in which English does not dominate the top 200 most downloaded free apps. In this country, 79% of free downloads are for Chinese-language apps. The number of applications that support English is only 69%.

5. The largest share of total revenue generated from native language applications comes from the Asian region (Japan, China and South Korea). In other countries, applications in English, as a rule, generate the most money. 

6. The publication of the application in the native language of the region, apparently, has more impact on downloads than on profits in the iPhone market. This is especially noticeable in China, Japan and South Korea. It can be assumed that for paying users, the presence of a language is not so important. 

The full version of the study can be found at the following link.