Prezi: Localization Using Transifex

In a recent interview in Martech Advisor (07 Mar 2016), Prezi CEO Peter Arvai talked about adding localization to their service. Prezi has changed the landscape for marketing and technical presentations around the world. Over 60 million users have created and viewed over 160 million prezis since the company’s foundation in 2009. When asked about how the Korean market spurred Prezi to localize, he was quick to admit the reasons for their shift:

You’re right, localization of Prezi started with our user communities. Early on our users in Korea alerted us to the fact that Prezi did not work with Korean fonts. We had no idea how to solve this then but provided us with the first font sets to get us up and running. Today we have localized Prezi in 9 languages, including English, Hungarian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Korean and Japanese. The Latin American market, in particular, has experienced explosive growth over the last few years. Even before we launched in Portuguese in 2013, we already had the 500 thousand users in Brazil. Two years later, in 2015, we now have over 2 million users in Brazil, four times the amount we had before launching Prezi in Portuguese.

That might lead reader to question: How did Prezi adapt so quickly? What technology did they use to get those kinds of growth results over two years? The answer can be obtained by reading a case study published by our translation platform partner, Transifex. At the time of the case study’s writing (a year into the process), Prezi had been professionally localized in four languages, with others in the process of being crowdsourced. Since then, all the planned languages were released, and Italian added to the list of offerings for Prezi.

Localization and translation automation platforms such as Transifex are creating a global sea change, making it easier and easier for companies to offer their brands in diverse markets around the world. While not everyone is the size or scale of Prezi (or at least not yet), everyone wants their message to reach the widest possible audiences.

Are you in the planning stages or initial process of moving your company and its content into a globalized, localized offering? We can help. e2f is an Integrated Translation Provider for Transifex. Open an account in Transifex, upload your project, and select us as your translation provider. We’ll do the rest! If you have any questions about getting started, feel free to email us at projects@e2f.com.