A quiet but costly assumption is undermining global expansion efforts, warns the CEO of localization platform Smartling. Many companies default to building products and campaigns in English first, only translating later, a practice that he argues stifles growth rather than streamlining it.
This approach ignores a critical reality: 76% of consumers prefer product information in their native language, and 40% will not make a purchase in a language other than their own. The CEO suggests that the translation process itself is rarely the bottleneck; the real problem is a foundational strategy built on a single-language origin point.
The pattern is consistent across leadership teams, from product specs to campaign planning. Rather than building assets that are designed from the outset to work across multiple markets, companies create them in English and then adapt afterward. This embedded inefficiency, he contends, is easy to overlook until it materially limits revenue.
The core argument is that global readiness must be embedded in the initial design phase, not treated as an afterthought. For companies looking to expand or wondering why current efforts are underperforming, the message is clear: rethinking the linguistic starting point may be more impactful than optimizing the translation pipeline.
While the article does not cite specific companies or financial data, the argument is grounded in consumer behavior statistics. The piece serves as a strategic warning for product and marketing leaders who may not realize how deeply the English-first assumption shapes their operational workflows.