Localization by the numbers

Combining BI and technology to optimize international customer reach

Pedro GomezMicrosoft

Agenda

• Introduction to MSDN and TechNet• What is our international challenge opportunity?• How are we addressing it?• Key learnings

What are MSDN and TechNet?• Destinations for Microsoft’s technical users– TechNet - IT Pros– MSDN - Developers and testers

• Complex sites with over 15 million assets– Centers - Blogs– Library - Wiki– Forums

• Localized into 24 languages, serving 64 locales• My team and this presentation focus on Office

The role of language in MSDN/TN• User provenance reflects the world

• US 35%• Other English-speaking countries 15%• Rest of the world 50%

• Localized content accounts for 15% of traffic– Some content is exclusive to English– Technical audiences tolerate more English• Some ever perceive it as more current and canonical

– Localization covers a subset of the world– The apples-to-apples comparison is more 50-50%• With significant regional and content type variation

No budget to localize everythingNor would it be the fiscally responsible thing to do! • A handful of pages drives traffic

• Users come to the site via search

20 80 99 1000

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

EnglishGermanJapanese

Number of asssets

Percentage of page views

Ratio of assets to page views: TechNet

20 80 99 1000

25000

50000

75000

100000

125000

EnglishGermanJapanese

Ratio of assets to page views: MSDN

Percentage of page views

Number of asssets

Search Other site Typed or bookmarked

0204060 TechNet

MSDN

Percentage of traffic

Referrer type

Content performance metrics

How hard is our content working for us?

Precision spend localization dollars• BI helps identify critical content

Quantitative QualitativePage views Product managersSearch Content writersRatings In-country stakeholders

• MT gives us breadth** MT is just another TM in normal production • Some content types and language combos have a

mixed record• We Upgrade MT to HT based on traffic

TM + HT + MT process and metrics

• 5% of normal cost• Turnaround 75%

faster• Time on page,

bounce rate, and page views in line with similar content

• No negative reactions

The user experience

What else are we working on?• Bilingual MT experience

• MT from languages other than English

• Tighter integration with other stakeholders – Authors– Community

Key takeaways

• Understand how your users consume your content and services

• Focus your localization dollars where they count

• Apply MT liberally– Quality beats quantity– Patience wins the day: you will have to iterate– It’s not about tools alone

Questions?