Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question as it depends on many different aspects concerning your business and specific needs. Many corporations are capitalizing on localization today because of its huge advantage. While others incline to place it low on their list of priorities, they fall victim when they meet a competitor who does otherwise.

From a business viewpoint, here’s what that means:

Localization embraces translation but also works with every other significant aspect of your content– prices, colors, pictures, etc. Because these points are more subdued, localization connects with clients on a deeper level, enhancing their likelihood to buy.

1) Crystal Clear Communication

With companies aiming to be global and spreading their presence around the world, there has been a pressing need to connect with people in different places and cultures. In such cases, translation becomes an essential part of any business’s communication strategy. The scope of localization of the global brand’s communication is the key to their success, especially on social media. Social media is a people-driven culture – it helps you understand internet usage patterns and purchasing behavior of your target customers before you start. By translating and localizing the content for your target audience, your communication with existing and potential foreign clients will be crystal clear. This will not only break down the language barrier but you will also be able to communicate with them in a culturally respectful manner.

2) Personalized Marketing

Personalized marketing, in terms of localization, is all about “Thinking Global and Acting Local”. Your brand strategy may work well at home, but it doesn’t mean it will be successful in new markets. The success of marketing localization strategies relies on effective multi-country brand management. Large or small, it doesn’t matter; your business needs to localize slogans, taglines, company name, and product names for local markets. Take Google, for example: it has done a wonderful job adapting its “I’m feeling lucky” copy near the search bar into different languages for its localized websites. The combined use of website translation and multilingual SEO will lay the foundation for your marketing efforts.

3) Client Expansion

The ability to expand a business’s potential customer base is crucial in today’s globalized market. Translation and localization can aid you in adapting existing products to new markets. It can help lower the barrier for new potential customers, as localized products are accepted into the local market easier and they lower cultural barriers.

How can a bad translation hurt your brand?

Professional translation services are crucial, particularly when it includes business or legal decisions to be made, and localization has a huge impact on your business’s credibility and the profitability of your brand. It requires a lot of effort to get it right – from extensive research to planning and project kickoff, it is just the foundation of your global adventure.  Although it is quite easy to determine the effects of a localization project when done correctly, many will neglect the direct connection between their translation quality and the company’s general growth.

4) Bad Translations Make a Brand Seem Out of Touch and Clueless

In the world of social media, going viral with a hilarious grammatical error or a cultural mistake is just the matter of time. Everybody remembers when KFC translated their tagline “it’s finger-licking good” to “Eat your fingers off” and Coca-Cola did the same when it translated their brand name to “Bite the Wax Tadpole” that sounds something like Coca-Cola in Chinese in order to attract the Chinese market. Sometimes, the definite words of the translation are fine, but there is a huge twist that drastically changes the meaning. These errors can make even well-established brands look out of touch and clueless. In general, lack of transcreation and localization factors result in bad translations.

5) Bad Translations Can Incur Fines and Penalties

If you don’t want to spend money on a quality translation and choose the cheapest and fastest option instead, you might end up spending double. We are not exaggerating; considering the fact that 99% of today’s internet communication is in the written word. In this case, even modern enterprises depend on antiquated skills.

A single spelling mistake or even a misused comma can really cut your online sales in half.

For example, in 2013, a German hospital fell victim to the consequences of bad translation. The incorrect implantation of 47 knee prostheses followed due to a mistranslated set of guidelines in a medical manual. They were non-modular cemented prostheses, but the manual read in German “Prosthesis requires no cement.” The doctors went on with the instructions and implanted 47 knee prostheses without cement. It resulted in one-third of the patients complaining post-surgery.

6) Increased Cost from Rework

The worst is yet to come! Think about the missed deadlines, re-starting the project, and doubling the workload. A bad translation can make your company’s pocket bleed.

7) SEO Unfriendly

When you only use machine translation services like Google Translate or Bing Translate plugins, the bots are able to recognize this via machine translation widget. Yes, you read that right – Google bots can recognize whether the content is machine or human-generated. Consequently, your machine-translated website has no SEO relevance of any kind – meaning users will not only leave your website, but they will also have difficulty finding it in the first place.

Conclusion

You can see that having a great advertisement for your product is hopeless if your target audience doesn’t understand or speak the language. Be sure to choose your language service provider carefully to ensure accurate, consistent translation that meets the needs of your brand. Contact us and we’ll be glad to assist you.

There are many routine management tasks within pharmaceutical companies, such as production management, quality management, document management, and material management. Content management is about making the aforementioned information and data reusable so that the company can save significant time and money on data management and information retrieval. However, many pharmaceutical companies have also come to realize that in the course of their global development, there is also now a need to perform globalization/localization management in addition to routine management tasks. Globalization/localization management tasks can include translation and localization management, multi-language vendor management, and multilingual asset management. This need undoubtedly places even more pressure on the pharmaceutical company’s content management capabilities.

What challenges do pharmaceutical companies face in terms of content management?

• Global development has led to a sharp increase in content across multiple languages. The materials submitted in drug approval filings usually contain hundreds of thousands of words. They include an adequate and reliable amount of drug research data, clinical trial data from various stages of testing, and full and accurate drug descriptions (e.g., drug packaging, labels and instructions for use). As pharmaceutical companies seek development around the world through sales in various overseas markets, filings have to be translated into multiple local languages. If, for instance, a certain company files for regulatory approval for a new drug/generic drug in five countries at the same time, it will not simply be a matter of generating five times the word count in translated text. The need for multi-language translation, multiple localization projects, and quality control in each target language pose significant challenges to the company in terms of content management.
• Lack of coordinated content management within the enterprise. Currently, many pharmaceutical companies do not conduct their internal content management work in a coordinated fashion. There is little exchange and communication among various departments, such as R&D, Clinical Testing, and Regulatory Approval, with each department responsible for content management in its respective area. There are even cases where different departments within the same company work with different language service vendors. Such a lack of coordination can make content management chaotic within the company and negatively impact the process of drug approval filings.
• Cost of compliance operations keeps rising. The cost of regulatory compliance for the pharmaceutical industry is also keeping rising as regulatory requirements for drugs become even more stringent in various countries. If the drug package insert text is found to be non-compliant, the pharmaceutical company then has to revise the text so that it meets the requirements of the regulatory agency concerned. In addition to paying an additional cost for the re-translation of the text and replacement of package inserts, the company will also have to carry out a full benefit/risk analysis of the text as well as publicity and training efforts centered on clinical use and safety issues. As such, reducing the cost of content management has become a growing imperative in life sciences, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry.

In general, the efficient and organized management of content facilitates the drug approval filing process and contributes to content quality. However, in the process of launching products to more markets worldwide, decision-makers in the enterprise have focused their energies on global communication, clinical testing, and compliance strategies. Most enterprises have little energy or budget left for content management as a result.

What is System Integration?

For a long time, enterprises have used Content Management Systems (CMS) to manage their content; however, as they grow and develop in overseas markets, pharmaceutical companies find that a CMS can no longer meet their needs in a number of areas, such as translation and localization management, vendor management, and language asset management. They spend millions of dollars on Content Management Systems each year. The cost of switching to a new system is also prohibitively high.

EC Innovations offers a Localization Process Automation (or ECI Link) solution that is specially designed for end-to-end content management. This is a solution that can be seamlessly integrated with the enterprise client’s current content system (such as CMS or VCS) or business applications (such as Email). TBMS LPA provides the enterprise with real-time monitoring of localization management processes and fully connects the enterprise’s content system with EC Innovations’ network of high-quality translators as well as performs automated quality assurance.

How can pharmaceutical enterprise tackle its content management issues with System Integration?

• Automated processes make localization management more efficient for pharmaceutical companies. After the content systems of both parties have been integrated through TBMS LPA, the pharmaceutical company may simply create and upload a translation project within its own CMS, thus saving it time that would be otherwise spent on multiple emails, faxing, and telephone calls. The enterprise can even directly obtain translation/localization project data — such as project process design, translator selection, corpus (the glossaries and translation memories are known collectively as “the corpus”), project schedule, and quality assessment report data — through its CMS by means of a connector. The pharmaceutical company will hence be able to realize more organization in its content management with fewer assigned personnel.
• Centralized and systematic management of language assets. TBMS LPA comes with the Cloud CAT (Computer Assisted Translation), corpus management, and Online QA functions. Cloud CAT even allows for the centralized storage of project documents, glossaries, and translation memories. Translators can perform their work in a standard format on Cloud CAT, and also refer to the latest terminology lists and translation memories in real time for greater productivity while ensuring output quality and consistency. If the enterprise does not yet have a corpus, EC Innovations’ Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for the pharmaceutical industry can also create and maintain language assets upon request by the client.
• Lowers management costs. TBMS LPA can add a high-degree of automation to the localization process and thus significantly reduce on the cost of manual management. Language asset management and maintenance are made highly efficient for the client through the cloud-based translation and corpus management system; additionally, an expansive set of high-quality language assets can also help achieve more cost savings for the client. Online, our SMEs provide translators with real-time compliance training on the drug approval filing process to help the enterprise avoid additional compliance-related costs.
• Quality assurance across multiple languages. Once a translation project is kicked off, we select the most suitable native-speaker translator for the project using a smart matching function based on factors including the language(s) the translator excels in, education, experience in translating for the pharmaceutical industry, translation quality rating, geographic location, time difference, and the workload already assigned to the translator. TBMS LPA can assign a quality rating to the translation based on predetermined translation quality standards. QA reports can be generated in real time to help the enterprise project manager keep track and manage the translation quality.

With this System Integration solution, EC Innovations is able to provide the client with translation/localization management and language asset management services with high efficiency. All the client has to do is keep track of project status, take automatic delivery of the project, and evaluate the quality of the translation/localization services received through the company’s CMS. This helps the enterprise cut down on management costs even more, and to even better focus its energy on its global market and compliance strategies.

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Our recommendations for localization content management

• Establish a dedicated Localization department that manages content throughout the company.
• Establish long-term and transparent working relationships with language service vendors that are professional and reliable.
• Work with a single language service vendor that is able to provide you with services for multiple languages, as this will make content management more straightforward and save you more on localization costs. In May 2018, Electronic Arts stated in a SlatorCon interview that in cases where budget is an issue, the company would first seek multi-language services from a single source, because this helps save drastically on costs.
• Organized and efficient content management is of great value to the enterprise’s development. Vendors offering services for multiple languages can, to a large extent, take on the pharmaceutical company’s burden in the areas of multi-language content management, translation and localization management, and language asset management.

About EC Innovations

Having accumulated over 20 years of experience, ECI has gained a competitive edge in translation productivity, technology accumulation, quality control, and overall efficiency in the life sciences field. In addition to providing professional translation services, we also provide advanced localization technology solutions to maximize translation and localization efficiency and achieve automated project management.

To date, ECI has achieved ISO 13485:2016, ISO 9001:2015, and ISO 1710:2015 certifications. We have 11 strategic offices around the world and operating divisions in Asia, Europe, and North America, offering full localization support into 120+ languages and 260 locales.

Since 1997, EC Innovations has regularly and continually passed annual quality audits and recertification assessments in order to provide our customers with certified document translation services for: consultancy, system integration, language services, content and document management, and outsourcing of customer processes throughout the content management lifecycle.

We Are ISO 9001:2015 Certified

The general standard ISO 9001 sets out the criteria for our quality management system (QMS), and applies to all fields of activity. Companies acquire this certification to demonstrate their level of commitment, and ability to provide products and services that consistently meet the needs and expectations of their customers.

We Are ISO 17100:2015 Certified

The ISO 17100 standard (former EN 15038:2006) applies specifically to translation services. It not only evaluates an efficient management system but also assesses file security, staff development, and general work practices.

The provisions of this standard establish the competencies and qualifications that translators, revisers, and other professionals working in this field must have. It also establishes the basic principles of the framework for collaboration between organizations, providers, and customers in such a way as to ensure the optimal quality of both the product (translation) and the service, and the relationship among stakeholders.

We Are ISO 13485:2016 Certified

The ISO 13485 specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to provide medical devices and related services that consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements. This standard relates to risk analysis and management for each translation project in such an important field as health, where a single error could have serious consequences for the user.

Our well-defined translation and localization processes and quality assurance programs ensure that our clients always receive the most accurate translations possible. Our translation projects are run through multiple validation steps to ensure each job is done with precision to maximize efficiency.

Videogame localization refers to the process of transforming video game software and hardware for preparation to be implemented and sold in a new region, typically a new country. This process, same as with web localization, does not rely solely on translations of text; the game must undergo a thorough revision in order to detect which changes must be made to the game. Audio files, manuals, art assets, content, these are all subject to change and even, when necessary, entire cuts.

Monolingual vs. multilingual

With the rising of the gaming industry, digital purchases have become an even greater boost to sales than ever before. Revenue from games downloaded directly to consoles, PCs and mobile devices rose by 9.8% in January of the current year; this raised the bar for total game revenue to an outstanding $7.47 billion, this number does not include physical software purchases.

Languages play a major role in video games sales, this directly impacts a game’s relative popularity against others and this works across all platforms. For this review, Android and IOS applications were taken as an example and according to an analysis made by pangeanic.com, mobile apps need to have a translation strategy if they’re considering on going beyond their home market. For this purpose, they analyzed the current market and discovered the following:

Only 13% of iOS games are multilingual. This is a huge missed opportunity for developers. It was revealed that in 2017, 75% of respondents from ten non-English speaking nations want products in their own language. 55% of those surveyed revealed that they would only buy at websites where the information was presented in their language, and that figure rose to 80% for those with limited English.

Source: https://localizedirect.com/posts/most-popular-game-genres-revealed/

However, if your goal is to boost download numbers, translation into Chinese is the way to go; Chinese markets alone compromise 12% of the global mobile games revenue; this ultimately brings the developers to a fork in their road and to the questions, when, what and why to translate in the game.

There are a few key factors that need special attention when translating a game, be it for consoles, PC or mobile devices; these are of the utmost importance as they give out the first impressions a game may have on the audience. These key factors are:

Game name: Simple and to the point. The title of the game has a few considerations when choosing to translate or not; some names may have a special meaning that can’t be attained with a translation, others don’t. Picking when and when not to translate a game name is sometimes crucial. An example of a game name that shouldn’t be translated is Devil may cry, simply because the meaning and the reason for this name is lost in the translation.

Language: This part is pretty self-explanatory and yet has its own “rules”. Translating into a language doesn’t just mean providing an accurate translation of every word in the game; it encloses the locations, character names, landmarks if applicable, weapons, tools and other text-based information. These are again, not to be translated automatically, for example, character names shouldn’t be translated because in most cases they represent an identity to the game; when character names get translated confusion starts to flourish on the internet communities.

Measurement:  Some countries use meters, others use feet, others something completely different. Adjusting these is a must.

Localizing In-game elements to improve popularity ratings.

Games have an array of features and elements within them so vast, that enumerating every single one of them would take a lifetime to do. However, there are a few key factors that a game should always contain in order to be popular, in which measures though, can vary from genre to genre.

Great Gameplay vs. Great Stories.

Games are all about telling a story, much like a movie game rely on conveying the gamer the ability to immerse themselves in the world that’s presented to them; however, unlike a movie in which a person is only along for the ride, games have to provide an easy to understand and use gameplay mechanics. Which brings developers around the world to the question: Should a game rely more on the story or on the gameplay itself?

While it’s true that games should have a compelling story, gameplay elements are of great importance as well. Reality is that it heavily relies on the genre of the game in question; one clear example would be a mobile game such as Clash of Clans that doesn’t have a story, just gameplay elements that rose it to be one of the most popular games in virtual stores. Other game genres, like for example graphical novels however, do need to focus on their story arcs and into making them entertaining and addictive to players.

On the other hand, if a game has an amazing story with all the right elements in it, but the gameplay makes it difficult for the person playing it to actually play the game, then said game is destined to failure. Games are meant to be interactive, giving the player choices and allowing them to play however their style drives them to, this in turn helps players immerse themselves in the story that’s being told. So as a conclusion, stories told are important, yes, but so are the gameplay mechanics that allow a player to enjoy and identify themselves with said story.

Art style.

Nowadays, graphics have become a driving force in the game industry. Developers push towards realism in their graphical design, this is a somewhat misguided idea as not always the best graphics translate to a great game. It all comes back to the story the game is based upon, for example, games like Tom Clancy’s The Division have an amazing graphical engine which compliments the story of the game perfectly, since the game it’s based on real life; graphics should strive to be as accurate to the universe as possible.

But this doesn’t apply to every game out there. Games like the super popular Crash Bandicoot opted for a more cartoon-like graphics which fitted the universe and story perfectly. The focal point for developers when thinking of graphics and art style should be the story, the game graphics should always compliment the story and setting of the game, otherwise cohesiveness will not be possible.

In the end it all comes to a proper analysis of the market and conditioning of the games to properly fit in with the target. Developers should always have the regional restrictions in order to avoid incurring in moral, religious or any other kind of fault with their content. Proper translations of text as well as maintaining the so called ‘puns’ localized are a must when publishing games, one tiny mistake in the process and said game can be a sales catastrophe.

Learn more about our Game Localization Service >>

International SEO: What Does it do?

Every search engine available on the internet uses an algorithm to rank the shown results for every given search. A perfectly optimized website will have the right blend between the usage of keywords and natural flowing content; these will also have a lot of natural backlinks. When planning to implement SEO, the key components you need to take into consideration are: building quality natural backlinks to your website, anchoring text in those backlinks and on page optimization. However, multilingual sites tend to obtain better search results on any search engine since they provide information in different languages, having the searches in each given language land on the same site.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of affecting the visibility of a website in any search engine’s unpaid results. This is one of the main concerns of any enterprise when trying to position themselves in the market. The only problem being that not all search engines are alike or show the same results, so an understanding of how and where customers across the globe search is a must. For example, Google has a 70% search rate in the US; outside the US however, the picture is very different with google accounting for less than 50% of total searches.

We strive to understand the behaviors of the different search engines across the globe, such as Yandex, Baidu, Naver and others. This is an important step because not all of them work as google does, for example: Google focuses on link quality, where Baidu focuses on quantity. Even more, Google sorts links by type, Naver however, delivers universal results putting everything on one long scroll page.

Understanding and Tailoring Your SEO Experience.

To get started with International SEO, the first critical decision is to decide what kind of website is going to be offered to the customers, there being three options to choose from:

Multi-regional: Geared towards users that speak the same dialects but live in different countries. A country code top level domain (ccTLD) is advised here, for example: .au for Australia.

Multi-Lingual: For users in different countries that speak different languages like Europe. A generic top level domain (gTLD) is advised to avoid any specific country determination, such as: .com, .info.

Hybrid: Aimed for users across different countries, some of whom may speak the same language. A gTLD with country or language specific subdirectories.

These are very important aspects that need to be taken into consideration when planning a website; remember, it’s easier to apply SEO if you plan for it rather than applying at the end. One big advantage of using ccTLD is that users believe they show information relevant to their country, making the trust factor high. A ccTLD approach makes it easy to separate sites and send search engines a strong geo-targeting signal, which makes server locations less relevant.

However, there are several disadvantages to take into consideration. Depending on local restrictions, not all business can gain access to a ccTLD. Besides, ccTLD domains are not always available for each location you operate. Also, this route is very expensive because of additional infrastructure and site maintenance demands. Despite this, most SEO experts recommend the ccTLD for global website optimization. A perfect example of this would be Amazon; not only using different domains, but changing language, currencies and product grouping to match local norms.

The Goal of Correct SEO Application on Your Sites.

As mentioned before, search engines work on a constantly changing algorithm that ranks sites and results; it also tracks the language used for the search. When a set of keywords gets inputted in the engine, it first determines the language used and then organizes the results based on that language, keywords used, relevance, and relation between content and keywords and some other parameters; this is why language services as a whole are so important. When a site is correctly localized and optimized, the search engines algorithms will give them a priority over poorly optimized or single language sites as a multi-lingual site can cover more people’s needs: this in exchange returns a better positioning on the search ranking at an international level.

For the most part, consistency is key when dealing with SEO for a website. It’s important to pick a solution and sticking to it if you want to get the maximum out of any SEO campaign. If global reach is one of your company’s objectives, then a proper SEO campaign, accompanied by a quality global localization service will be the key to success in the international market.

Web localization is a thorough and delicate process that is best done by experts in the area. In order to provide a polished product, web localization must follow a set of steps which will be explained. Keep in mind that these steps are not necessarily fixed but they are always present in any web localization project.

1. Analyze your target market

Before the localization process can begin, there are several questions you should consider, such as:

• What geographic markets are you targeting?
• Who is your target customer?
• What languages do they speak?
• What are the consumer habits in the regions you are targeting?
• What market opportunities exist for your company’s product or solution?

Identifying and understanding the characteristics and needs of market segments will help connect with potential customers.

2. Keyword and SEO planning

A lot of companies tend to leave multilingual SEO campaigns until after they have localized their website, which often requires more effort and is less effective than devising the SEO localization plan up-front. For each Identified market, there must be a list of relevant keywords. This must be done by a native speaker with knowledge of SEO, who understands the target market and their search habits, as more often than not, a direct translation of a key word from one language to another might be the best keyword to use for determined situations.

Also, a local domain name is required depending on the country, these can also prove to be very effective for local search engine results.

3. Site structure

If the site is designed to be in an international market for specific countries, then the site should be structured first by location and then by language. But if the target market is of a particular language without taking into consideration the location, then a simple language translation feature should serve as the sites architecture.

4. Choose the content

The content that gets published for an international audience should be directed by the results of an early planning stage, meaning, market analysis and keyword research. Much of the content will be similar to that which is provided for any English-language visitor. However, a few new content pages will most likely be required based upon specific market needs.

It is essential to ensure that all content selected for translation is culturally correct, as maximum success will be achieved in the target markets if the site grasps the locale-specific cultural values.

5. Localize the content and design in parallel

In addition to language translations, the cultural effect on web design is also to be taken into consideration. The web designs must be scalable dynamically, what does this mean? Simple, for every region there’s a set of non-written rules as to what culture, like in a website, for example, in Russian language sites, content is typically 60% longer than English based sites and this may vary even more from culture to culture.

Aside from that, designs should be responsive since not only computer users visit these sites, mobiles, and other devices can access these pages and so, the site itself needs to be able to work properly on all manner of devices, from desktop computers to the smallest of smartphones, this is directly associated to the Content Management System (CMS). Also, when it comes to design, not only text expansion should be a priority, visuals are a massive factor in websites since cultures tend to associate colors with feelings and emotions, and that could provoke the visitor’s anger or be found offensive to them if the target market is not analyzed correctly.

6. Optimize the content

While a basic SEO plan should have been made at the beginning of the process, now is the time to optimize the website for country-specific search engine results. It is advisable to use the services of an experienced SEO professional in each country to gain an added advantage of insider knowledge.

Web localization is one of the most important tools at the disposal of any internet-based marketing company. Localizing websites appropriately is a must since it provides a wider market of opportunity for services and products a company may supply. With proper web localization any given company can improve their sales rating; catering to local clients is the best way to improve customer relationships, even if your clients are local this shows them that the company cares about their language particularities and traditions.

Web localization also reduces risks. Localized products, websites or apps, save you from potential embarrassment. If you localize well, you’re making sure your translated brand or company doesn’t mean something else in the target’s country language. There could also be colors, as mentioned before, that may or may not provoke negative reactions on visitors. Even the best marketing campaigns are nothing without proper web localization. Even the best and perfectly designed piece of advertisement would fail if your target market doesn’t speak the language. Some brands aren’t able to reach their full potential, simply because of a lack of localization.

In the long run, a proper web localization would ensure that the product remains longer in the market and doesn’t lose popularity against others. Having a website properly localized will make customers always want to come back to it, translating directly into more sales. According to some research’s, it’s easier and more profitable to keep customers than making new ones. Every enterprise with its eyes in the future should learn and apply web localization to improve their market presence.

Established in 2009, LSC-TAC, an affiliated branch of Translators Association of China, is a multi-agency committee composed of LSP’s, language service demanders, translation tools vendors, education and training institutions, as well as globalization and localization professionals. Under the leadership of TAC, the committee has been serving as a communication platform for organizations, enterprise and public institutions, and individuals in the localization industry to promote compliance across the industry with the national constitution, laws and regulations, as well as social morality and industry rules. In addition, the committee has always been committed to the industry demands, safeguarding the interests of localization practitioners, and encouraging a normative, orderly, and healthy development in the localization industry.

EC Innovations is one of the founding units and the board of director of LSC-TAC. EC Innovations’ CEO Dr. James Wei, also executive councillor of TAC, has been continuously contributing ideas and efforts for the development of the committee. As a result, TAC officially appointed ECI as a member of LSC-TAC not only for recognizing its contributions, but also for believing in the positive role that EC Innovations continues to play in LSC’s future development.

According to the article’s provisions:

Medical devices that have been listed for many years, with clear mechanisms and working principles and whose standard types and production processes are mature and that have proven their safety and effectiveness through non-clinical performance evaluations, are eligible to apply for exemption. When applying for a product to be included in the directory of medical devices, the company applying can submit a written application to be exempted from submitting clinical trial data. Instead, they can submit a comparative description of the product comparing it with similar listed products. The contents of the comparative description should include at least the working principles, the material which theproduct is made from, its structure, main technical performance indicators, disinfection / sterilization methods (if any), intended use, etc.

The biggest influencing factor for the import and export of medical equipment, apart from market demand, is administrative supervision. The regulatory systems and the provisions of the directory of the China Food and Drug Administrationare based on the actual situation at the time and can be adjusted for future trends accordingly. With regards to this CFDA publication “Directory of Medical Devices, Exempted from Clinical Trials”, Carrie, a Senior Project Manager at the Life Sciences Translation Team of EC Innovations, said: “CFDA has been experimenting with a trial of the‘Directory of Exemption for the Submission of Clinical Trial Data for Class II Medical Equipment’ (Trial Implementation) since 2011, effectively attempting to regulate the chaotic Chinese medical equipment import market at that time.The current documents have relaxed the registration categories, expanded the numbers of the various types of medical devices and have gradually improved the situation for the importing of overseas medical equipment into the Chinese market.”

Following the further expansion of the directory of medical devices that are exempted from clinical trials, it has become easier for overseas medical device manufacturers to enter the Chinese market. In addition, the cost has also been reduced, as shown in the following points:

1. May help more medical equipment manufacturers to reduce costs.

CFDA Medical Device Management Loophole Restoration:Per the regulations for “Medical Device Registration”, before 2004; as long as foreign companies obtained the ISO9000 standard series certification (or equivalent performance standard), and their products were approved by the competent authorities in their country of origin to prove the safety and effectiveness of these medical devices, they could apply for an exemption to submit clinical trial data. This provision provided convenient export facilities to European and US medical device manufacturers. However, since 2011, ever since the CFDA trial on “Directory of Exemption on Submission of Clinical Trial Data for Class II Medical Equipment (Trial Implementation)”began, this convenient door has been closed.

Opportunity: Following the increase in exemption directory items from the initial 21 categories of medical equipment, to the current 267 Class II and 92 Class III pieces of medical equipment, it has not only helped to avoid wasted efforts within the CFDA, but has also effectively reduced unnecessary costs incurred on clinical trials by overseas medical device manufacturing companies.

2. More medical devices that meet the exemption conditions can quickly enter the Chinese medical device market.

To ensure the safety and effectiveness of medical devices, clinical trials are an essential part of the registration process for such medical devices not listed in this Class II & III catalog. It takes at least 8 years from the comprehensive analysis of clinical trials of the devices and the risk levels derived from comparative analyses until the final testsare completed. This catalog further expands the range of clinical trial exempted medical devices registered, which not only saves the cost of translating large amounts of clinical trial protocols and clinical trial reports, but also prolongs the duration of the relevant patent protections.

Medical devices registered for the exemption are required to submit a large number of registration declarations within a short period of time, such as exemption comparison documents and materials, undertakings, and product description documents, etc. This requires not only the abilities and resources of a translation company to manage and deliver a large amount of translation work in a short period of time, but also the need to meet the national standards for the quality of the translations of the reviews.

Tips for medical equipment manufacturers choosinga language service provider:

1. A medical device project should be assigned to one language provider to manage.

Once a file is updated, the manufacturer may be faced with the problem of handling registration changes. If a particular medical device translation project has been assigned to one language service provider, as this language translatoris familiar with the original provisions and the entire project, all the contents of the changes can be quickly completed according to the corresponding translation of the documents and the technical translation of any supplementary information. This can help effectively reduce costs in completing the certification to achieve faster access to the target market.

2. Choose a long-term stable language service provider.

According to the “Medical Device Registration Management Regulations” (National Food and Drug Administration Order No. 4) provisions: The registration certificate is valid for 5 years, extension may be carried out by submission of a product renewal registration, product filing and other declarations. Combined with the registration for exemption for clinical trials for new products, it is required to submit the declarations of the comparison with different varieties and other similar products as to their working principles, product quality, structures, main technical performance indicators, etc. Cooperation with a stable, long term, language service provider can help customers to save costs and improve efficiency through the re-using and updating their translation memory.

About EC Innovations:

EC Innovations is a global provider of high quality, customized translation and localization services, focused on advancing the global reach of leading multinational companies. ECIhas established 10 strategic office locations around the world, serving260 countries and regions. EC Innovations has passed the ISO9001 and ISO17100 quality certifications, the SAP language partner certification, and several other certifications.

A. Excellent language skills

Whether it is in Gaming translation or translation for any other industry, the essence is to convert one language to another; however understanding a language is one thing, it is another to be able to use the target language to accurately express the same meanings as the original. The difficulty in localization translation is that it is necessary to keep the original style but also to intersperseit with local characteristics.

B. Outstanding ability to understand

Words appearing in Gaming translation usually do not carry the same meaning as they would in daily usage; soin these cases, the translator has to fully understand the plot, and the context, in order to provide a suitable translation.

For example:

“Heat the gun”, doesn’tliterally mean to heat up the gun, but means to continuously fire (continuously shooting will cause the gun barrel to heat up).

“Do something Rackham!” shouldn’t be translated as to do something, but means to figure out a solution, so as to make it less blunt, and to be more in appropriate.

C. The creativity of “Dancing in shackles”

The major difference between Gaming and other industries is its virtual nature, and thus it creates a lot of entirely differentworldviews, unusual creatures, ethnicity and terminology. This has brought about unique challenges for gaming localization, translators have to work with strict constraints and rely on their own creativity, to re-create the same gaming experience for gamers in the target language.

D. The capability to have the insight into multiple cultures

There is great disparity in the cultural backgrounds of different countries, so an in depth understanding of the culture of the countries of the source language and target language will help avoid offense to anything that would be prohibited and will increase the feeling of familiarity given by the game. In addition it is important to understand the unique subculture of the games. Without understanding and having a feeling for these cultures, it is very difficult for the translator to produce translations that are appropriate and that will impress the gamers.

There are also games that involve humor and puns in their subculture;“Leeroy Jenkins” is a famous battle cry in the World of Warcraft, but when it appears in the game Battlefield, chanted by the soldiers when charging into the enemy base, it can be interpreted asthem being foolhardy. During translation, we translate it as “Blood and Glory”, this is a classic phrase in the World of Warcraft. Such a translation firstly shows that this battle cry came from the World of Warcraft; secondly, “Blood and Glory” also reflects the fearless and dauntless emotions experienced by those soldiers facing death. This way not only is the World of Warcraft taken care of, but it also pays respect to gamers of Battlefield, and the most important thing is to look after the gamers who have played both games.

E. Quick and flexible mind, adapting to circumstances

Gaming translation and localization have to be adjusted based on the clients’ requirements for sentence structures, length, style etc. Firstly, there are strict limitations on the numbers of characters, translators need to abandon the idea of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance”, and flexibly organizethe language, along with ensuring accuracy, totry to meet the requirements of the numbers of characters. Secondly each game has a very different style, gamers need to play out a role and therefore the translated text should match the background of the game and identity of the characters.

F. Outstanding gaming translators are mostly gamers themselves

This is a particularly important point. First of all, when translators are also gamers, it meansthey have a ready-made and rich reserve of terminologies, which may help improve the efficiency of their work. For example, when a gamer sees the word “credit”, he will immediately realize that this refers to the list of developers, rather than giving monetary credit; in addition gamers can quickly react as to what sort of scenery certain contents or phrases would appear on. Secondly, communications whether with developers or colleagues can be seamless, and therefore save time and cost. Thirdly, only gamers can accurately understand and aptly convey the meaning that is being expressed in the source language. For example, whether to directly translate or paraphrase the names of some of the characters? Or how to translate to make it both vivid and expressive?

With regards to the importance of localization, some people think: “Isn’t that just the translation of some background to the game and its conversations? How difficult can that be?”.  So let us talk about gaming translation and localization next, and what are the difficulties of this type of work.

A.    Complex translation process

Compared with normal plain text translation, the process of gaming localization and translation is much more complicated. Firstly, at the  preparatory stage, the translators need to have read through the game text and be familiar with the game’s contents and rules, whilst creating a glossary and style guide, to lay the foundations to restore the original style and tone of the game.

Secondly, they must create a project team to begin the translation work. The localization and translation of gaming is different to plain text translation, and includes UI interface localization and cultural localization as well as the plain text translation. The translated text should be simple and concise, smooth and sounding local, it should also remain in the style of the original text, to accurately convey the original essence of the game.

After the translation, we have to carry out editing and QA test processes, to ensure that the translation is simple and concise and uses terminology consistent with the original, so that the game will operate smoothly.

B. Gaming translation is extremely technically demanding

Apart from attention to the length of the UI interface translation, literal translation should be avoided as much as possible, translators should use the technique of interpretation, using combinations of texts that can be accepted and understood by local players to expressthe game’s instructions and descriptions.

The situation is much more complicated for translation of descriptive texts; the technical level of localization is much higher compared with normal plain text, and must take into consideration the question of variables in definition and display of the speech within the game script. In addition, when the meaning of the variables cannot be determined directly, the translator needs to interpret it by judgement in accordance with the sentence context.

Gaming translation is the most difficult when it comes to humor and puns. In order to make the target audience think that the development of the game is specifically for his or her market, the first thing to do is to analyze the culture and lifestyle of the target market, to determine the acceptance level of local players towards cross-cultural humor and puns. If the target audience generally are unable to accept that particular form of humor, interpretation techniques should be utilized, to transform it into humor and puns that the target players can understand.

C. The Difficulties of PR

Before the launch of the game, PR should anticipate the various questions that will arise when the game hits the target market, and plan aheadto create the solutions. Developers, localization teams, PR, etc. should scrutinize each and every detail of the game, to judge what of the content will offend any overseas players, and work on modifications. However, in order to save costs, developers will usually carry out localization based on a particular language, so there will be situations similar to the following: the differences between Belgian Dutch (Flemish) and Netherlands Dutch are like those between Mandarin in the Northeastern region and Beijing Mandarin; no matter if the game translator is  Dutch or  Belgian, it will be “unfair” to the other; or because Canada has many French speaking areas (e.g. Quebec), a lot of developers attempt to save time and money by using the same French to sell to both Canada and France; have they thought about the feelings of native Canadian English players?In Hong Kong because Pikachu, in Pokémon Go, is translated phonetically as Peek-A-Choo, it has created a huge stir with Hong Kong fans. Public Relations must be careful otherwise the audiences’ hearts will sink when they see the overlap of the languages.

Localization of a game is, as a matter of fact, transforming from one language to another or a few others, but with a prerequisite: localization of the game has to maintain the essence of the original game text, adhere to the original tone of the game whilst complying with local languages and cultural habits. It’s actually not difficult to do gaming translation, but what is difficult to achieve is to to not let local players feel that it has been translated.