When we were chasing growth, we thought incorporating regional languages will help us scale faster. So, we launched OkCredit in 14 Indian languages like Tamil, Marathi, etc
Now we have just 2 (English and Hindi)
We killed the rest because
1. The growth came with huge costs - hiring teams for translation, customer support, marketing in all languages, slow tech development, extra marketing etc
2. Most people who can use a mobile phone know enough English or Hindi to use an app. Those who don’t aren’t likely to be paying customers, and we’re now focused on attracting customers who are monetisable.
95% of our users use the app in either English or Hindi.
"If you want to scale, go vernacular" is loosely passed around in the startup ecosystem but it doesn't help everyone
Regional content is only important when you're in the entertainment business because people like to watch content in their native language (eg. Sharechat, Stage, etc)
Almost everybody else can capture their market with just 2 or 3 languages.
What do you think?
This post was originally shared by Harsh Pokharna on Linkedin.