This presentation will expose you to research and trends about internationalization and bring these theories to light by discussing case studies of real companies. Suggestions for activities you can do TODAY to get your company global include opening up to your peers and customers to gather market feedback and process this feedback into improving you app, eventually with the goal of launching in new geographies.

1. VentureOut
Time to Internationalize

2. Introduction
What is internationalization?
Testing the Waters
Localization
Building a Local Presence
Key questions for Mobile App Developers

3. Internationalization
Localization – Customizing your app fit the
market you are serving
Translation – Getting it into the right language(s)
for the new market
Building a local presence – Gaining traction in
the new market

4. Testing the Waters
Success in domestic market
Beta testing
Making a plan

5. Testing the Waters – Should you
internationalize?
Consider both in your home market and the
international market
Gather more information before investing in
internationalizing
This will save you time and money in your
expansion efforts

6. Testing the Waters Step 1: Assess
success in domestic market
Examine your traction and success in your
domestic market
If you don’t yet have success in your domestic
country, investigate why
Work out those product/market fit issues in
your home country before introducing the
complications of an overseas market

7. Testing the Waters Step 1:
Determine Product Market Fit (PMF)
Defined: At least 40% of users say they would
be “very disappointed” without your product or
service.
Survey your customers!

8. Testing the Waters Step 2: Responding
to PMF findings
If you find a Low Product/Market Fit amongst
your customers
Then interview more customers
Learn which minimum set of features are most
important to them
Highlight this feature set and communicate it to
the users clearly

9. Present your Company to other
people (2 mins).
Time to Go
Global!
You have $50 Dollars to spend.
It costs $20 to make a
presentation.
If people choose to buy your
app, the price is $10.
See if you can make the sell.

10. • What were some of the
things people were
impressed about with your
app?
• Did any of the opinions
surprise you?
How did you do?
• Will you make any changes
to your app or the way you
represent it online?
• Did your presentation
change after the first time
you spoke?
• Which was the favorite app
you saw, and why?

11. Testing the Waters Step 3: Going global
or expanding domestically
You must decide between:
Expand in the domestic market
Such as developing a second app in your domestic
market
Explore the international market

12. News Byte
Mobile apps products released quickly are better suited to
mature markets
Incremental improvement strategies emphasizing multiple
sequential versions of the same app produced over
substantial time periods are more suited to nascent markets.
Analysis of 314,168 apps created by over 82,000 firms in Apple iTunes
marketplace

13. Why the success of beta testing in
nascent markets?
In mature, developed markets customers may have more
clear preferences compared to the nascent market.
In nascent market there is lack of clarity about exactly
what consumers would want.
Advice: If you are in a developed market and thinking of
a brand new product, expanding domestic business may
be a wise choice.
Advice: If you are in a developing market, test the waters
and involve the community to see what they need.

14. Case Study:
Angry Birds and Beta testing
Success attributed to many beta users and beta
versions:
100,000 in their VIP forums
Released four versions from 2009 to 2011
Became the “2012 Best Selling App in Google Play”
globally

15. How could you implement
beta testing in your venture?
What are your ideas
for quick and easy
tests you can do for
your app?
Is it possible to test different
betas at different times?
What questions will you ask your
customers when you speak
with them?
How do you plan to reach out
to your customers?
How would you manage the
information you receive from
the customers?

16. Testing the Waters - What to consider
when to enter a new market and how?
First have a solid reason (and preferably more than one) to
go to the international market
Built on information gathering covered earlier
Same business model will not automatically guarantee
success in the foreign market
Do quick, low cost experiments to test each aspect of the
business model
Adjust business model quickly for the foreign market

17. Testing the Waters Step 4:
Create an initial plan
Conversation with your team to get clear on your
initial “hypothesis” about each of the following areas.
What specific country to enter?
What is the specific entry mode? Direct Sale? Partnership?
Acquisition?
What is the specific marketing approach?
What is the specific revenue model?

18. Testing the waters Step 5:
Select the Country
Choose a country where
Changes necessary in the product and business model are minimal
Market is similar to your home country and where your app is already getting
some downloads.
Or that is based on your familiarity
Ideal - You have several years work experience you are familiar with the local
culture and the whole sales process already
OK -You may have connections in the foreign market
OK - There is information that convinces you that there are some
opportunities there

19. Avoid this situation!
“I think in the beginning we should not have
opened an office in Taiwan straight away. On paper
the Taiwanese market looked good. It was not until
we were actually there and started doing business
that we realized it was pretty hard.” – Entrepreneur
on his first experience expanding internationally.

20. Selecting the Country: Importance of
local partner
Partner already has the sales channel
Partner may be looking for some technology that
doesn’t exist in the market
Hire local staff who have internationalization
experience before to do some on-site
experimentation

21. Entering developed markets
You might assume the largest or most developed market should be
your first foreign entry
If you’re in a country where technology and the market tend to lag
behind
Before trying to enter a more developed economy it may be better to go to
other countries that are more similar to your own or where the market tends
to be just a year or two behind.
Occasionally, if you have a very strong technical team and a very
unique product
You may decide it is best to go to a more developed market.

22. Example of Tiered Market Entry
A U.S-based mobile device wireless chip company decided their
second country entry should be a “tier-one” country (like Japan and
Germany) because “they have the largest market for mobile
applications”
As a young company they lacked credibility and tier-one countries
wouldn’t meet with them
New priority to enter“tier-three” country first (like Taiwan)
Use the Taiwanese customers as references to enter “tier-two”
countries (like Korea).
Use those accounts to enter “tier-one” countries, like Japan.

23. • Do you feel you are ready to
go to a new country?
Which market will
you enter?
• If so, why?
• Which countries are you
looking into, and why?
• If not yet, what will your steps
for growth include?

24. Step 6: Test your prototype
Translation is only the first step to creating a
localized prototype
Watch out for other changes in the user
experience or to the business model

25. Localizing your Product Step 7:
Marketing Process for User Acquisition
 What marketing strategy should you experiment with to get your initial
customers?
 Is there any local influencer/social media that may help?
 Try to contact those who are influential in social media and see whether they can
try your product and write something about it.
 Initiate some campaigns/lotteries on Facebook or some local social networks.
 Search engine marketing is buying advertising online
 Search engine optimization is free if you can get your search result to be higher
in the Google search results.
 Start from the least costly experiment and try one by one quickly.

26. Choose your actual venture or a
cause or idea that is near to you
Homework: Create a
marketing campaign
for your cause!
Create a full-out marketing
campaign.
Goal: To get as many customers as
you can to leave their email at your
splash page.
Potential tools:
• LaunchRock – Easy to build splash
page
• Twitter
Report on the success and what you learned.
• Facebook
Due one week from today.
• All Social Media
• Blogs and articles
Start making your campaign at (TIME)
(Perhaps all together in a room as a
separate part of the workshop)

27. Localizing your Product Step 8:
Getting the first paying customers
Convert users into paying customers.
Try different methods
Keep track of which way works better and which
doesn’t work well
Keep doing the marketing methods that are working
Try to learn why other methods do not work

28. Types of Revenue Generating Models
In the U.S. up-front payment up front to download software has been
successful
In China free downloads, with fees for add-ons, virtual goods, or
upgrades is popular
Subscription models or advertising-based models are also possible
Observe what is working in that market for other apps and
Experiment with customers to find a revenue model that fits the
market and your product

29. Localizing your Product Step 9:
Calculating return on investment
Calculate how much money you spent in acquiring one paid customer
Estimate how much revenue your customer will bring you over the
time period they will be your customer
If the average amount spent to acquire a customer is less than the
value over the customer’s whole lifetime
You may have found relatively inexpensive and effective means of attracting
customers
If not, you will need to spend time determining another marketing and sales
strategy or an alternative business model

30. Building a Local Presence:
Timing and Priority
After your first entry experience, reconsider the
timing of each country entry
Which step/country should go before others
Several very similar countries you can enter
with minimal changes
Countries may appear similar on the surface, but
have many differences

31. Special considerations for mobile apps
Effort involved in selling apps across borders is
relatively low
Low barriers may make entrepreneurs overoptimistic
about the international market
May assume that internationalization will be easy, but
that is not the case
Instead, please take time to think through it

32. Key Questions for Mobile App
Internationalization
What specific country to enter?
Ideally, you have some work experience/connections there, which either
make you familiar with the market and the whole sales process or already
have some distribution channel for your product,
What is the optimal entry mode? Direct sale? Partnership? Or
acquisition?
You need to understand the market well enough to figure out how to enter
Can you sell directly?
Are there local app stores you need to develop for?

33. Key Questions for Mobile App
Internationalization
Which marketing strategy to apply?
Start with the least costly ones
Run a sequence of potential experiments quickly
Keep track your customer acquisition costs to find out the most
efficient one
Reach out to blogs, press, and social media that have high ranking
in the entry countries among your target demographics

34. Key Questions for Mobile App
Internationalization
Which marketing strategy to apply?
If your app gradually gets high Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
or Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU), consider
buying high quality traffic to see if you can lift your application to
the top of the charts
High quality traffic is when the lifetime revenues from a user are
greater than the cost of acquiring that user
To reach the top of the paid/free charts requires you to build a
great relationship with the app store's representative

35. Building relationship with app store’s
representative
Initiate a conversation with the app store’s
representative
Explain that your company is trying to enter an
international market
Ask for advice
Establish rapport with the representative, because next
time you summit your app, they know how you have
improved.

36. Key Questions for Mobile App
Internationalization
What is the whole sales process? How does it work in the
entry country?
Adapt distribution methods to the local market, which means
working with local application stores and developing pre-loaded
applications in partnership with mobile phone manufacturers.
What are the payment differences between the domestic
and foreign customers?
Understand the culture and adapt their revenue model/pricing
strategy to the local market accordingly.

37. References
 Bingham, C. B., Eisenhardt, K. M. & Davis, J. P. (2006). Unveiling How and What Firms Learn From
Heterogeneous Experience: The Internationalization of Entrepreneurial Firms. Academy of
Management Annual Meeting Proceedings.
 Bhardwaj, N. What is the best way for a mobile game or app to gain international traction?
Retrieved October Date, 2013 from www.quora.com
 Davis, J. P., Muzyrya, Y. & Yin, P. L. (2013). Innovation strategies in entrepreneurial firms: market
maturity and killer apps in the iphone ecosystem. INSEAD working paper.
 Li, X. (2012). Mobile applications: Content localization is not enough for foreign developers.
Retrieved October, 2013 from www.idgvc.com
 Rialpa, A., Rialp, J. & Knight, G. A. (2004). The phenomenon of early internationalizing firms: what
do we know after a decade (1993–2003) of scientific inquiry?. International Business
Review,14(2005):147-166