[mbesto]

> Europe's language diversity is a trivial cost of business and does not impede tech companies.

This can't be serious. This is laughable by any stretch of the imagination.

Here's a list of how it impedes tech companies:

1. Localization effort for 20+ languages (for mainland EU). Every time a new feature that has some words included in it, it has to be translated. Screenshots in support have to be updated.

2. Training - if you have to train users, you need language specific training.

3. Account management - account/success managers need to be language specific.

4. Support - having support personnel that can speak different languages.

None of those are trivial and all cost significant money.

[mytailorisrich]

It is indeed laughable to claim that absolutely all languages should be supported at all times and that a localisation is costly ("screenshot have to be updated", come on...) By the way, in the EU a population equal to the US's is reached by going for the 5 most populous countries (granted, as it happens that does mean 5 languages, including English, but that also means that these 5 languages cover a population larger the US's).

The rest of the points, if needed, grow with the size of the customer base and do not impede tech companies' growth in the EU v the US.

Rudeness and bluster are not arguments.

[mbesto]

Clearly your definition of "impede" is very different from mine.

> should be supported at all times

Where did I say that? We're talking about impeding growth, which is along a continuum of time. Any additional "n" amount of effort required during a growth period is going to slow it progress. Additional effort is absolutely necessary to support a different local language by definition. It doesn't mean growth is impossible, it just means it requires extra effort and resources, which in turn means additional time and money.

> that a localisation is costly

Are you claiming it doesn't incur any cost? At what scale (let's use lines of translated text as a barometer) have you ever operated at?

> ("screenshot have to be updated", come on...)

Have you ever had to create support documentation in different languages? For the French specifically? Your reaction tells me this is not the case.

> bluster are not arguments.

Where specifically was I acting in a threatening way in my argument?

[monkeywork]

Canadian here and doing this for French and English has not been a major deal breaker. One of the qualifications we put on our documentation team was being bilingual.

You can also NOT use typical screenshots for documentation but rather have templates screenshots that contain no text and then layer the text over top of those and use things like language selection in the browser to load the correct language.

Employee training can be simplified by headquartering out of one country and having a "primary" language that you work out of day to day.

For many early startups having full fledged customer support (call center style) isn't likely anyway, doing it via chat / email / support tickets can be translated or you can diversify your support hires to cover the languages you officially support.

So is there additional costs - definitely - are they enough to impede and side rail a startup... likely not, and if they are that startup likely wouldn't have been able to succeed anywhere else either.

You're getting push back for the same reason you are shaking your head at the other poster - they are making it sound like it's free, and you're making it sound like it's going to crush someone.... it's slightly more effort with possibly a greater reward if you are able to do it properly.

[mytailorisrich]

I acknowledged that this was a cost and never suggested it was free.

My point is that, in general, it is a small cost relative to everything else.

Another point that someone in the US might not know is that if you are in a major EU capital city or around you can relatively easily hire people who are fluent in at least 2 languages, so some level of multi-lingual support may thus come "for free" and it's not unusual to have 4+ languages spoken at native level even in a relatively small team (in the tech industry).

[the_duke]

True, and you left out a whole host of other issues.

While EU regulations harmonize a lot, it's still much, much messier than in the US.

* different tax regimes

* often quite different regulations

* contract requirements

* income levels which can affect pricing decisions / require regional pricing

* localized ad campaigns per country

* getting media attention in each country is hard

* ...

[angry_octet]

All of the exist in the States? I'm not saying th EU is easy, but state legislatures have made it increasingly hard.