According to Ethnologue, there are just over 7,000 languages spoken around the world. Though this number is not directly reflective of the number of written languages nor the addressable market, it certainly paints a colorful picture of how diverse your user base could be.

In a time of “global from day one,” it’s no surprise that startups and tech-focused companies will often see success outside of their original foothold markets, sometimes with varying degrees of effort. When this starts, it is common to bootstrap and look for cheap solutions or even existing internal employees for language support. Though these choices may initially bear positive results, with time, any growing company will realize that this isn’t a scalable practice. Once the decision has been made to focus on international opportunities, there are many considerations that must be made which can lead to a tailored and more manageable strategy.