Internationalization, abbreviated as i18n (where 18 stands for the number of letters between 'i' and 'n' in the word "internationalization"), refers to the process of designing products, applications, and content in a way that they can easily be adapted to various languages and regions without requiring engineering changes.
Unlike localization (l10n), which involves adapting your product to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of a specific target market, i18n lays the groundwork for such adaptations by ensuring the product can be localized with minimal effort.
i18n considerations include supporting various character sets, enabling the use of right-to-left languages, accommodating different date, time, and currency formats, and ensuring software can handle input and output in multiple languages.
For instance, an internationalized website can display dates in the guatemala mobile database DDMMYYYY format for European users and MMDDYYYY for American users without requiring separate versions of the site.
Why Is i18n Important?
This digital age has made borders becoming increasingly blurred. This is due to the application of internationalization (18n) becoming a critical component of any business strategy with the goal of having global recognition and success.