Editor’s Note: This article was first published on September 5, 2018.
Amazon is going beyond English in one of the world’s hottest internet markets.
The tech company unveiled a version of its mobile website and Android app in Hindi on Tuesday. Hindi is the most popular language in India and the “mother tongue” of roughly 530 million people, according to the country’s census.
US tech companies are racing to attract customers in India, a country where tens of millions of people are using smartphones to access the internet for the first time.
Amazon (AMZN) said it had used a team of language experts and translators to choose “commonly used terms over perfectly translated words” that make its website easier for Hindi readers to navigate.
“Our aim is to ensure any customer can find anything they want on Amazon.in, anytime and anywhere, irrespective of the language they speak or where they come from,” Manish Tiwary, vice president of category management at Amazon India, said in a statement.