New research from automated AI dubbing experts, Papercup, sheds light on business priorities & how businesses intend to use content to expand their global reach
Automated AI dubbing platform, Papercup has today launched its latest research report which looks into the trends and challenges of video and content localization.
The research looks into how global companies are currently reaching audiences worldwide, in order to better understand the current landscape of localization. Localization refers to the process of adapting content and communication to be relevant to local audiences.
Why localization
The data shows that improving the global reach of content is a key goal for nearly half of all businesses, but over 50% said that expanding into new territories was their greatest challenge.
The takeaway: companies understand what they need to do, but there remain barriers to achieving this goal.
One of the main ways in which companies are looking to overcome the challenge of global expansion is by localizing their video content. 62% of businesses are using video content as a means to further their engagement, with the majority of these using subtitling for localization. Subtitling remains popular due to its low barrier to entry, however lacks the level of engagement local audiences crave.
The main reasons organisations may be keen to embrace localization range across key business objectives:
- Building direct ad revenue on key platforms such as Youtube and Facebook (over 50% of digital-first media companies)
- For marketing and brand awareness (44% of B2B companies)
- To support with eLearning and internal training
The future of localization
As this research demonstrates, localization is a primary way in which companies are tackling the challenge of expanding into new markets. In tandem with increased video consumption worldwide, the process of localizing video, via dubbing or subtitling, has become more accessible as new technologies that automate the localization process become more sophisticated. As more and more businesses look to localization to solve business challenges, they will turn to scalable technological solutions that allow them to surmount the challenges of international expansion effectively.
Jesse Shemen, CEO of Papercup, said:
“Historically dubbing was a prohibitively expensive and time consuming process; now that’s changing rapidly and businesses can look to localization, in particular automated dubbing, as a scalable technology that allows them to forge more relevant and meaningful engagement with customers and hit growth objectives.
This research highlights the business need for automated solutions that plug the gap between native content that is expensive to create and subtitles which are affordable but don’t deliver the audience engagement needed to capture loyal audiences in new markets. There will always be a need for some form of localization types, but businesses should be strategic about when, what content types and how they localize to ensure success is scalable.”
About Papercup
Papercup was founded in 2017 by Jiameng Gao and Jesse Shemen with a mission to make all the world’s videos watchable in any language. Using state-of-the-art machine learning, Papercup has created an AI system capable of translating people’s voices into other languages. This automated dubbing process produces voices indistinguishable from human speech and can also retain characteristics of the speaker’s voice. Papercup empowers content owners to increase the ROI of their content creation. Organizations such as Sky News, Business Insider, BBC, and Yoga with Adriene can now reach global audiences eager to watch videos in their native language which they couldn’t access before.
The London-based startup has raised over $14 million in funding to date, with backers including leading venture funds LocalGlobe, Sands Capital Ventures, Guardian Media Group Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and BDMI as well as media leader Sky (now owned by Comcast).