Indonesia ranks fourth in the world in terms of smartphone users, with approximately 198 million people speaking Indonesian. This article will explain what features should be considered when translating an app page into Indonesian, how to search for keywords, and how to compile text and visual metadata for Indonesian users.

Contents

● Indonesian culture and market characteristics
● Keyword research for Indonesia
● Complete description for increasing an app's ranking in Google Play Search
● 6 App Page Localization Principles for Indonesia

Indonesian culture and market to consider for app localization 

1. Language diversity and cultural specificities

Other languages and dialects spoken in Indonesia include Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, and Buginese, in addition to Indonesian. Indonesia has 726 regional languages. Even native speakers struggle to name all of the dialects.

Indonesian is regarded as an intermediary language and a means of interethnic communication among Indonesians. Indonesia's national motto is "Unity in Diversity." As a result, discussing Indonesian culture as a whole is extremely difficult. Sometimes there are more differences than similarities between residents of different cities.

We discovered that 90% of respondents spoke English, 50% spoke Javanese and Indonesian, 20% Malay, and 10% Sundanese. When looking for mobile apps, 80% of people use only Indonesian, while 20% use both Indonesian and English.

2. Islam is the dominant religion in the country

Religion is important in Indonesians' lives because it influences their values, morals, and traditions. The government officially recognizes six religions, each of which is followed by a portion of the population:

Islam has 87%; Protestantism has 7%; Catholicism has 3%; Hinduism has 2%; Buddhism has about 1%, and Confucianism has less than 1%.

Because religious affiliation is used in official identity documents, every resident must adopt one of these religions. Although not forbidden, atheism is a socially unacceptable ideology, so it is not an option.

Because of the predominance of Islam in Indonesia, you should be more cautious when gambling, showing female body parts, male body parts between the stomach and the knees, and "idols." You should also exercise caution when using images of animals in visual metadata. Indonesians, for example, do not say "anjing" (dog). And the word "babi" (pig) is the most offensive to an Indonesian; calling a civil servant is punishable by imprisonment.



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3. The language is simple, but dialects are easily confused.

The Indonesian alphabet is based on Latin and contains 26 letters. People who are just starting to learn Indonesian often describe it as a very simple language in which words are pronounced the same way they are spelled.

4. Slow Internet access

In terms of mobile internet speed, Indonesia ranks 99th in the world. Consider this when developing an app: you should optimize its size and work on the speed of content loading.

5. Multiplayer video games are extremely popular.

Single-player games account for only 15% of the top 100 most successful games in Indonesia. Those planning to enter the Indonesian market should be aware of this cultural phenomenon.

Keyword research for Indonesia

To choose keywords, you must consider not only the Indonesian language but also Malay. They have similar grammar but different lexicons. You could say that Indonesian is Malay with Dutch influences.

You should ideally seek the assistance of professional interpreters and native speakers. If a machine translator incorrectly translates a word or phrase, explain what the word means. That's how I discovered a lot of less obvious keywords. 

Solvent The majority of Indonesian residents speak English. As a result, you will come across many English words in the search results that you should add to your semantic core.

When compiling the semantic core, it is also critical to use the Javanese language. It is spoken by over 85 million people, accounting for roughly 40% of Indonesia's population. Sundanese (West Java) can also be included because it is the second most widely spoken regional language after Javanese. However, it is no longer as popular among young people who prefer English.

Complete description for improving an app's ranking in Google Play

As of August 2022, the proportion of Android users in Indonesia (89.42%) outnumbers the proportion of iOS users (10.46%). Because the description is indexed by Google Play's algorithm, high-quality work with a full description is essential.

50% of those polled read only the title and short description, 30% read the entire description, and 20% said they don't read anything because they download apps based on recommendations. Those who read the entire description were asked, "What words in a game's description attract your attention?"

● information about a large number of capabilities or missions that can be performed;
● the best-selling game in the world;
● interesting game;
● a defined game genre;
● something that evokes intrigue. 

A rating of less than 3.9 discourages almost all respondents from downloading the game. Users rely on app reviews as social proof that they're downloading a quality app. Make a good first impression and also build a loyal community by replying to user ratings & reviews.

Participants in the survey are also less likely to download the game if the text was not written by a native speaker, even if it was professionally translated. This is because translated texts frequently sound academic and "too correct," rendering the description unemotional and unappealing.

The Indonesian audience prefers brief materials that contain pertinent information. As a result, rather than translating the description, it makes more sense to create it from scratch in the desired language. This is particularly true for Google Play, where keywords from the description are used in ranking. I'll demonstrate a simple but effective algorithm:

● Check the search results on Google Play for the main keywords.
● Go to the app pages that rank higher than yours.
● Check the descriptions using word-count services
● Write out the keywords and their repetition count.
● Make a final list of words.



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6 App Page Localization Principles for Indonesia

1. Indonesian serves as a bridge language between many local languages and dialects. You can create several tabs with keywords in Indonesian and its dialects, as well as English, Malay, and Javanese when compiling the semantic core.

2. Islam is the predominant religion in Indonesia; this should be considered in textual and visual optimization. In your metadata, avoid using symbols and words that are offensive to Muslims.

3. Young people frequently mix Indonesian with English and use a fictional language. Use this to your advantage when compiling metadata if you are targeting a young audience.

4. When compiling metadata, keep grammatical rules in mind: word order, words to make imperative sentences sound nicer, different pronoun variants, and reduplication.

5. In visual metadata, incorporate user-generated content and ideas from legends.

6. Because Internet access in Indonesia is generally slow, you should make your apps smaller in size and work on improving their speed.