In response to Facebook’s ever-expanding social universe and the success of mobile-focused networks like Instagram, Dave Morin and company have turned Path into a more personal, mobile-centric social network.
Most of the life-sharing that happens on Path takes place at home — among family and close friends. And while some users may speak one language away from home or at work, they want to be able to converse with loved ones in their native tongue. As a result, Path has been on a mission to expand the number of languages it supports so that users can speak in whatever tongue they please.
Tonight, via its blog, Path has announced that it has added seven new languages to its stable, including Dutch, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesian, Malay, and UK English.
As American-born companies extend their networks to reach an increasingly mobile audience abroad, localizing product experience is crucial. International users don’t want to feel that they’re being pandered to, and they’re not eager to jump on board if the experience feels like it’s just a slapdash port aimed at boosting download stats.
Path remains a small team based out of San Francisco, so it turned to its users to help translate and localize the app’s experience for its international users. Though it admits that it’s still very much a work in progress, the goal is an important one.
With its new lingual additions, Path now supports 16 languages in all, including Spanish, Italian, German, Portugese, French, Swedish, Japanese, and Korean.
After raising over $30 million in funding in April, it seems that Path has begun to focus on international scale and expanding localized support for its 3 million-plus users.
More in Path’s blog post here.
