Smartling Acquires Jargon, Transforms Mobile App Localization for Global Brands

NEW YORK – April 6, 2016 – Smartling today announced that it has acquired Techstars accelerator alumnus Jargon, a mobile technology company that provides a radically easy way for global brands to localize their mobile applications. The acquisition augments Smartling’s industry leading Global Fluency Platform, enabling the company to empower global brands with instant, over-the-air localization of mobile apps and on-device quality assurance (QA) testing. Now the world’s most ambitious brands will have the ability to easily capture all the nuance and character of their content in their mobile applications, so they look and feel local to global audiences.

In many parts of the world, mobile is the only way to engage with customers. Fully localized mobile apps in most languages lead to more downloads, more customers and more purchases. However, for most enterprises, mobile app localization is a time-consuming and complicated process. Every change to an iOS or Android app typically requires an app store review, which can take weeks to complete. Simply adding a new language, or modifying a single word of translation, often requires weeks to reach a global audience. In today’s fast-moving mobile world, this is not acceptable.

With the acquisition, Smartling is uniquely addressing this major pain point for companies and further transforming the way global content is created, consumed and managed. The Jargon technology provides enterprises with the unprecedented ability to easily and instantly localize global content by simply dropping a single line of code into a mobile app. Any new content, new languages or corrections can be immediately pushed over-the-air to native apps around the world.

“To truly help enterprises with all of their localized content needs, a service provider must offer technology that handles every type of content. Companies need real process automation solutions across every platform and every channel,” said Jack Welde, co-founder and chief executive officer, Smartling. “This acquisition augments our comprehensive API and impressive set of direct platform connectors, filling out the mobile channel in a way that no other company in the industry can match. This is the first of several strategic developments to come as we seek to expand our Global Fluency Platform’s capabilities as well as our own market footprint through organic growth and acquisition.”

Beyond over-the-air updates, the Jargon technology also introduces a far superior approach to QA testing on mobile devices. Mobile apps with smaller screen sizes mean that localized content and longer words in some languages can prove problematic for a mobile design, or worse, cause an app to crash. Jargon developed an elegant set of interfaces that allow developers and localization professionals to test apps across any language via specialized mobile QA workflows, revise translations directly on the app, or flag problems to be fixed by the translator or developer. No other app localization solution on the market offers a comprehensive set of interfaces for translating and performing QA on a mobile app, in-context, directly within the app and on the actual device.

“It is gratifying to see the technology we worked so tirelessly to develop go to an industry innovator like Smartling,” said AJ Cihla, chief executive officer, Jargon. “This acquisition is a most effective means of concluding our work and providing continuity to our customers, which represent both public enterprises and top-ranked consumer mobile companies around the world. Smartling’s platform is a robust offering for all major web content platforms, document management, and developer files. Now, with our technology, Smartling can also provide a simple, yet sophisticated solution to the mobile localization challenge – making mobile localization virtually effortless.”

Smartling is in the process of fully integrating the Jargon technology into the Smartling Global Fluency Platform. However, the company has already experienced market demand for the combined solution, deploying more than a dozen implementations year-to-date. Smartling’s enhanced offering solves a very specific need for enterprises – rapidly and effectively localizing mobile apps on an ongoing basis.

About Smartling Smartling’s content solution helps brands gain a more competitive global position by transforming the way their content is created and consumed around the world. Smartling’s technology, the Global Fluency Platform, helps brands access new markets, more customers and greater value. Smartling enables brands such as British Airways, InterContinental Hotels Group, Uber, AdRoll, Shinola, Spotify, Pinterest, Hasbro and SurveyMonkey to provide truly native brand experiences. Smartling is headquartered in NYC with over 150 employees. For more information, please visit: www.smartling.com