Booking.com processes an astonishing 79 billion words of localized content annually, translating to 200 million words daily across 45 languages. In a recent episode of DeepL’s podcast “The New Fluency,” Mik Szajna, Head of Localization at Booking.com, discussed how the company tackles the immense scale of its localization efforts. He emphasized that the challenge lies not just in volume but in strategic prioritization—deciding which content types and workflows merit significant investment.

For localization professionals, this insight highlights a critical aspect of enterprise-level localization: the need for a robust strategy that balances quality and efficiency. Szajna pointed out that while automation plays a significant role, the approach must be tailored to different content types to ensure quality outcomes. This complexity underscores the importance of defining translation quality as a system property rather than an isolated metric.

A key takeaway for localization teams is the direct correlation between localization and business success. Booking.com’s experiment disabling localized content revealed a significant drop in user engagement, reinforcing the idea that effective localization is essential for driving sales.

Source: deepl.com