In 2018, Deliveroo launched in Taiwan.
Our research team completed an in market study and came to the conclusion that in order to be competitive, we would need to offer our products in Taiwanese Chinese.
As head of content design and localisation, I sourced freelance translators and reviewers, organised our content into a logical structure and agreed deadlines depending on priority.
I worked closely with the translators and reviewers to communicate tone of voice, style decisions and create working guidelines and glossaries for consistency.
It was a really interesting language to work with, because there was a lot of mixed opinion on whether we could use our current Chinese translations used in Hong Kong, or if we would need to localise specifically for Taiwan. After a lot of research, conversations and debates, it was clear to me that the differences between the languages could have an impact on our success and adoption rates, and that it was worth localising. Taiwanese Chinese then became the first language at Deliveroo to not use British English as its source language, as it made more sense to translate with the Hong Kong translations as the source, given that they were more inline with the cultural nuances of Taiwan.
Sourcing translators proved to be another challenge, as I had to really get a good understanding of what we needed, and ensure we were hiring people who were able to localise and not directly translate. Deliveroo also had a slightly different style for rider apps and customer apps, so that was something we had to define. What does this mean in Taiwan? Was it relevant? This, along with many other considerations, formed the basis of the style guide.
I used our standard glossary or terms, and then added another layer of detail including verbs and commonly used phrases to ensure consistency. Once this was translated, the freelancers were able to start on the 20,000+ words that make up the Deliveroo network of products.
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