Your opinion about the Spanish software market?

Discussions
#1

Hello,

I’m a bit worried about your responses to my Can you criticize my website? thread.

I already knew that a software for hunters’ associations is a really small niche, so I already had a “backup plan”: convert WebCoto, my hunter’s association management software, to a more generic small associations management software, but still inside the Spanish market. I’ve searched the market, there are some applications (but not so much), I know people who are working in these kind of associations, so I can have beta-testers and get feedback, but now I’m worried: is it really a bad idea to stay in the Spanish market? It’s better to move to the English market, even if I’m not a great writer (and there are much more competition)?

Years ago I tried to sell a simple image resizing tool. I’ve started selling only in Spanish and, if I remember well, I sold 4-5 licenses. Then I translated the software and the website to English (and my English isn’t good!) and in the same amount of time I sold near 50 licenses…

So, what’s your opinion and experiences selling to Spain? Is it a dead (or nearly dead) market? Should I start studying how small associations work in the USA and “migrate” my software across the sea?

Thanks for your opinions

Marc

P.S.: Important: I don’t want to cancel or abandon my current software. It’s just that I want an alternative plan for if it doesn’t work/sell.

#2

Hi

it depends on how big the Spanish market is and how comfortable you are with that size of market and what share of it you can get.

I was just trying to say that the BIG market related to hunting is the USA. If you are happy with staying in the Spanish market then that’s ok.

I don’t know the Spanish market like you do but you also have to think you may only get a small percentage of the market.

By talking about the USA and other markets it may have got you thinking about how you might offer a solution outside of Spain.

Hope this helps

Dean

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#4

I’ve had the same experience with in own business.

Also, I notice that spainairs are not used to buy online. You would need direct sales and expect the sale to be closed by phone and not online. I usually get phone calls with some random questions, that in my opinion, all they are looking for is confirm that you are the real business.

I would give a try to an English version. You could start small, validate the product and offer locally and then aim globally with a more mature product.

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#5

Our software is fully translated into Spanish, and 5 other languages. The Spanish translation has been the worst-performing by far.

For me, the market in Spain (and, indeed, the global Spanish-speaking market) is not good.

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#6

@SteveMcLeod I noticed that your website (pokercopilot.com) translation options doesn’t list Spanish (I see English, French and Italian at the bottom of the homepage). Did you remove that after seeing poor sales or never bothered to translate because of the poor sales? I’d guess that the market (online poker), nature of your app and heavy skew towards English content might also be a factor.

@mcasas do you only want to focus on Spain or have you considered the global Spanish speaking market? At least from my experience here in Chile the likelihood that the administrators of these associations speak English is very low (this would be even more true in the rural areas where hunting would happen). So there may be an opportunity in that there is a need but they are simply not able to use other solutions that are available. Whether they have the ability and/or willingness to pay is another question that I could not answer for you.

What I would do is look at the English speaking market for validation / inspiration. If you can find similar solutions, especially that are English only, you should be able to use their marketing to understand what the pains are (I’d assume the day-to-day problems experienced by admins of these associations are relatively similar the world over).

Also, what has stopped you from just call a bunch of these association admins and talking to them directly? That will get you a much better answer than any of us here is able to give.

#7

I used to have a Spanish site. When I did the latest website design update, I discarded the Spanish version, yes, after seeing poor sales to Spanish-speaking countries.

#8

This is interesting. I have had quite a few people ask for a Spanish version of my software but they almost always just end up using the English version anyway. Our users have offered to help to the translation so we might go down that path.

Craig

#9

Our users have offered to help to the translation so we might go down that path.

Our first translations were all user-contributed. It kinda worked. We quickly had excellent, comprehensive translations in some languages, partial translations in others, but in some, they were inconsistent and patchwork. This approach certainly has merits.

I eventually moved to a more professional approach with a paid team and restricted to just six languages. I’m much happier with this. But of course, it does cost money, and it requires some management effort.

#10

Who did you hire to do the translations? I have seen a few companies around that can do it but have never used one yet. I agree the pro’s would be better as the users are likely to translate things to what they want the app to be, ie subtly change features by giving it a different label.

#11

We put together our own team of freelance translators.

#12

I also have experience in the Spanish market and in my opinion it’s not a good option when you’re bootstrapping a new product.

Spain is a small market and people are not used to buy online (though this is changing fast). For example, Germany double the Spain population and has much more money.

South America is not a market. Every country is a different market. Though they all speak the same language, they have different market rules, consumer profiles, etc.

With the same marketing and commercial effort, you have more possibilities of success in the English market, which is the current international language and allows you reach a bigger audience.

Disclaimer: I’m Spanish and I love my country :slight_smile:

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#13

Exactly the same logic applies for the English market. Even within the USA this applies for the different states (e.g. I did 1 google search and found out that 10 states ban hunting on Sundays).