Fitbit Launches Japanese Website

Fitbit Launches Japanese Website with Help of Translation and Localization Agency Acclaro

San Francisco, CA March 20, 2013 - Today New York-based translation and localization agency Acclaro is excited to announce the Japanese website and product launch of its latest project for Fitbit, Inc. This launch opens up the seventh global market for Fitbit, the leader in the fast-growing connected health & fitness category.  Fitbit is based in San Francisco and has already found success into Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and France. Japan marks the fourth collaboration between Fitbit and Acclaro, which translated and localized the product, website, and mobile sites for German, Spanish, French, and now Japanese.

"Japan is a very important new market for Fitbit because of the country's enthusiasm for both fitness and technology. We continue to partner with Acclaro and asked them to translate and localize our website for our Japanese launch because of the continued strong relationship we've built over last few projects," said Woody Scal, Chief Revenue Officer at Fitbit.

Acclaro collaborated closely with Fitbit on the 35,000 word website translation and localization project, a process that goes much deeper than translating words.

"Japanese is one of our top languages and it is also the most challenging to translate and localize. We have made a strong commitment to the Japanese language by opening an office in Tokyo in 2012, strengthening our relationship with Japanese businesses and allowing us to work face-to-face with their teams," said Emma Young, west coast operations director at Acclaro.

According to Young, most localization projects are complete after one to three iterations between an Acclaro linguist and client reviewer. With Japanese, however, content may go through months of editing before it reaches the public. "From our experience, Japanese consumers are more receptive to marketing copy that sounds like it was originally written in their language. We work hard to make sure there are no whispers of translation from a foreign language," commented Young.

Acclaro offered custom project management to accommodate Fitbit teams in San Francisco, CA and Tokyo, Japan and website developers in Moscow, Russia. The Acclaro project manager was strategically placed in France to overlap time zones between Russia and California with a flexible workflow that included regular face-to-face meetings between the linguists, reviewers, and developers.

"Fibit provided our translators with the product so they could experience it first-hand, because to translate the copy, they knew it was important to understand how the product worked," said Young.

Fitbit and Acclaro worked closely over three months to craft the perfect translation for a Japanese market.

"We are excited to see the new Japanese market unfold for Fitbit. We believe the Japanese people will have a warm reception to the technology and recognize the extensive care that has gone into matching this product to their culture," said Young.

About Acclaro
Acclaro is an international translation and localization agency that helps the world's leading brands succeed across cultures. With its global headquarters in New York and offices and affiliates in San Francisco, Boston, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Tokyo and Paris, the agency translates websites, marketing campaigns, documents and software for global enterprises, giving clients an authentic voice in key language markets.

About Fitbit
Founded in 2007 in San Francisco, Calif., Fitbit is the market leader in the fast-growing, connected health and fitness category. Fitbit offers the insights and encouragement to make smart choices and to see how small, everyday changes add up to big results. The Fitbit Zip and Fitbit One are the leading wireless fitness trackers in the market, while its Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale is a top-selling connected weight scale. Fitbit has distribution at leading U.S. retailers such as Apple, Amazon, AT&T, Best Buy, Brookstone, Radio Shack, REI, Verizon and Target. Fitbit products are sold in the U.S., Canada, the EU, New Zealand and Australia. Fitbit is funded by the Foundry Group, True Ventures and SoftTech VC. For more information please visit www.Fitbit.com or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.