In conversation with Arvind Pani, Reverie Language Technologies

Agency Reporter spoke with  Arvind Pani, Co-Founder and CEO of Reverie Language Technologies, about language localization, need of local content and more.

Agency Reporter – What is your vision for the coming future in terms of bringing about digital language equality in India?  

Arvind Pani – Our foundation is set on a vision to make important information more accessible to all citizens of India, in the language of their choice. Simply put, we want to bridge the language divide on the Internet, which as the pandemic has us realise, is not a luxury but a necessity.

 AR – How can marketers benefit from the language localisation play?

 AP – A recent IAMAI report confirms that the number of rural internet users have surpassed those in the urban areas. In addition, according to a KPMG report, 68% trust information in their language. Communicating with customers in their own language is an important element in bringing forth trust for establishing customer loyalty. Many businesses while marketing and advertising for products and services, use local languages on mass media such as newspapers, TVs, and radios. However, when it comes to online communications where most products and services are rendered, because of language computing challenges and lack of awareness, non-English speakers are largely ignored. With Reverie’s suite of Indian-language products, marketers can automate localisation of content across email, websites, ads, SMS and push notifications, chat both, voice interfaces, etc., to reach out to the majority of online users.

 AR – What are your views about the entertainment industry players, can they benefit too? 

 AP – Indian language users prefer consuming and searching videos and music in their own language. A 2019 EY-FICCI report found out that out of the audience’s total time spent on OTT platforms, only 7% is taken up viewing English content. While 60% of the remaining time is passed on Hindi content and 30% is spent on other regional languages.

This is a good incentive for OTT platforms to invest in creating content description in local languages. Streaming platforms can attract more subscribers by making content available and searchable in multiple languages.

 AR – What is the role played by your technology with respect to the Digital India campaign?

 AP – Working with the government has been a key part of our priority towards achieving the goals and contributing to the success of Digital India’s vision. We have also worked on and successfully localized various government projects in Indian languages, like BHIM App, Bhamsha in Rajasthan, Bhoomi in Karnataka, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), e-NAM, and Department of Income Tax to name a few.

Recently, the Government of India leveraged Anuvadak’s technology (a Reverie Product) to publish the MyGov Covid-19 page in 10 different languages.

Our aim is to become the language platform of choice across Indian users’ digital journey, making internet adoption easier and faster and also help to drive digital literacy at the school-level.

 AR – The Prime Minister’s vision for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ has led to an increase in the number of Indian businesses going online, thereby increasing the need for local content. How can Reverie help these businesses in this scenario?

 AP – Several government campaigns, such as Atmanirbhar Bharat, VocalForLocal, Digital India, and more have urged government bodies to consider Indian language localisation on the internet. Further, the pandemic has millions of previously unconnected users flocking to the internet for buying essentials, online learning, etc. However, because of the online language divide, businesses and Indian-language users are struggling to connect with one another.  

Reverie Language Technologies is the only company that offers end-to-end language technology products and services in this space for Indian languages. We offer a wide range of language technology products for Indian languages for both text and voice solutions, including:

• Machine translation and transliteration technologies specifically trained on and built for Indian languages, 
• Website localization,
• Aesthetically designed multilingual text display suite,
• Industry-specific Indian-language vocabularies that help with accurate business translations,
• Easy input products like multilingual keypads that support phonetic typing,
• Multilingual search and accurate next word predictions,
• Automated speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversion and more.

Reverie is leading the way for businesses and government bodies to engage with users in their languages. We are focussed to bring about language equality on the internet, which would help the Indian language users navigate the internet with the same ease as English users.