Readers of this blog know we hang our hats on all things local — search, social, mobile, Yellow Pages, newspapers, radio, TV, etc.

But an entirely different (though related) form of local was brought to my attention yesterday as I wandered the AdTech show floor: the localization and translation industry.

Say you want to enter a new market and need websites or marketing materials translated: That falls under translation. Taking it a step further is localization — crafting this content around cultural context in any given market.

Together they are a $20 billion global market, according to Cloudwords CEO Michael Meinhardt. He and CTO Scott Yancey founded the company in 2010 with funding from Marc Benioff to become the first centralized and cloud based translation marketplace.

Previously there wasn’t such neutral ground for buyer and seller to find each other, Meinhardt says. This often led to conflicts of interest, cumbersome RFP processes and a lack of true market transparency.

The product itself lets buyers create an account for free and post jobs they need done. Pre-vetted vendors then place bids and Cloudwords takes a cut of the finished job fee. Jobs are typically priced by the word.

For buyers, this comes with full job analytics including past work that might need to be mined or replicated. This comes in handy for multiple jobs — amounting to a project management tool in addition to a marketplace.

There are a lot more ins and outs that we’ll cover over time in the interest of brevity. For now, consider this a timely launch given accelerated  globalization and online adoption in countries like China and Indonesia. Find out more here.