The global ideas exchange
Introducing translations and our vision for expanding Substack internationally
Who changed your life today? Who stretched your way of seeing the universe? Who challenged you to think deeper about the culture around you, or to question the state of the political world? Who introduced you to a new song, a brand-new way of cooking, or even a new rose to plant in your garden? If you’ve been on Substack for a while, my hope is you’ve found these people here.
Because that’s always been part of Substack’s mission: to make good on the internet’s promise as a place for the universal exchange of knowledge and ideas. We want to make it easier for you to stumble upon ideas that not only enrich your life but that challenge your thoughts and sharpen your thinking.
Today, we’re cracking open the world of ideas even further as we introduce new translation features, starting with the ability to translate Notes written in English into 15 languages, or into English from over 100 languages.
That means you can now read and engage with writers and creators anywhere from Trondheim to Tokyo. What’s more, in the coming weeks, we’ll also be adding translation to posts, meaning you can take a deeper dive into your favorite writers’ work, wherever they are across the globe.
For writers, this will open the world to your work. The post you publish in English will be able to find readers in Istanbul. The newsletter you write in Japanese can build an audience in Buenos Aires. A poet in Lisbon and a food writer in Marseille are no longer separated from each other—or from the readers who would love their work—by the language they happen to write their Notes in. The addressable readership for every writer will have grown meaningfully larger.
Because ideas should not be limited to geography or thwarted by language. Good, smart, interesting ideas should be allowed to flourish wherever there is a willing mind to engage.
I’ve had the chance to preview these features, and the writers I’ve discovered have already expanded my horizons. Just this weekend, I stumbled upon a discussion about the ethical responsibility of AI from an Italian writer I had hitherto not heard of. And I found intellectual kinship with a Dutch writer who somehow managed to articulate every thought and feeling I’ve had over the past few years about the blandification of culture. A young Japanese writer living in Barcelona taught me the word komorebi (it means “sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees,” and is apparently as much a philosophical dictum as it is a visual effect), whilst a chef in the south of France just made my life infinitely better by sharing an orange miso sauce that works like a dream with raw fish.
The point is, you don’t have to cross a border, get on a plane, or even speak another language now to connect with ideas that might change your life. Translations bring the world of ideas to your doorstep.
We’re still in the early days, and translation, especially at scale, is technically and culturally complex. And we have many more languages to go. But the translation of Notes is an exciting starting place, and your feedback can help us make it even better: when you see a translated Note, click the “translated” icon to tell us how we did.
The appetite for this kind of exchange is already clear in the numbers. Writers and creators everywhere are building real audiences and livelihoods on Substack. As of today, nearly 100,000 publishers are earning money on Substack globally, including almost 30,000 outside the U.S. In Europe, creators are now collectively earning more than $90 million annually.
And we’re continuing to invest in that community. We’re bringing on nine new partnerships hires to support writers and creators in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Nordics, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and Japan, joining a dedicated U.K. team. Alongside these new hires, we are also expanding Substack Defender, our legal support program for publishers who face legal uncertainty or pressure because of their work—a core pillar of our commitment to a free press.
All of this is in service of what the internet, at its best, can do: make the world wider and closer at the same time. If you’ve been thinking about starting your own Substack and sharing your ideas with a global audience, come to one of our upcoming international masterclasses. We’d love to meet you.
UPCOMING MASTERCLASS DATES
Europe
Head of Partnerships, Spain: Marcos García @Substack
Thursday, April 23 | 15:30 CEST [RSVP]
Head of Partnerships, France: Renée Kaplan
Wednesday, May 20 | 17:00 CEST [RSVP]
Head of Partnerships, Italy: Chiara Santoro
Wednesday, May 20 | 15:00 CEST [RSVP]
Head of Partnerships, Netherlands: Margot James
Thursday, May 28 | 17:00 CEST [RSVP]
North America
Head of Partnerships, Canada: Mark Swierszcz
Thursday, May 14 | 12:00 PM EDT [RSVP]
Asia-Pacific
Head of Partnerships, Australia and New Zealand: Annabelle Russell
Tuesday, May 5 | 8:00 PM AEST [RSVP]
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