Six eSIM apps, one shared layout. Each of them runs local-language ads in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and a single English ad across the twenty smaller EU storefronts. Nobody writes Bulgarian. Nobody writes Croatian. Apple's public Ad Repository, the transparency dataset the EU Digital Services Act requires, records the language and country of every App Store ad, so the whole structure is readable from outside. Data window ends 22 July 2026.
The two-tier setup, in the data
Ubigi's English creative, "Virtual SIM card for Internet", runs across 16 storefronts: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg and neighbours. Apple dates it past a year and it was still recorded on 21 July 2026. Nomad's English line, "eSim Card Mobile & Travel WiFi", does the same job across 20 storefronts and is also past a year and still live. Saily's wide English lines cover the same list.
Not one of those lists contains Germany, France, Italy or Spain. Those four get their own language from every advertiser that can afford to write it. The tier line is drawn by market size, not by how well people there read English.
The translations are literal, not rewritten
Ubigi's set is the clearest example of what "localized" means in this category:
| Market | Creative |
|---|---|
| 16 smaller storefronts | "Virtual SIM card for Internet" |
| Germany, Austria | "Virtuelle SIM für Internet" |
| France | "SIM virtuelle pour Internet" |
| Italy | "SIM virtuale per Internet" |
| Netherlands | "Virtuele SIM voor internet" |
| Spain | "SIM virtual & Plan de Datos" |
That is the same six words, swapped word for word, five times. No repositioning, no local angle, no new promise. Every one of those creatives is past a year old in Apple's data. Ubigi retired the German, French, Italian and Dutch versions on 16 March 2026 and put fresh local lines out the same week, "SIM Dati per Viaggi all'Estero" in Italy and "Internet wereldwijd sim mobiel" in the Netherlands, both 129 days old and still running, while the English and Spanish originals never came off. Nomad runs the same play with "SIM-Karte fur Internet und SMS" in Germany, "eSIM pour Data, Internet, SMS" in France, "Piani di dati per il viaggio" in Italy and "SIM para SMS, WiFi y Internet" in Spain, all past a year, all still recorded on 21 July 2026.
Yesim is the one that rewrites rather than translates. Its English line sells "Travel + Unlimited Mobile Data" and its Spanish line sells "Internet sin límites global", global unlimited internet, which is a different sentence rather than the same one in Spanish. It also lasted past a year and is still live, so rewriting works too. What does not appear anywhere in this category is a translated ad that reaches for a mood instead of naming the product.
The one app with no English tier
Airalo runs 155 ad records in five storefronts, and four of them get their own language: "Günstige, globale Verbindung" in Germany (309 days, still live), "Connexion dans le monde entier" in France (232 days, still live), "Connessione globale economica" in Italy (103 days, still live), "Goedkope verbinding wereldwijd" in the Netherlands.
The fifth is Poland, and Poland got English: "Affordable, global connection". Its longest run there is 30 days, ending 5 June 2026. The Dutch line stopped the same day, also at 30 days. Airalo's three translated big-market ads are the ones still running.
One app, five markets, is a small sample, and Airalo's whole EU presence here is small. Read it as one data point next to the others rather than the rule.
Who translated early and who is translating now
The apps holding year-plus survivors translated a long time ago. Nomad, Ubigi and Yesim all have local-language creatives that predate Apple's one-year window, and most are still running.
The two heaviest advertisers are doing it now, in public. Saily built its per-market set between April and June 2026: German and Austrian from 6 April, Dutch from 23 May, French and Italian from 26 May, Spanish from early June, all still live but none older than 106 days. Holafly is further behind, with a Portuguese line at 42 days, Swedish at 31, German at 27, Dutch at 27, and French and Italian both 18 days old.
Both of them had a year-plus English creative and let it go. Both are now rebuilding in six languages at once. That is the expensive way round.
Sweden is the interesting exception. Saily gave it an English line, "eSIM: Get mobile GB abroad", running 99 days, while giving every other named market its own language. Holafly went the other way and wrote Swedish, "Förbetalt eSIM för resor", 31 days ago. One of them is wrong and the data will show which within a couple of months.
What to do with this if you are launching in the EU
- Write one English creative for the small storefronts and stop worrying about them. Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and the rest see English from every advertiser in this category, and those English lines run for over a year. That is a solved problem, not a gap in the market.
- Translate for Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and translate literally. The surviving creatives are the same product line in the local language. Save the rewrite for after you have a winner worth rewriting.
- Translate your survivor, not your newest test. Every year-plus set here was translated early and left alone, and when Ubigi did refresh its local lines in March it kept the same promise in the same words.
You can pull any advertiser's ads by country and language at recao.app, free, no account, in about a minute.
Method note: figures are computed from Apple's public Ad Repository (DSA Article 39), swept across all 25 EU storefronts, data window ending 22 July 2026. Language is read from the creative copy and the storefronts it ran in. "Days running" is the span from a creative's first to last recorded impression, and "still live" means the creative was recorded on 21 July 2026. Apple reports creatives older than its one-year window as over a year rather than a date. Longevity is a proxy for performance, not a measured conversion rate. Refreshed monthly.