- 01
Search in the language your buyers use
- 02
Read the national register for your category
- 03
Read the local trade shows
- 04
Map the long tail on Google Maps, city by city
- 05
Check public tenders
- 06
Match the same company across sources
- 07
Find who decides, and reach them where they answer
Short answer: In markets where companies list themselves in their own language, an English search finds only the few that market in English. Search in the local language and script, read the national register that your product category requires, read the exhibitor lists of the local trade shows, and map the long tail on Google Maps city by city. Then match the same company across those sources and reach the person who decides, on the channel they answer.
Who this is for
Manufacturers, brands and distributors selling physical products into Southeast Asia, the Gulf, Latin America or Africa, and anyone whose buyers are local importers, distributors, dealers and showrooms rather than companies with an English website and a LinkedIn page.
Why English-first databases run thin here
- Companies describe themselves in their own language. A tile distributor in Vietnam is a nhà phân phối gạch ốp lát. A ceramics distributor in Indonesia is a distributor keramik. A beauty distributor in Mexico is a distribuidora de cosméticos. A search for "tile distributor" in English skips most of them.
- The best records are national registers. Many product categories need a local registration or certificate before they can be sold, and the local company that holds it is your importer or distributor. Those registers are run by local agencies, in the local language.
- The long tail has no website. Depots, showrooms and supply shops often exist only as a map listing. No database built from websites will hold them.
- Names don't match across sources. The same company has a legal name on the register, a trading name on the trade-show stand and a shop name on the map.
The method
Step 1 — Search in the language your buyers use
Write down the words a local buyer would type, in the local script, before you search anything. Examples from our own country pages:
- Vietnam: thiết bị nha khoa (dental equipment), nhà phân phối gạch ốp lát (tile distributor)
- Indonesia: distributor alat kedokteran gigi (dental equipment distributor), distributor keramik, distributor granit
- Mexico: distribuidores de cosméticos, distribuidor de productos de belleza
Use these terms on Google, on Google Maps and on local directories. The English term still matters for the companies that market abroad, so run both.
Step 2 — Read the national register for your category
Find the registration your product needs to be sold in the country. The company named on each registration is a licensed local player, and often exactly the importer or distributor you are looking for. Examples:
- Indonesia: AKL product registrations at the Ministry of Health, each held by the licensed local distributor of an imported device; SNI certification for ceramic tiles.
- Vietnam: Ministry of Health medical device registrations; QCVN 16 conformity declarations at the Ministry of Construction, for building materials including tiles.
- Saudi Arabia: SASO Quality Mark and SABER certificates for imported tiles; SFDA eCosma notifications for cosmetics.
- United Arab Emirates: Dubai Municipality product registration (Montaji) for cosmetics.
- Philippines: FDA licence-to-operate lists for medical device importers and distributors; Bureau of Philippine Standards PS and ICC certifications for tiles.
Step 3 — Read the local trade shows
The exhibitor list of a country's own trade show is a map of who is active and looking for partners: local distributors, importers and the foreign brands already there. Examples: Vietbuild and Vietnam Medi-Pharm in Vietnam, IDEC and Keramika Indonesia in Indonesia, Worldbex in the Philippines, Big 5 Construct Saudi and Beautyworld Saudi Arabia, Beautyworld Middle East in Dubai, and Expo Beauty Show México. Read the last two editions, not only the current one.
Step 4 — Map the long tail on Google Maps, city by city
Search the local term in each commercial city, not the country: Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Jakarta and Surabaya, Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. In Indonesia, building materials sell through toko bangunan, local building-material stores, in every city. This is where the depots, showrooms and supply shops with no website show up.
Step 5 — Check public tenders
Tender portals show who supplies public buyers and wins contracts: the national e-procurement portal in Vietnam, e-Katalog and LPSE in Indonesia, PhilGEPS in the Philippines. A distributor that wins hospital tenders for dental equipment is a different prospect from one that only sells to clinics.
Step 6 — Match the same company across sources
Merge the register, the show list and the map into one row per company. Match on address, phone number and registration number, not on the name, because the name changes from source to source. Keep the local-script name next to the English one: it is the name the buyer recognises.
Step 7 — Find who decides, and reach them where they answer
For each company, find the owner, the general manager or the buyer for your category. Write to them in their language where you can, and on the channel they actually answer, which is not always email.
Where the data lives
| Source | What it tells you | Example |
|---|---|---|
| National product registers | Who is licensed to import or sell your category | AKL (Indonesia), SFDA eCosma (Saudi Arabia), Montaji (UAE) |
| Standards and conformity marks | Who certified which products for sale | SNI (Indonesia), QCVN 16 (Vietnam), SASO and SABER (Saudi Arabia) |
| Local trade-show exhibitor lists | Who is active and looking for partners | Vietbuild, IDEC, Big 5 Construct Saudi, Expo Beauty Show México |
| Google Maps, searched in the local language | Depots, showrooms and shops with no website | toko bangunan in Indonesian cities |
| Tender portals | Who supplies public buyers | e-Katalog and LPSE, PhilGEPS |
| Brand dealer and stockist locators | Which local company carries which brand | Every major brand's "where to buy" page |
The industry pages list the sources for each sector, and the country pages go market by market: dental distributors in Vietnam, dental distributors in Indonesia, tile distributors in Vietnam, tile importers in Saudi Arabia, cosmetics distributors in Mexico, cosmetics distributors in the UAE.
Common mistakes
- Searching only in English, and concluding the market is small.
- Buying a global database's export for the country and treating its count as the market.
- Skipping the register because it is in the local language. It is usually the most complete list there is.
- Merging companies on their name alone, so one distributor becomes three rows.
- Writing every first message in English, by email only.
How Kuration does this
Kuration reads the sources English-first databases don't index, in 12+ languages and native scripts: licence and certificate registers, trade-show exhibitor halls, dealer locators, business directories, Google Maps and PDFs. Each company becomes a row, extracted at the source, enriched with what it sells and who decides, checked, and scored against your own definition. Outreach runs from the same workspace on email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
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FAQ
Why do English-language B2B databases miss companies in these markets? Because they are built mostly around English-speaking companies, their websites and their profiles. Many distributors, importers and dealers in Southeast Asia, the Gulf, Latin America and Africa list themselves only in their own language, on a national register or on a map, so those databases never collect them.
Do I need to speak the language to find leads there? No, but your search has to be in it. Start with the local words for your product and for "distributor" or "importer", and read the national register for your category, which names the licensed local companies.
Which markets does this apply to? Southeast Asia, the Gulf, Latin America and Africa, and any market where companies list themselves in a local language or on a local register.
Can Kuration search in Vietnamese, Indonesian, Arabic or Spanish? Yes. Kuration reads sources in 12+ languages and native scripts, Arabic among them, including the national registers and local trade-show lists named above.
Related guides
- How to find distributors for your product
- How to enter a new market through trade shows
- How to verify a supplier you met at a trade show