7 reasons to go multilingual
1. If you have a website, you are already a global company
Once you launched your website, you became a global company. Anyone can now find your products and services online - from the single user with a dialup connection in Africa to the multi-billion corporation in Japan .
2. English dominance is over, especially on the web
92% of the world's population speak a language other than English. It is a big market by anyone's standards. Non-English speakers outnumber English speakers and they can be reached more effectively in their native language. More prospects will lead to more sales !
3. International trade is booming
According to the 2003 World Trade Organization report card, world merchandise exports rose by 16 % to more than $7 trillion and commercial services exports by 12 % to $1.8 trillion compared to 2002 figures. For both merchandise and services international trade, this was the strongest annual increase in nominal terms since 1995.
4. Increased global competition
Globalization trends lead corporations to seek additional revenue growth beyond their own national market. As such, corporations need to speak the language of their prospective clients.
5. Non-English markets are set to boom
Consider the ethnic markets in the US : the purchasing power of the Latino and Asian communities is increasing. The expansion of the European market as well as the evolving business environment of China and India create numerous selling opportunities outside the US. A multilingual strategy is key to tapping these new markets.
6. Clients are not the only thing you're after
As the global marketplace becomes a reality, many companies seek and find partners, affiliates, investors, employees, vendors, representatives and suppliers beyond national borders. Need to organize fulfillment in China ? You'll need a whole lot of translation!
7. It's good for business
This is the bottom line. Translated and localized communication materials are a vital part of any successful export strategy. As you develop your export business, you may encounter new ideas, new approaches and new marketing techniques.
Future articles will cover multilingual websites and how your business can benefit from them. Feel free to contact me to request a specific topic or to address a question you may have.
Best Regards,
Myriam Siftar
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Most Widely Spoken Languages
in the World
| Language |
Approximate number
of speakers
|
| 1. Chinese (Mandarin) |
1,075,000,000 |
2. English |
514,000,000 |
3. Hindi |
496,000,000 |
4. Spanish |
425,000,000 |
5. Russian |
275,000,000 |
6. Arabic |
256,000,000 |
7. Bengali |
215,000,000 |
8.Portuguese |
194,000,000 |
9. Malay-Indonesian |
176,000,000 |
10. French |
129,000,000 |
Source: Ethnologue, 13th Ed, 1996
The above table presents speaker estimates for the world's top 10 languages based on
The Ethnologue research study in 1996. The numbers are estimates because both the number of
mother-tongue speakers and a portion of the population of a country where the language has an official
status have to be taken into account. In addition, several languages such as Arabic have many derived
spoken dialects and they are grouped here under one language which represents Modern Standard Arabic used in
business, government, research, education and news.
Another complexity is when a language is spoken in many countries and in a country with many official
languages. For example, Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and also widely spoken in India.
Singapore is a country with 5 national languages that are Bengali, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil, English.
More about world languages available at www.ethnologue.com
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