A billion customers, anyone?
NUA Internet

February 12, 2001
by Kathy Foley

Journalists love a good sound bite and Forrester Research provided a particularly sweet one last year when they said that there is a new Internet user in the world every 2 seconds. I would have to dispute that figure, however. According to our figures, there were 5 new Internet users every second of last year.

If you do the math, then eTForecasts' claim last week that there will be 1.17 billion Internet users by 2005 doesn't seem so unbelievable. It may be hard to imagine that almost one in every six people on the planet will have access to the Internet in five years' time. Yet, with the rising use of wireless devices, particularly in the developing world, a global Internet audience of over one billion people by 2005 is quite probable.

The thing to note about all this, particularly for anyone who sells or markets on the Web, is that most of those 1 billion users will not be English speakers, or at least will not have English as their mother tongue. There are only seven countries in the world where English is the primary language spoken: the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

If you have any intention of selling or marketing to people outside of those countries, then it will not suffice to have your website and other online marketing materials in English only. As Willy Brandt, the former German Chancellor once said, "If I'm selling to you, I speak your language. If I'm buying, dann muessen Sie Deutsch sprechen [then you must speak German]."

Already, according to Global Reach, 52.4 percent of the world's Internet users are non-English speakers. There are 113 million European Internet users who speak 20 major languages between them. There are 105 million Internet users and seven major languages in Asia, not to mention the 16.4 million Latin American users who speak Spanish or Portuguese. Even if you're not selling internationally, bear in mind that 30 percent of visitors to US-based websites are foreign.

European companies have already realized the power of marketing in the language of the target market. Forrester studied corporate sites in the US and Europe last year and found that 80 percent of European sites support multiple languages while only 37 percent of US sites do so.

The European Commission, under the auspices of the European Telecommunications Council, heavily promotes linguistic diversity online and helps and encourages European businesses to provide their content in multiple languages. At the launch of the eContent initiative late last December, Erkki Liikanen, the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, commented: "In order to exploit the strong European position in mobile telephony, mobile internet access, and digital TV, content is key for a new range of services to emerge. European firms are best positioned to tailor culturally and linguistically diversified services to the users' needs."

Of course, localizing your sales and marketing is not just a matter of language. You can't just run the content of your site through Babelfish and hope for the best. You have to be attuned to cultural differences and local business practices. Again, European firms are already at an advantage here, as many of them have been selling across borders and in different currencies for years.

If you want your business to go global, you'll have to research local currency laws, marketing ethics, public relations procedures, and advertising standards. An advertisement that might be hilariously funny in your country could be thoroughly offensive in another.

It's also advisable to investigate payment mechanisms in your target markets. The Angus Reid Group found last year that about half of online shoppers outside North America use credit cards to shop online, compared with 75 percent of US and Canadian shoppers. Merchants selling to international markets may have to facilitate debit cards, cash on delivery, checks, and bank drafts.

Remember too that users in other regions may have higher Internet access charges, lower incomes, and slower connections than users in your country. In other words, forget the Flash and the other fancy stuff. Stick to text and only use the images that are absolutely necessary.

Don't be put off. Don't forget there's a potential market of 1 billion people out there in a few years' time. Don't be afraid to go global. Good luck, or should I say, bonne chance, viel glueck, and buena suerte.