There are approximately 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. Only 10 of those languages are spoken by more than 100 million people, and fourteen more are spoken by 50-100 million souls.
Clearly, some of these languages are more profitable than others for a corporate website translation. English may currently be the most important language in terms of population and spending power, but not for long. Chinese Simplified is catching up quickly! Before you pay for business translation services, be sure you know what languages you really need in order to serve your customer base.
Based on online spending power, the following is a look at which languages are the most profitable for your business website translation.
Spanish.
As any website translator can tell you, Spanish is generally considered absolutely necessary for any U.S. business website.
Asian languages.
Three East Asian countries are making rapid gains in their ecommerce spending power:
- China (PRC) – Chinese growth is steep in population and in online spending
- Japan
- Korea
You cannot go wrong with a website translation to Mandarin, Japanese and Korean.
European languages.
Although their spending power has slipped in recent years, countries where the following languages are spoken still rank high on the list for online spending:
- German
- French
- Italian
Arabic.
Arabic has been described as the internet’s “missing language,” but as broadband internet becomes more common in the Middle East, the benefits of an Arabic website translation are growing by leaps and bounds. Your company can get ahead of the curve by providing an Arabic version of your website.
In today’s e-commerce climate, most businesses cannot afford to neglect any population that might be interested in their products or services. Contracting with a website translator ensures your business will remain as successful as possible in the global marketplace.