What are the largest & most lucrative online multilingual markets aside from English?

With Google reporting that over 50% of their trafficusers, has nearly reached its maximum potential with
comes from multilingual searches, it has become crucialalmost 70% of its population online. A very small
to consider developing a multilingual online presence.proportion of online users in China own a credit card or
However, the question remains the same: Whicheven have the right to order what they want, while in
markets to target? Which ones are the mostJapan it is exactly the reverse.
important in terms of users, etc.?Once again, no one should confuse the amount of
First of all, let's see which parts of the world featureusers versus the buying power of a given market.
the most users. Contrary to general belief, it is notOn the other hand, one needs to consider the worth of
North America! With close to 400 million users, AsiaThird World markets/economically disadvantaged
definitely takes the lead, followed by Europe withcountries. For instance, countries like Bangladesh,
approximately 315 million users, in comparison to 232Mozambique, Somalia, etc., might not seem very
million in North America (North America being definedattractive at first. However, in Third World markets,
as the U.S., Canada, and Mexico).those online are affluent and wealthy. In those
In my extensive experience with multilingual onlinecountries, there is no middle class. Basically, you are
applications, I have learned over the years toeither dirt poor or filthy rich! Online users in those
differentiate clearly the amount of users versus thecountries belong to the the second category. Many
market potentiality of a product or a service. Foronline gambling portals and entertainment websites of
example, the Hispanic online market (between Southall kinds have found high spenders in
and Central America, the U.S., the Caribbean andeconomically-disadvantaged-markets. In fact, wealthy
Spain) features slightly more users than theindividuals in Rwanda or Chad do not have many
French-speaking market. But when it comes to buyingentertainment outlets in their homeland! Furthermore,
power, countries like France, Belgium, Switzerland andmost everything is lacking within their country
Canada (Quebec) have so much more buying powerinfrastructure: clothing, electronics, etc. Online
than Peru, Bolivia or Chile!applications have therefore become a form of
More than just buying power, we need to look at the"entertainment salvation" for the wealthy minorities of
cultural ramifications involved in internet behaviors. Inthird world markets.
other terms, is a specific market used to ordering &Online multilingual markets are complex, and instead of
transacting online? For instance, compared to itslooking at languages/countries just by their buying
amount of users, France is extremely active online,power or number of users, one should evaluate what
while French-speaking countries in Africa arethey have to offer and define the marketability of their
proportionally inactive. The same applies whenproducts and services accordingly.
comparing Spain and some South American countries.Are you looking for end users to buy your products?
If you were to compare the online buying habitsThen look at the buying power of the targeted
between 100,000 users in Spain and the same numbermarkets along with the reliability of their postal and
of users throughout South America, you would noticetransportation services. Are you a manufacturer
that people out of Spain order products and serviceslooking to find more distributors/to increase your
at least 5 times more than their South American peers.exports? Then chances are that the world is your
In many cases, it is not a matter of buying power, butoyster.
rather mail order habits based on the country's postalI advise you to perform a meticulous evaluation of
delivery system. In fact, in many countries where theyour market potential when developing a presence on
postal system is unreliable (not to say flaky!), onlinemultilingual search engines. So many factors need to
users were not "groomed" with mail order habits priorbe taken into consideration...Do not look at Japanese,
to the internet. As a result, although such markets willFrench or Spanish just as country specific, but rather
look for products and services online, they certainly areonline language market shares! Just as an example,
not as mail order oriented as other countries featuringaside from all countries where Spanish is spoken, one
more efficient mailing systems.of the most active Hispanic online markets is in the
Therefore, it is impossible to rely solely on the amountU.S.!
of users when considering establishing a multilingualWWW = World Wide Web. Is your website really
presence online. Another good example to illustratereaching worldwide?
such fact would be China and Japan. China currentlyThe time has come to implement action on a global
has almost 145 million users and it is one of the fastestscale!
growing markets on the internet. Japan, with 86 million