Introduction and dominance of English
The tech industry is obsessed with the 'Next Billion'. Look at the headcount, and it's no wonder. Since 2006, the number of people using the internet around the world has doubled. In April 2015 it stood at 3.1 billion. The Next Billion was coined as a phrase a few years ago, and doesn't have a timescale – it's a rolling concept and shorthand for the immense opportunity that's coming the way of the tech industry.
At this precise moment, the Next Billion refers to those people coming online in the next five years. GSMA predicts that there will be 3.8 billion web users by 2020. That's about half of the global population, the majority of whom will use smartphones and tablets.
It's a huge growth opportunity for anyone who has any stake in the planet's digital economy, but there's a nasty sting in the tail that the tech industry likes to ignore; few of the Next Billion speak English as their first language.
For now, there's a huge advantage to anyone working in the medium of English – over 55% of the internet is written in English despite the fact that only 5% of the world's population speak it as their first language. With the online dominance of English quickly being eroded, is the tech industry getting lost in translation?
Why is English slipping as the dominant language?
With small birth rates and economic growth in single digits – if that – it's no surprise that English speaking areas of the world will not be the inheritors of the digital economy they pioneered.
"Global population growth is highest in Africa, South Asia and Middle East, areas where English is not the predominant language," says Ian Brooks, Digital Strategist at Lionbridge, a professional translation and localisation agency. "This, coupled with the fact that the largest and fastest growing economies are mostly in Africa, Asia and South America, means that English is no longer the only language that companies have to cater for."
It's easy to be arrogant about the dominance of English on the internet, but it really shouldn't be that way – and it won't be for much longer. "We have to remember that English isn't the dominant language across the globe," says Ariel King, Content Strategist at Arena Media, which helps challenger or new-to-market brands. "As more countries become more connected online, it's only natural that we should see the languages used online having a truer reflection of the proportion of languages used in the world."
Not surprisingly, Chinese is the most natively spoken language of all at 1.39 billion, with Hindi-Urdu next at 588 million in second place. English claims third spot at 527 million, but it's only fractionally ahead of Arabic. Any dominance English has on the internet won't last long.
Multilingual nations and visual alternatives
How does this affect UK and US businesses?
The Next Billion do not understand you, so stop swimming against the tide and go native. "If UK and US businesses want to take advantage of growing populations and economies in Asia and Africa, then they need to be engaging those markets in their native tongue through channels and platforms popular in those regions," says Brooks. "It's imperative that customers feel like companies understand them, and by offering content in their own language, then it's likely that customers will be receptive."
This approach requires an organised language strategy. "A global language and marketing agency can guide you through the best practices for launching or growing in a specific market by working on different areas of your business such as language style, tone/terminology, search considerations and channel considerations," says Brooks.
"An organised language strategy is having a deep understanding of your content, your audience and knowing how to reach your audience," he adds. "It's also knowing how they communicate and ensuring that you reach that audience at the right time, in the right place, with the right content, and in the right language." Brooks stresses how highly detailed this approach needs to be: "You need to think about quality, style, tone, market nuance, colloquialisms and platforms."
What about multilingual countries?
Often presumed to be an easy target because of the continuing popularity of English at least as a second language, the huge market of India has proven impossible for even Indian companies to address as a single market.
"Whereas businesses in many developed markets serve a uniformly wealthy middle class of banked, educated consumers that speak a common language, businesses in India need to serve a significantly fragmented market with many sub-layers of socio-economic classes, a mass majority of which lack bank accounts, and who speak hundreds of vernaculars many of which are not recognised by any computer software," says Ray Newal, MD at Calgary, Canada-based startup Play It Interactive, which created an app for India's dominant kind of handset – the cheap feature phone with no video streaming capabilities – that hosts socially engaging line-by-line cricket commentary.
Simply importing innovations from abroad, such as Siri, isn't going to cut it in India as a whole, but mobile users can adapt if they have to. "Thanks to the pervasiveness of the mobile phone, cheap or zero-rated data plans, and social apps like WhatsApp and Facebook, many are becoming proficient in a common language," says Newal. "It's a derivative of English, Hindi, and Emojis."
The visual alternative
Some don't think that translation and cultural awareness are all that important. "Now more than ever it is apparent why visual content – images, emojis and particularly video content – is important for brands," says King. "I don't think it's necessary for brands to start making language strategies or feel that every piece of branded activity needs to be translated." Amusing videos are a good example; the language is international.
Take Sweden, where English is widely spoken and understood by an estimated 89% of its nine million people. "Considering the small size of the country, export has always been a necessity … popular culture in English is consumed from early ages, so the awareness of international viable preference and strong language are good enablers," says Niklas Hedin, CEO of logistics software company Centiro.
Swedes need to speak English to export their ideas, but do any of their success stories – including Candy Crush, Skype, Spotify and Minecraft – rely on language? Little, if at all – these are visual innovations designed to appeal to, and be used by, anyone, anywhere in the world.
"More content is being created in more languages, and the entire world – not just English speakers – need to adapt by creating engaging and interesting content that can be understood even without words," says King.
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