Top Languages for Business in 2018

As the world increasingly becomes connected, business today has become a global phenomenon. International companies are rushing to address the emerging globalization by diversifying on the languages they use in providing content. It’s almost becoming a primary requirement for businesses aspiring to sell their products and services across different linguistic and cultural backgrounds to improve on multilingual. The most effective way to engaging with your audience is by utilizing their preferred language whether it’s by localizing your business website to attract clients worldwide, translating product manuals and translating user guides for customer support or focusing on online training to improve communication with their employees.

With almost 7,000 known languages worldwide the choice for which language or languages to invest in is a difficult task. That is why defining your translation and localization strategy as a business is a necessary task as it paves way for global interactions. Keeping in mind the current trends in languages for business and how relevant they are. With much research and expertise we’ve selected the top 3 languages for business and marketing translation in 2018. 

Mandarin Chinese

With more than a billion native speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the world’s most widely spoken language and the second most popular language used among internet users. Over the last decades the Chinese economy has been experiencing a remarkable growth. Bloomberg predicts the probability of China becoming the world’s biggest economy by 2026 surpassing U.S. China’s dominance in the world’s economy makes Mandarin dialect a noticeable source of business opportunity. As Chinese businesses spread into the global market, China presents emerging capability to outsource production due to high productivity levels and low cost of labor. Chinese Mandarin is definitely one of the top languages for business in 2018.

Spanish

Spanish is hardly perceived as a language of business. However with more than 400 million native speakers, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world. Spanish is spoken in Latin American countries, and it’s one of the six official languages spoken in America. An estimated 37 million people speak Spanish as their first language, and the British Council recognizes Spanish as being useful for 34% of businesses in the U.K. As a result of an extensive network of bilateral trade agreements, Mexico offers some of the open trade globally. By 2050, the Hispanic population in the U.S. is projected to double. This increases the importance of the Spanish language as one of your localized languages if you are doing business in the U.S. and any other region in the Western hemisphere.

Arabic

Spoken by almost 300 million people worldwide, Arabic is the official language for a total of 28 countries most of which are growing, dynamic economies in Africa and the Middle East. Six Arabic speaking nations are ranked among the top 50 export market in goods in the UK. The combined economy of this six countries exceeds that of Italy, Spain or China. A report by the British Council ranks the Arabic dialect as the second most important “Language of the Future.” Despite the obvious regional instability, these concerns add to an increased demand for a variety of content, especially for defense, diplomacy, and energy businesses.

Always remember your target market comes first when deciding which languages to include in your translation and localization strategy.

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