Top Online Languages in 2018

How is your company targeting its online market? It’s an important question that will shift with changes in the world’s population, internet penetration and per capita GDP. As these factors change, so will the languages of the online population. Access to the internet is growing and following with that are potential online shoppers. So, which languages do you need in 2018 to connect with this online market?

According to Internet World Stats, at the start of 2018 the primary language of online users was English (25%) followed by Chinese (20%). Despite the five percent gap, the number of English speakers and Chinese speakers on the planet is relatively similar with 1.46 billion speaking English and 1.45 billion speaking Chinese. This gap may close sooner rather than later though – the percentage of Chinese-speaking online users has increased by 2,391% since 2000, whereas English has only increased 648%.

Spanish takes the third spot, making up 8% of the world’s online population. It has grown by 1,758% in the past eighteen years, and that only encompasses 66% of the world’s actual Spanish-speaking population, so there is plenty of room for it to continue growing.

We’re here for YOU!

If your market expands into other countries, it’s well worth the time, cost and effort to properly translate or localize your content. We have some major players making up the majority of the languages used online globally, but those will change with time and you’re better off being ahead of the game.

If you’d like to explore translating your content into other languages to properly connect with your target audience, give US Translation Company a call. We’re here for YOU!