Business communication with multiple countries demands expertise and precision. Here are the six reasons hinting why it is important to use business translation:
1. Better communication with customers: If your business calls for communicating directly with your customers then you must have faced many people who do not speak English. You can market your products to a much wider spectrum of an audience if you could speak to them in their language.
2. Enhance brand visibility: A lot of various abilities serve as a basis for the company’s brand potential. Reaching out to more and more people is among them. You need to cross the barrier of language to build an image in the global market and that is possible only with business translation.
3. Healthcare industry can get a huge benefit: Healthcare units have to deal with a lot of patients coming from various countries. Also, there are many doctors across the globe busy researching. Language should never be an impediment in medical research or a patient’s treatment. Professional medical interpreters and translators play their aces in translating the medical documents that will help the doctors who are more comfortable studying in the language they choose.
4. More job opportunities: Many people are passionate about learning different languages. Nothing can be better if they can learn and earn at the same time. Any industry, small or big, hires translators and interpreters to not only ease their business communication with other countries but also for marketing and project coordination.
5. Drafting legal documents: Understanding legal documents itself is an uphill task and if it’s in a different language, then it gets all the more complicated. One slip off and the meaning of the sentence changes completely. Business translation assures an accurate and easy interpretation of legal documents aligned to the professional needs of lawyers, court stenographers, attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals.
Now, let’s have a look at the most popular languages for business translation.
1. Simplified Chinese
It’s the official written language in China, while Mandarin is the spoken dialect. So, for all your written content, you need to translate into Simplified Chinese. When you need an interpreter, you should be looking for a Mandarin specialist.
Almost one-fifth of internet users speak Chinese, making it one of the most popular languages for business translation. In fact, China is the second largest economy in the world, which makes Chinese a useful language for creating new business opportunities.
It’s not just the 770 million internet users. China will exceed $1 trillion in e-commerce next year and will become the largest e-commerce market in the world. But, as most Chinese people don’t speak English, you’d better teach your website the local language well, if you want to enter this huge market.
2. Spanish
It’s the second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese, and the next most popular language for business translation.
Translating into Spanish gives you the chance to reach over 500 million people, in countries from Europe and Latin America. To get the most out of your business translation, you must localize for each country you’re planning to expand to, as speech and vocabulary vary from region to region and country to country.
Spanish-speaking countries offer a wide range of business opportunities, especially in terms of economic growth. Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Peru are all on the list of the top 50 countries in the world with the highest GDPs.
Today, around 10 percent of all web content is in Spanish. This number will grow as the purchasing power of people in Spanish-speaking countries becomes higher. Spanish is also said to be one of the easiest languages to learn, which explains why it’s one of the most popular languages of all.
3. Arabic
Arabic is the seventh most popular language online, with a growing number of internet users. Almost 46 million people search the internet in the Arabic language only. Even Google has developed domains and integrated language options for 15 Arabic countries.
280 million people speak Arabic in 28 countries. Ignoring this language means fewer chances to conquer a market that will reach $20 billion in e-commerce by 2020.
The middle east is a high growth region, with a huge potential for businesses. So invest in Arabic content now to gain a competitive edge while less than two percent of the written content on the internet is in Arabic.
This language remains less popular for business translation because of its character. According to Common Sense Advisory, Arabic regional versions occupy an important role in digital marketing, making translation and localization difficult and more expensive than other languages.
4. Portuguese (Brazilian)
The 2016 Olympic Games shifted attention to Brazil, a country with high economic potential and one of the most popular languages. Despite three years of recession and high rates of unemployment, Brazil’s economy is finally showing signs of recovery.
Brazil is the largest internet market in Latin America, with 140 million internet users. By 2021, this country will reach an internet penetration rate of 61 percent. Businesses that invest in localization for this country will reach even higher audiences in the following years.
Another advantage of this local market comprises the country’s young population. More than half of Brazilians are under 30, which means more people in the workforce, with the possibility of higher income and a growing middle class.
5. Indonesian (Malay)
When thinking about the most popular languages, you probably didn’t consider Indonesian, which is a version of Malay and the official language of Indonesia. Even if the local population speaks over 700 living languages, Indonesian is the only language recognized officially, and used in administration, commerce, and media.
Indonesia is an attractive market for digital marketers, with over 150 million internet users. And Indonesians are important internet consumers, with a passion for social media, especially YouTube and Facebook, which adds importance to Malay as one of the most popular languages.
Content marketing in Indonesia offers important growth opportunities, so Indonesian has a great chance of becoming even more popular among languages for business translation. The e-commerce market in Indonesia reached $5.6 billion in 2016.
6. Japanese
With all eyes on China, businesses often forget about localizing for Japan, but Japanese still makes the list of the most popular languages. If you plan to expand in Asia, you can’t miss this market. Japan registered 77 million digital buyers in 2015 and retail e-commerce sales are steadily growing.
Between Japan’s advantages in terms of digital marketing, consider that over 90 percent of this country’s population is urban. They like shopping with their smartphones and are fond of Western products. In terms of ROI, translating into Japanese is one of the most popular languages and most profitable.
Also, 99 percent of Japanese people don’t speak English. So, if you want to engage with a Japanese audience, you need localization.
This language has several writing systems and complex grammar, which results in higher costs because Japanese is hard to translate into. But the 109 million Japanese users online makes this one of most popular languages worth the effort.
7. Russian
The next on the list of most popular languages is an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. But translating into Russian opens your business up to people from more than these four countries as Russian is in high demand in Eastern Europe. So, you’ll also reach audiences in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Bulgaria, Finland, and Georgia.
About 109 million internet users speak Russian. Many of them have a basic knowledge of English. In Russia alone, 30 million people shop online and e-commerce is thriving.
For now, Russians prefer shopping from local online stores, and Chinese sites are gaining in popularity. However, the Russian online market remains an opportunity for foreigners, especially if they sell footwear, smartphones, tablets, computers, household appliances, electronic devices, goods for children, cosmetics, perfumes, and furniture.
8. French
One of the most popular languages for translation, French is an official language in countries with strong economies. If your website speaks French, you can reach audiences in France, parts of Canada, Monaco, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and parts of the Caribbean.
All these French-speaking countries have seen a consistent growth in the e-commerce local markets. 36 million French internet users shop online, spending an average $2,100 annually.
French-speaking countries also include African countries with growing economies: Rwanda (the second easiest country in Africa to do business), Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to name a few.
9. German
With less than 100 millions speakers online, German still counts as one of the most popular languages on the internet. W3Techs registers 5.6 percent of the most visited websites are in German.
Countries with important economies have German as an official language: Germany (the largest economy in the EU), Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Belgium. The German e-commerce market has the fastest growth in Europe, expected to pass $65 billion in 2017.
Amazon and the local giant, Otto divide the German online market. Small businesses have little chances of making a difference. So, in this context, not having your website localized into German, one of the most popular languages, means not selling at all.
You would also be interested in “What Languages to Study in 2019 and How to Do It?“
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