Top 5 Internet Languages in 2019

I wrote the LinkedIn article “Top 5 Internet Languages & Global Internet Marketing Strategies” in June, 2016. Over the past three years, the expected trend has slowly continued – English speakers, continue to decline as the largest percentage of Internet users worldwide. At the same time, we continue to contribute to an already over-saturated English content market online. Below I analyze some of the trends between world Internet users by language and global online content by language. We’ll explore some of the strategies involved with making content available to a wider multilingual audience and some of the things to watch out for on the localization journey. 

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By the Numbers...

In the most-recent study on the percentage of world internet users by language by Miniwatts Marketing Group, English is still the number one Internet language used worldwide (25.2%), followed by Chinese (19.3%), Spanish (7.9%), Arabic (5.2%), and Portuguese (3.9%).

According to W3Techs’ most updated rankings related to content languages for websites, English content continues to flood the market, while there is still a relatively low amount of content for the other top five languages of the internet: Chinese (1.6%), Spanish (4.9%), Arabic (0.7%), Portuguese (2.8%).

The percentage of global website content in English has increased by an entire percent while the actual percentage of Internet English speakers in the world has dropped just over one percent! We are flooding an over-saturated content market with more English, when, from a marketing standpoint, we could get more people to view our content with less competition. How? By creating unique content for the other 74.8% of Internet users who don’t use English online. 

Localizing your content into the top five languages of the Internet more than doubles the potential to reach customers across the globe!

Let’s Get Real

In reality, it is tough to create multilingual content for the entire globe – but if you think strategically, you could get big bang for your buck by supplementing your English content with multilingual content in four of the five other top languages of the Internet (Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese); speakers of these four languages make up 36.3% of global Internet users; this means, coupled with English, your content could be targeting an easy 61.5% of global Internet users! While English-only websites make content available to 25.2% of online viewers, localizing your content into the top five languages of the Internet more than doubles the potential to reach customers across the globe, and even in your backyard (since language doesn’t recognize borders). In 2014, Common Sense Advisory surveyed 3,000 Online Shoppers Across 10 Countries and found that 60% rarely or never buy from English-only websites. 

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The Competition

An added benefit in making your content available in Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese is that your content’s potential competition is quite small compared to that of English. Yes, only 10% of the content online is written in the primary (likely desired) language of 36.6% of all Internet users, which should make for a relatively target-rich environment.

Only 10% of online content is available in the primary language of 36.6% of all Internet users!

Tips and Advice When Localizing Content

While it’s never a bad idea to make your content available to the world, simply going by the top user languages isn’t always the answer. Any good business understands that strategy is key with every dollar it spends. In marketing, we must consider our product or service and its respective audience. If your online store sells wooden latticework as a structural support for a yurt/ger (nomadic tents of Central Asia), you may do better targeting languages like Mongolian, or even Hungarian rather than Portuguese and Spanish.  

There are plenty of online resources, how-to guides, and professional translation services available to assist in making your online store a multilingual haven for international visitors. If you are a do-it-yourself type of person, but you don’t speak a foreign language, you could do your homework on the “how to” when it comes to integrating a foreign language into your website (localization). Every content management system (CMS) is different and may offer different options for foreign language integration, so do your homework. You can use a freelance translator or even a translation agency (which typically employs and vets freelancers on your behalf) to translate your content. Afterward, you can handle the deployment of the translated content. While you would still have to get your content translated, “drag-and-drop” website builder services like Weebly are a type of content management system which offer their own paid widget for easy localization called “Multilanguage”. More hands on CMS platforms like WordPress have an arsenal of powerful translation plugins to choose from. 

Other Interesting Statistics

Will Indonesian/Malaysian Overtake Portuguese?

Of the top languages by users on the Internet, Indonesian/Malaysian comes close 6th place, closing in on Portuguese, which has just over 1.89 million more users online. Malaysian/Indonesian Internet user growth between 2000 and 2019 grew by 2,861.4%, while Portuguese grew by 2,164.8% in the same time-frame. Additionally, Internet penetration for Portuguese (59.2%) is slightly higher than or Indonesian/Malaysian (56.1%), which technically means Indonesian/Malaysian has more room to grow. Internet penetration is defined as the ratio between the sum of Internet users speaking a language and the total population estimate that speaks that specific language.

Explosive Growth for Arabic-Speaking Internet Users

From the year 2000 to 2019, the highest percentage of growth takes place among the Arabic Internet user group, at a growth rate of 8,917.3%. Another interesting facet is that this demographic has the lowest Internet penetration, at only 51%, which means extensive room for growth compared with Internet users who speak other languages. 

Disclaimer: I am a project manager for Type 2 Translate LLC, a professional online translation agency. However, I do not receive compensation for authoring this article.

I would like to thank the following translators for their assistance in translating this article in their respective target language: Celia Si Nga Cheung (Chinese), Carla Rocca (Spanish), Aline Assaf (Arabic), Debora Santos (Portuguese).