English, Spanish and Portuguese comprise three of the top five languages on the Web. Let’s take a look at some statistics reflecting these languages’ influence on the Internet.
English
- Number of native English-speaking users on the Web: 565.0 million (as of May 31, 2011)
% of English-speaking Internet users with respect to total population of English speakers: 43.4% - User growth from 2000 to 2011: 301.4%
- Percentage of total Internet users: 26.8% (Overall ranking among top 10 languages: #1)
- % of websites available in English (as of December 31, 2011): 56.6%
Spanish
- Number of native Spanish-speaking users on the Web: 165.0 million (as of May 31, 2011)
- % of Spanish-speaking Internet users with respect to total population of Spanish speakers: 39.0%
- User growth from 2000 to 2011: 807.4%
- Percentage of total Internet users: 7.8% (Overall ranking among top 10 languages: #3)
- % of websites available in Spanish (as of December 31, 2011): 4.6%
Portuguese
- Number of native Portuguese-speaking users on the Web: 82.6 million (as of May 31, 2011)
- % of Portuguese-speaking Internet users with respect to total population of Portuguese speakers: 32.5%
- User growth from 2000 to 2011: 990.1%
- Percentage of total Internet users: 3.9% (Overall ranking among top 10 languages: #5)
- % of websites available in Portuguese (as of December 31, 2011): 2.0%
A quick analysis of the numbers points to the following facts that translation buyers should be aware of:
» Figures show that there’s still a great deal of room for growth among all three languages, in terms of the number of users and the amount of content available. Although English leads the charge as the “language of the Web,” not even half of all English speakers are on the ‘net, and Spanish and Portuguese lag even farther behind. As the economic outlook continues to improve in Latin America and Brazil, user growth among speakers of Spanish and Portuguese should be particularly strong.
» Despite an explosion in the number of Internet users among the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking populations over the last decade, access to content in those languages remains severely limited. Those businesses looking for a competitive edge will invest in translations of their web content into Spanish and/or Portuguese.
Statistical data courtesy of Internet World Stats and Wikipedia
More information on the English Language
More information on the Spanish Language
More information on the Portuguese Language
Translating from Spanish to English and vice versa on your website could help open the doors to new customers; especially if you are hoping to establish yourself more internationally.