Top 5 Business Languages in the Global Economy

Language is the new currency these days.

Investing in learning one or two – especially now that we experience diversity in remote and in-house teams – helps you become a better communicator.

In today’s thriving global economy where competence includes knowledge about the culture and language of the target audience, providing content in different languages pushes you to take your strategy to the next level.

If you want to increase your global sales, you need to speak the same language as your customer according to Common Sense Advisory. Customers, when presented with information or content in their mother tongue prefer are likely to purchase on a website.

To achieve global competence and improve customer relationships, English will always remain the standard language, but in a global marketplace, companies like you should be strategic as well concerning your industry and what your competitors do.

Let’s take a look at the top 5 languages in the global economy. If your target audience is using them, maybe it’s about time to think about investing in language solutions incrementally.

1. Chinese

As of this writing, China has more than 1.3 billion population, and more than 800 million internet users. Thus, the Chinese language is the most widely used in the world. As we witness the country’s progress and development in the areas of internet, e-commerce and mobile payments, China is becoming a global leader. Business opportunities are increasing, offering global companies to cooperate with Chinese companies.

Mandarin and Cantonese are the spoken dialect, while Simplified and Traditional Chinese, are the written forms, which can help you decide as to whether to use either in business meetings, website translations, and multimedia projects, depending on the region where you are building your business.

2. Spanish

There are about 405 million native speakers of Spanish and considered as the second widely used language in the world. Spoken in Latin America and Spain, the booming markets give you a hint that you can expand your business in these regions because of the flexible open trade agreements, for example in Mexico. In the United States, there are about 37.6 million Spanish speakers.

The Hispanic population in the United States was estimated to double in 2050, which makes the language usable and essential in the marketplace.

3. Arabic

28 countries in the Middle East and Africa use the Arabic language. These countries are also open into trade and are among the UK’s top 50 export markets in goods. There are about 295 million speakers worldwide, and emerging markets are also thriving in the Middle East, where it also attracts more tourism and trade.

Companies can take advantage of this language where the internet is a growing trend in the region, which makes the translating online content, both in mobile and desktop is an advantage.

4. German

There are about 210 million speakers worldwide and the fourth widely used language online. Although the numbers are rather small, the most important economies do speak this language in Europe. Germany is the largest economy in Europe and considered an economic powerhouse. Many industries flourish in this region such as R&D, health sciences, arts, and humanities.

Companies like you who would like to expand in this market should consider the growing sectors and advancing in this field to further your localization and translation strategies.

5. Portuguese

Spoken by around 215 million people in Portugal, Brazil and some parts of Africa. It’s also the second most useful language in Latin America, and for the business people, Brazil is also a growing country to expand, having the largest economy in Latin America. Brazil has many opportunities to offer especially on scientific co-operation and collaboration. Not to mention their competence in pharmaceuticals and energy.

In the United States, there is a demand for the language, and aside from being known as one of the most important languages in the world, it is also making its way in business and international affairs.

If you need help with professional language translation services in order to translate their websites in any of these languages, get in touch with us. We offer customized translators services online in different languages, which includes

  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • Russian

You can visit our website for further information.



Leave a Reply