Top 10 Languages for Global eCommerce (Besides English)

Do have an online business? Are you trying to grow a more international customer base? Smart thinking. We all know that the Internet is a much bigger, much more diverse place than it was even 10 years ago. According to Internet World Stats, there are now  3,345,832,772 active Internet users in the world. That’s over 3 billion – almost half the global population. Of those Internet users, only 9.4% are in North America, even though it’s the continent with highest penetration rate (88%). So where are the other 90.6% of the world’s Internet users? And what languages do they speak?

Why English-Only Websites Just Won’t Cut It Anymore

According to recent statistics compiled by We Are Social, there are now 7.357 billion humans on this planet. Of that number, 3.175 billion – almost half the global population – are active Internet users, and that proportion is growing every day.

That’s an amazing opportunity for online businesses, both big and small. But guess what? Most global Internet users don’t speak English as a first language. Let’s look at the top 12 countries with the highest number of active Internet users:

My Year of Learning

If 2014 had a theme for me, I’d say it was a year of Learning – with a capital L. I did a lot of it, and on many fronts. I learned how to start my own business and how to build my own website. I learned how to manage collaborative work projects, and how to produce estimates and invoices using FreshBooks. I learned about the value of attending local networking groups, the incredible potential of social media, and I discovered that I truly enjoy the process of developing my business network through both those channels.