70% de todas las paginas de web son en inglés. Pero solo 44% de usuarios son inglés nativos. ¿Por qué? ¿Cómo son las personas que no hablan esta lengua especial suponer usarlo?
If you don’t speak Spanish, or speak Spanish and still can’t understand my writing, that’s how the Internet feels for non-English speakers. The language gap is increasing the digital divide and more people are being swallowed by it. What good is Internet in developing countries if people can’t speak the language to use it?
I like to hope that as the Internet expands we will see more and more pages written in different languages. I also find it exciting as non-English speaking countries get to benefit from the birth of the Internet all over again by remaking the classic websites in their own languages. If your country doesn’t have an Amazon, or an eBay, you should be out there creating it.
I know the guy that brought the eBay like website of TradeMe.co.nz to New Zealand walked away with about $30 million. If you think the number of speakers of your language is too small to get you the big money, think again. New Zealand has a population of only 4 million. Now that’s something to think about, isn’t it?
New Zealand is not a very apt example given that New Zealand is obviously an anglophone nation. There’s nothing keeping New Zealanders from accessing the English internet and equally nothing keeping Americans or Australians from buying things on this New Zealander website. I don’t see how this example is at all related to minority languages
Sorry that I combined two chains of thought and confused you. I’ll try to keep this simple:
1) As developing countries get internet they will increasingly need websites in their languages. Therefore, the people that create websites that are similar in concept to what has been successful in English, will walk away with a lot of money. E.g. the local amazon, ebay, etc.
2) The New Zealand TradeMe example has nothing to do with language difference. But it’s an example of taking a proven concept from the US and executing it well in another country. There is nothing to stop people from other countries buying from it, or New Zealanders buying from ebay/ However, due large international freight costs and just general inconvenience NZers would rather buy from their own country if possible.
Now for the hard part!
Starting a similar website to amazon or ebay in your own country will not only give you the freight and convenience advantage, but you can also add a native language advantage on top of it.
Q.E.D
Next week we’ll go over our times tables