The foreign language internet refers to the body of web pages in all languages other than English.

Overview

Traditionally, English has been the ‘lingua franca’ of the internet. However, with the spread of global internet access, the number of foreign language internet users is rapidly rising, with English accounting for just 27% of internet users in 2011.

In the face of this rising global Internet usage, projects such as the W3C

World Wide Web Consortium

The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web .Founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the...

Multilingual Web have recognised the need for standardisation of the web. Strategies to be used would involve creating standards and best practices on the foreign language internet, recognising shared issues, and finding ways to solve these.

Business interest

The foreign language interest is of great interest to online businesses and digital marketers as competition for business and search engine rankings on the foreign language internet is lower than that on the English-speaking internet owing to there being less foreign language content.

This means it’s easier to reach the top of the search engines in a language other than English.

Research

Much research has been conducted in the realm of the foreign language internet. A recent EU-wide survey by Eurobarometer investigated foreign language use on the internet which found that 9 out of 10 EU internet users preferred to access websites in their own language.

Likewise, the Common Sense Advisory’s ‘Can’t Read, Won’t Buy’ report found internet users were four times more likely to make a purchase if they’re given information in their own language.