According to online statistics compiled from 2004-data English remains to be the major language of the web, although its predominance is diminishing. With 35.8% English has lost its ultimate status as the ‘web-language’ that is still had a couple of years ago. Spanish which used to be second ranked in the languages by content now is listed fourth with 9.1%, after having been overtaken by Chinese (14.1%) and Japanese (9.6%). German and French are ranked fifth and sixth most often used language on web.
Apart from these facts being of much interest to marketers and businesses in the global games of selling products, these statistics not only show the rise of Asian E-Commerce and content production but also reassures the community of language professionals of being needed: a steady growth of non-English usage on the web means a steady demand for content localisation.
More information:
www.internetworldstats.com
www.wwwcoder.com
www.glreach.com
