FRENCH SPEAKING MARKET - More than 128 million people...

You can do business in many markets using only the English language. However, you cannot completely enter certain markets using only English. Think about the following information:

Just like English, French is spoken today on all the continents, and the demographic growth of the native French-speaking people is increasing every day.
In 2005, the worldwide French-speaking population was estimated at 128 million people.
The Internet penetration rate for this population is still low: 10,7%.
But the Internet use growth rate for this population is almost equal to that of China: 236% average growth (compared to 110% for North America, 284.8% for the Chinese language).
Today the French language is recognized as one of the most important languages for developing business on the Internet, with the highest current and potential growth.

The most powerful business languages are English and French respectively, even though Chinese is the language that is spoken most. This is due to the fact that both are spoken worldwide and used as the official languages in many countries. These languages have a true international status.

Companies that develop their websites in French always experience over 100% growth in profits in this “linguistic market”.  Very often this means four figure increases for US and UK firms, since their penetration rate prior to deciding to translate their sites was often low, because they were not taking full advantage of this market.

You may believe that many French-speaking people know English, speak it or at least understand it. However, they will definitely be more disposed to invest (and invest more) from a company that communicates with them in their own language. Being able to read about a company or its products in his own language makes a customer feel more comfortable and confident. Language is a psychological barrier. It’s easy to remove this barrier, and the opportunity is surely worth the investment.

French: Official language in 40 countries (ISO), spoken in 54 countries (E).
Source: Ethnologue (E);  UNHCR;  ISO/CD 3166-1 country codes (ISO).

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