Top > Business > 2006 > January > 2006-01-17

Bringing the World Into the Web

Although the internet has been around for over a decade it has only become mainstream in the past 6 years. Considering the fact that almost every business has a website and most consumers can find everything they need on the web, it is not surprising that more and more people are joining the ranks of the web savvy everyday. Of the 1 billion people who used it in 2005 a large portion were from non-English speaking countries. Forecasters predict that future growth lies solely in non-English speaking nations such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia. If businesses from English speaking countries want to retain their competitive edge in the future, it is key that they give serious consideration to multilingual websites.

Kwintessential, a UK company at the forefront of a movement to encourage the development of a multilingual cyberspace, is now offering simple packages for SME?s, small and medium enterprises, looking to display websites in foreign languages. The internet is no longer the English speaker?s domain. Statistics from industry analysts` eTForecasts show that in 2005, four of the top five internet using nations in the world, four were non-English speaking (China, Japan, India and Germany). Growth in traditional strongholds such as the US and Britain have flat-lined. Future growth is predicted in China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia.

Kwintessential Ltd, a cross cultural communication consultancy providing intercultural awareness training, translation, interpreting and other cross cultural solutions, have long been at the forefront of a movement to help companies maximize their global potential through websites in foreign languages. Working with a range of companies from Blue Chips to SMEs, they we have assisted in both the translation and design of multilingual websites. In a move to help SME?s capitalize upon the potential the multilingual internet holds, the specialists have now launched a new simple, hassle-free website design/translation package. The package has been designed to both address the general reluctance within SMEs to go multilingual plus minimize their costs.