01-07-2006, 09:58 AM
Everybody loves to talk about China, and India because it seems like a couple billion people ought to be able to buy a lot on the Internet.
I made a spreadsheet of Internet users (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/). To make the information useful, I cross-referenced it with the ethnologue (www.ethnologue.com) and per capita GDP. Sorting by =sum(Users * GDP avg * Speakers) revealed the top eleven markets to be:
1) English-USA 2) Japanese-Japan 3) German-Germany 4) English-UK 5) Korean-South Korea 6) Spanish-USA 7) French-France 8) Chinese, Mandarin-China 9) Italian-Italy 10) English-Canada 11) English-Australia
I know the data is not perfect, but Spanish in the USA (same country & currency, comparable culture & religion, different language) appears to be a much more legitimate first-attempt at globalization for small businesses. England, Canada, & Australia also make sense.
Germany, Italy, and France present extra levels of difficulty, so maybe that's step two.
I'd be surprised and amazed and shocked if anyone on tuliptools is earning a significant percentage of business from Japan and/or South Korea.
China and India are off the map, in my opinion, for anything other than big business, unless you happen to be Chinese or Indian. Let's talk about realistic strategies for improving our international web presence.
Edit to add: Stupid thing turned my eight into a smiley face!!!
I made a spreadsheet of Internet users (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/). To make the information useful, I cross-referenced it with the ethnologue (www.ethnologue.com) and per capita GDP. Sorting by =sum(Users * GDP avg * Speakers) revealed the top eleven markets to be:
1) English-USA 2) Japanese-Japan 3) German-Germany 4) English-UK 5) Korean-South Korea 6) Spanish-USA 7) French-France 8) Chinese, Mandarin-China 9) Italian-Italy 10) English-Canada 11) English-Australia
I know the data is not perfect, but Spanish in the USA (same country & currency, comparable culture & religion, different language) appears to be a much more legitimate first-attempt at globalization for small businesses. England, Canada, & Australia also make sense.
Germany, Italy, and France present extra levels of difficulty, so maybe that's step two.
I'd be surprised and amazed and shocked if anyone on tuliptools is earning a significant percentage of business from Japan and/or South Korea.
China and India are off the map, in my opinion, for anything other than big business, unless you happen to be Chinese or Indian. Let's talk about realistic strategies for improving our international web presence.
Edit to add: Stupid thing turned my eight into a smiley face!!!