A recent article published on Balkans.com suggests that “nearly half of the world’s approximately 6,000 languages could die out by the end of the century, with 96 percent of these languages spoken by a mere four percent of the world’s population.” [Source]

According to the article, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), especially Internet, have so far contributed to the trend towards reduced linguistic diversity, although international organisations like UNESCO regularly advocate the need for a greater presence of content in local languages. It encourages languages to stay alive and continue to be useful to people, but on the busienss side of things, localised content can actually significantly contribute to consumer trust, brand loyalty and ultimately, sales. I’m sure we all know the feeling of looking at a potential purchase on a website with bad English and bad grammar, may of us will inevitably question the reliability of the site due to this and also the security of the payments process there. It’s playing with fire to not carry out professional translations, especially if you’re not already a well established brand. Which let’s face it, many start-up online businesses aren’t yet, but you may have the potential.

At least 80 percent of all content on the Internet is in one of 10 languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Arabic, French, Russian, and Korean. African languages are represented on the Internet, but not as a widespread communication medium and often with minimum content in the languages themselves.

If you want to learn more about website localisation to enhance trust from diverse populations of consumers, visit IrelandTranslations.ie. If you already know you need professional translation services for your website or marketing materials for non-English speaking markets, contact us for an instant quote.