7 SECONDS IS ALL IT TAKES TO LOSE A CUSTOMER.

 2.) When the world wide web was originated, English was the commanding language and other countries grudgingly accepted this because there were no other alternatives. Today countries around the world are using thousands of web sites and Internet users are actively choosing to visit web sites that are written in their own languages. Companies who accept and cater to this globalization
trend will zoom past those who choose to ignore it. Here are some statistics to back up our conclusions regarding the globalization of  Internet usage.

<> Today's Internet Users and Their Languages: English-speaking Internet users account for 51.3% and Non-English speakers account for 48.7% of the world's 302-million online population. On a dollar basis, English speakers account for 32% of the world's $33.7 trillion economy, while Non-English speakers account for a larger slice of the economic pie, coming in at a whopping 68% (Global Reach, March 2000).

Among the world's Internet surfers, 31.8% speak European languages  and 16.9% speak Asian languages. On a world wide basis, the  percentage breakdown of the major languages spoken by online users is: English 51.3%, Japanese 7.2%, German 6.7%, Spanish 6.5%, Chinese 5.2%, French 4.4%, Korean 3.6%, Italian 3.3%, and Dutch 2.0%  (Global Reach, March 2000).

<> Projection of Foreign-Language Speakers on the Internet by 2001: And what does the near future hold? The number of Internet users who speak languages other than English is expected to grow dramatically during this year and next year.

By the end of this year, the number of Internet users is expected to grow to 14.57 million in the Asia/Pacific Rim, to 18.45 million in Europe, and to 6.70 million in Latin America (Cowles/Simba  Information).

By the end of 2001, these numbers are expected to grow by 20.1% in the Asia/Pacific Rim to 17.50 million, by 24% in Europe to 22.87 million, and by 51.6% in Latin America to 10.16 million (Cowles/Simba Information).

Companies who want to succeed must tailor their domestic and international web sites, to match the language, culture,  traditions, customs and monetary units to those of their target customers or risk crashing and burning in the new economy.

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