Why Businesses Should Consider Translating their Websites into French

In the last 10 years, the boom of the internet and constant changes in foreign market, and technologies have given the opportunity for companies of all sizes to sell their products and services around the world almost instantly. In 2006, exports of American merchandises and services to other nations were more than $1.5 billion, an increase of 15% from 2005. This trend is on the rise every year.

As more and more countries develop their internet access and capabilities, the global market is opening more and more. Right now, at any given moment, any business can reach over 190 different countries. The difficulty that most business owners are facing is the language barrier as well as the customs in a particular territory. If you don’t understand your client’s language, it is going to be tough to convey the usefulness of what you are selling.

An expert translation is the answer to solve that hurdle and will help your worldwide customers to understand the value of your goods or services. One of the key languages that you must consider is to translate your website, description of products etc into French. Why? You may ask.

Let’s consider the following facts:
French is not just spoken in France and Canada but it is spoken by 54 countries which means 1/3 of the population that has access to the internet is French speaking country or if you prefer more than 300 million people can be your potential customers.

French is still the official language of the U.N and of many international corporations such as the Red Cross. By not translating your documents into French, your business is missing out on reaching the important decision makers of this world.

In 2003, American companies were heavily present in France, and accounted for 25% of the new jobs formed. Today, companies like Microsoft, H.P, and Mattel have offices in France and employ over 240,000 people. On the other hand, major French companies such as Danone, Bic have offices in the USA and employ more than 700,000 people. France is one of the main investor in the US economy.

France is known around the world for its fine art, cuisine, wine, perfume and fashion. Consequently, French is used the most when surfing the net and is considered the language that one must speak after English.

Now let's take a look at some of the countries around the world who speak French. Canada is an appealing market for U.S. companies because products can be easily transported across the border. The total exports to Canada have increased by more than $19 billion in 2006. More than 7 million Canadians regard French as their native tongue. The Canadian government even insists on having all documents, websites and manuals translated into French.

Maybe your company is not doing business with France or Canada but is doing business with Asia. Among the Asians countries, many of them speak French either as the main language or as their second language. Among them, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos trained its elite, doctors, chemists, engineers, senior civil servants, lawyers, and journalists to communicate in French. Japan is establishing many French cultural centers across its country and France is on the top of the list for young Japanese who want to study abroad. More than 280,000 people are speaking French in Japan. In Korea, French is the most language learned and spoken and more students are learning French there than Japanese. In Hong Kong and China, even so one of the most common language taught is mandarin, French is still one of the language of choice to learn business and management. In India, more than 300,000 students focusing on tourism are learning French every year.

If you are not doing business with any of those countries and you are focusing on Africa, know that more than 115 million people speak French across 31 nations on that continent. Many of the African countries have French as the official language.

What about the other countries such as the one located in Europe, in the Indian Ocean, in Central America? They also have a large speaking French population as a lot of the French territories are located there. Most of the countries in Europe have French as the second official language such as Belgium, Switzerland etc

Translating your promotional materials and documents into French will give your business access to a large population not only in Canada and France but will put your company on the international map across 5 continents.

M. Blanc owns Hi-DefinitionStudios and has 20 years of experience as a translator/writer. She works with Tectrad, a company specialized in the translation of finance, legal and corporate communications such as research reports, economic reviews, annual reports, etc. To maintain quality relations with your foreign investors and clients consider Tectrad's French English translation services