English Language Skills Becoming A Requirement for Competing in Global Consumer Markets
WHITBY, Ontario (PRWEB) March 27, 2018 -- English is the “language of business.” It is the principal language in three of the world’s twelve largest consumer nations(1) (U.S., England, Canada) but more importantly, is spoken so extensively by the business sectors in all twelve of them that, like many other multinational companies, Rakuten—Japan’s largest online marketplace, a cross between Amazon.com and EBay—was mandated by its CEO to adopt English as that company’s official language of business.(2)
The demand for using the English language in business is a direct result of the fact that it is now used functionally well by a 1.75 billion people—a quarter of the world’s population—who are largely concentrated in the biggest consumer nations(2). “Due to the increased use of the English language, online marketing tools have become more relevant than traditional advertising channels,” says Rob Ragusa, founder and co-managing partner of DIT Web Solutions. “As businesses reach deeper into global markets, creating websites and mobile apps that will effectively engage people increasingly requires a higher quality of communication and more precision usage of English.”
Doing anything less than meeting the demands for necessary quality can have devastating effects on web design, web hosting, or any phase of online marketing, when outsourced to offshore contractors whose English language skills are inadequate. While this approach can deceptively appear to be more cost effective, in the long term it is often far more costly in lost business and nearly always proves to be a classic case of getting what you pay for.
“The bottom line is that a web or app developer team’s inability to communicate clearly to the client’s customers about the company’s products leads to misunderstandings and the potential for lost business,” Ragusa explained.
Wise business people project into the future and plan for it. When a business solution fails, plans necessarily change. As an example, when a study of the decline of contracted call centers throughout India was done by financial services advisory KMPG and the ASSOCHAM trade association, they found that as the demand for higher-quality and higher-value service increased, the country had lost 70% of its voice and call center business to the Philippines, due to that country’s comparatively high 93% English literacy rate(3).
English, the language of business spoken by 1.75 billion people on the planet, will be spoken by a projected 2.0 billion by 2020. The fastest-growing language in human history is bringing with it a demand for ESL teachers. (4) Possibly even greater is the skyrocketing demand it has ushered in for digital English language learning products in an area like Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, etc.) with revenues of $1.6 billion from sales of those products in 2017 expected to surge to $2.7 billion by 2022(5).
Catalysts for Asia Pacific’s booming demand for digital English language learning, as in many parts of the world, include the introduction of high-speed 5G networks, strong demand for English language learning products, digitization initiatives in academic sectors, and new English language instruction policies in the schools.
About DIT Web Solutions:
DIT Web Solutions, founded by Rob Ragusa and Louie Pateropoulos, offers more than 24 years of expertise in comprehensive website design and mobile app development as the result of the merger of Avenue Road Advertising and Digital Ink Technologies, two seasoned companies. The in-house team of creative minds designs solutions that create efficiency for clients in the ever-changing digital world. Projects are created in-house without the headache of language barriers generated by oversees developers, ensuring a thorough understanding of the client’s needs and company products. The result is successful product launches and customer experiences.
(1) “Household Final Consumption Expenditure (Current US$).” Household Final Consumption Expenditure (Current US$) | Data.
(2) Neeley, Tsedal. “Global Business Speaks English.” Harvard Business Review, 31 July 2014.
(3) “Why English Is Now an Increasing Prerequisite to Enter Technology Driven Global Markets.”The Economic Times, 15 Nov. 2017.
(4) Montrose, Brett. “The Global English Language Job Market Is Changing: What This Means for ESL Teachers.” Medium, AcceleratEd, 28 Dec. 2016.
(5) “Digital English Market in Asia Spikes to $2.7 Billion by 2022 | Markets Insider.” Business Insider, Business Insider.
Karla Jo Helms, JoTo PR, http://www.jotopr.com, +1 727-777-4621 Ext: 802, [email protected]
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