Where do you choose to buy a product, if there is more than one possible supplier?
From the company with a website in a language, you don’t understand, from the company with a badly translated website, or from the company with a website in your own language?
In a report from a survey conducted by Gallup on behalf of the EC in 2011, you can find the following interesting facts about User Language Preferences Online:
Although 9 in 10 Internet users in the EU said that, when given a choice of languages, they always visited a website in their own language, a slim majority (53%) would accept using an English version of a website if it was not available in their own language. When respondants have a choice of languages, they always visit a website in their own language.
Almost 9 in 10 (88%) Internet users in the EU agreed that all websites produced in their country should be available in their country’s official languages. At the same time, about 8 in 10 (81%) interviewees thought that all websites produced in their country should also have versions available in other languages.
More than 4 in 10 (44%) Internet users in the EU thought they missed interesting information because websites were not available in a language they understood.
42% never searches or buys products and services using a language other than respondants’ own
To read the complete survey go to: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_313_en.pdf