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The Most Used Languages Online 2023 – Part 2

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The Most Used Languages Online 2023 – Part 2

by | Thursday, May 18th, 2023 | Language, Translation

In our last blog post we looked at the Top 5 most used languages online, this week, we’re going to look at the languages closely following suit. Starting with Japanese, we will look at the next 5 languages which make up the Top 10 most used languages online. 

 

Japanese

Japanese is spoken by over 130 million. Japanese uses a combination of 3 scripts: kanji (Chinese characters), hiragana and katakana. Several dialects are also used throughout Japan; however, these aren’t mutually intelligible with one another or standard Japanese. Similar to Spanish, a lot of content is being created online in Japanese. However, there is much room for growth. Localising your website to Japanese means more traffic, business and an increase in your ROI. 3% of internet users are Japanese, translating to 114.9+ million users.

 

Turkish

A total of 77.8 million people worldwide speak Turkish as their native language. It ranks in the top 10 languages most spoken globally by population, and Turkey ranks at number 12 in the countries with the most people on Facebook. 4% of internet users are Turkish, translating to 28.4+ million users. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. It is also spoken in parts of Greece and Bulgaria. The most common dialects are the Anatolian dialect and Istanbullu. It is written in Latin script with additional letters for sounds not found in other European languages.

 

Persian

Persian makes up 2.3% of the content online, with 59.8 million native speakers. It is a Western Iranian language derived from Arabic and written in the Arabic alphabet. Persian is spoken by about 100 million people. 

Chinese (Mandarin)

Although Mandarin Chinese is one of the most spoken languages in the world, with 1,118 million speakers, the amount of online content does not reflect this. Mandarin only makes up 1.7% of online content, this is because, although Mandarin has a high population of speakers, most of them also have a second language, with over 81 million people who understand and use English.

 

Italian

Italian is one of the most widely spoken native languages in the European Union with 67 million native speakers. About 13.4 million EU citizens speak Italian as their second language. Italian is also spoken by about 2 million non-EU citizens and makes up 1.6% of online content. Closely followed by Portuguese, which makes up 1.5% of the online content, and then Vietnamese at 1.4%, Dutch at 1.2% and Polish at 1.1%. 

 

Conclusion

Although most of the content online is in English, it is important to remember who your audience is and tailor your content to your target market. If you are targeting an international audience, it is important to keep in mind that there are many native languages spoken by people around the world and that English may not be their first language. Understanding the different cultures of your target market will help you create more effective content and reach your audience effectively.