INDUSTRY NEWS

There is no question that the United States of America has grasped and moved with Internet technology faster than any country in the world. Despite much of computer technology originating in countries such as Japan and throughout Europe, America has absorbed these technologies and brought them into the robust world of corporate life.INDUSTRY NEWS

There is no question that the United States of America has grasped and moved with Internet technology faster than any country in the world. Despite much of computer technology originating in countries such as Japan and throughout Europe, America has absorbed these technologies and brought them into the robust world of corporate life. An idea or an invention is merely that until the commercial world invests big bucks to bring it to the public.

In the case of the Internet, the bulk of the online users have consisted of residents of the United States, Canada and the western countries of Europe, however, everything online has taken on American standards. The spelling of words such as ‘center’ and the reference to time zones such as ‘EST’ are all relevant to one country only – the U.S.

However, looking at the overall numbers of Internet users around the world and from each country specifically, are you getting the most from your Internet traffic? More importantly, are you getting a share of all Internet traffic? Our planet earth boasts 407.1 million Internet Users. Research has unfortunately combined figures for the United States and Canada together in this particular survey to end at a figure of 167.12 million Internet users. This shows that around 45% of all web surfers are from the United States or Canada.

Where conversions are concerned, it’s necessary to ask yourself, “If a site converts at 1:100, what’s happening to the other 99 people?” Knowing that 45% of Internet users are American or Canadian, I’m immediately tempted to ask what’s happening to the other 55% of Internet users and WHO is getting their valuable $$ in the marketplace? The Asian and Pacific markets consist of 104.88 million Internet users, while Europe has 113.14 million surfers.

Taking these figures into account on any given day, future predictions and current trends indicate that the markets, although not necessarily shifting away from America, are certainly increasing to countries with larger populations, and therefore possible customers. If you could count the American owned and operated dotcom companies which have fallen prey to overspending and lack of consumer demand, you’d agree it’s perhaps time to search the world for a greater market base – after all, wasn’t that the point of the Internet in the first place?

Unlike marketing to the USA, marketing to many specific countries within Europe, Asia and other continents may require using a language other than English. Three of the four European countries (Germany, France, Italy) which account for 67% of Western Europe’s adult population, do not use English as their first language. For the purpose of keeping this report to a respectable size, I will solely focus on areas using English as their first language or countries with a large portion of English speaking individuals.

Another area which has stunted growth of foreign markets is the lack of a globally effective billing system. Of the overall 30 million European online users estimated by eurodebit (www.eurodebit.com ,) only 14% of these have a credit card that can be used with a standard 3rd party billing company (such as ibill.com or ccbill.com). There are currently several organizations picking up on the ‘foreign market boom’ and attempting to close the gap between processing technologies in these markets.

Eurodebit has spent significant time in trying to get banks throughout Europe to partner with them in their check processing and have secured the services of organizations in Germany. Eurodebit is also finalizing negotiations with many other European banks. They also offer processing for Eurocard, which is the European equivalent of Mastercard.

Dialers are yet another issue to contend with in regards to international customers, however, this market saw a significant stunt in its growth when fraudulent and misleading versions were launched into the market place. You will notice the options opening up over the next few months with the FTC vocally supporting dialers from Europe such as NetDialer (www.netdialer.com ) and a few new options from Asia …

This is the first of a three-part series. Part 2 will focus on market statistics from Europe. Here’s a taste of what you’ll read about next week in part 2: “With a population 41% bigger than the US, and relatively high levels of income per capita, Western Europe is a formidable global Internet market.” (source: www.etranslate.com )