International Spread of Online Access

Until recently, access to online media remained relatively restricted to western cultures. The degree of international Internet access has, however, increased with amazing speed in recent years (How Many Online, 1999). In fact, some sources indicate that the number of global Internet users grew from 563 million to 580 million in the last half of 2002 alone, with much of this growth occurring outside of North America ('Nielsen Net Ratings,' 2003).

In industrialized nations, Internet access is expanding at an impressive pace. Western Europe has experienced rapid growth in online business transactions. As a report in The Economist notes, nearly 466 Swedes, 685 Brits, and 1,800 Germans open a new online brokerage account every day ('Going for Brokers,' 2000). Moreover, the 'UK Market Overview' for the Internet Marketing Hotlist (2000) claims that one in three households in Europe will have Internet access by 2005. In Japan, over 50% of the adult population is online, and the total number of Japanese Internet users increased by some 13.5 million in 2002 ('AsiaBizTech,' 2003). As a result of these trends, e-commerce in Western Europe is expected to account for 22.6% of the global online market in 2004 ('Forrester Projects $6.8 Trillion for 2004,' 2001). Similarly, Japan is expected to account for 8.4% of e-commerce sales in 2004 (compared with 12.8% in North America) and Japanese has become the third most prevalent language in online exchanges ('Forrester Projects $6.8 Trillion for 2004,' 2001; 'Global Internet Statistics,' 2003). Such growth brings with it a new group of online consumers companies can tap.

The most astounding international growth, however, is taking place in developing nations, due in part to a mix of public and private sector projects. The government of India, for example, has adopted measures to promote the placement of undersea and underground fiber optic communication cables in order to get more citizens online. The development of such a communications infrastructure has led to a high-tech economic boom in parts of India such as Banglore-India's 'Silicon Valley' ('When India Wires Up,' 2000). The People's Republic of China has adopted similar strategies to increase online access, and the number of Chinese Internet users has skyrocketed from 2.1 million in 1999 to nearly 60 million by the end of 2002 ('Wired China,' 2000; 'Section IV Survey Results,' 2003).

In Africa, the United Nations has undertaken efforts to bring more of the continent online through a 'digital bridges' project that includes stringing some 20,000 miles of undersea fiber optic communication cable around the African continent ('Tapping in to Africa,' 2000). At the same time, Africa's number of dial-up Internet connections has grown by some 20% in the past two years, and companies such as Hewlett-Packard have implemented their own projects to increase Internet access in Africa ('Reuters: Internet Use Increasing in Africa,' 2002; Kalia, 2001). In South America, Global Crossings Ltd. has completed a project that involves linking together 12 key cities through a web of fiber optic connections. This linking, in turn , gives, 'multinational companies the ability to communicate with Latin America as efficiently as with any other region' ('Tying Latin America Together,' 2001, p. 9). In Eastern Europe, the number of individuals going online is expected to climb from 17% to 27% by 2006, a trend fostered by a boom in outsourcing in that region ('IDC Research: Net Usage Up in Eastern Europe,' 2003).

While such international growth is impressive, a global digital divide still exists. For example, the 60 million Internet users in the People's Republic of China are but a small fraction of the roughly 1.3 billion persons in the country ('Countries Ranked by Population: 2004,' 2003). Similarly, while the population of Russia is 144 million, the Russian language accounts for only 2.5% of all online exchanges-an interesting statistic when compared to Italy with 58 million people but the Italian language accounts for 3.3% of all online exchanges ('Countries Ranked by Population: 2004,' 2003; 'Global Internet Statistics,' 2003). Thus, there is a marked discrepancy in online access between industrialized and developing nations.

What is important about this situation is the rate at which online access is increasing in developing nations and the international market share that could be tapped in relation to this growth. The effects of this expansion can be seen in trends in the languages used in online exchanges. Chinese, for example, is now the second most common language in online interactions (after English), accounting for 12.2% of all online exchanges-well ahead of French and German, which respectively account for 3.7% and 7.0% of all online exchanges ('Global Internet Statistics,' 2003). Moreover, while Spain has only 40 million citizens, growing online access in the Americas has allowed Spanish to become the fourth most prevalent language online, accounting for 8% of all interactions ('Countries Ranked by Population: 2004,' 2003; 'Global Internet Statistics,' 2003). Thus, while online markets in developing nations are still quite small, their current and projected increase in online access makes them important (and growing) markets in relation to that growth.

The timing of such growth is particularly important, for this increased access is occurring at a time when a larger share of the world's developing nations is purchasing imported goods-particularly high-tech products. Perhaps the best example of this trend can be seen in the People's Republic of China. While wages in that country remain relatively low, there is a small yet rapidly growing middle class that could serve as an ideal market for technology products such as DVD players, CD players, and computers. And in certain areas such as cellular telephones, China has emerged as a key market. In fact, China is one of the world's largest markets of handset mobile phones, with 42 million new mobile phone accounts opening in the year 2000 alone ('China's Economic Power,' 2001). Moreover, China's import of high-tech goods from just the U.S. has risen from $970 million USD in 1992 to almost $4.6 billion USD in 2000 (Clifford & Roberts, 2001).

This situation is not unique to China. India, for example, has seen a boom in the outsourcing of everything from programming work to call centers ('Two Systems, One Grand Rivalry,' 2003). Similarly, more high-tech work is being outsourced to Russia and to Vietnam where highly trained professionals can perform skilled work for a fraction of what their western counterparts would charge ('The New Geography of the IT Industry,' 2003). As more work is outsourced to employees in the developing world, more money will flow into those nations, and with this influx of capital comes the potential to purchase more products. Moreover, as the Internet and the World Wide Web facilitate much of this outsourcing, these outsource workers become prospective consumers who are already connected to and familiar with online media that can serve as marketing channels.

What makes these trends particularly important, as Peter Drucker (2001) explains, is that the populations of industrialized nations are decreasing while those of developing nations continue to grow. These demographic shifts mean more work will need to be outsourced because industrialized nations are increasingly lacking in the individuals needed to perform many tasks (Drucker, 2001). Such is the case in information technology, where a lack of tech workers in the U.S. has led many organizations to outsource programming activities to Indian firms (Lui & Chan, 2003). Additionally, as both Drucker (2001) and Lui and Chan (2003) point out, much of this outsourcing is taking place via online media. Again, such trends indicate that consumers in developing nations will have both more income to spend and a growing familiarity with the Internet-an ideal combination from an e-marketing perspective.

For these reasons, it is increasingly important that marketers develop effective international e-marketing materials now, while much of the world is only starting to get online. By taking advantage of such opportunities, organizations can gain an online consumer base in relatively untapped overseas markets at a time when the online marketplace in these regions remains relatively open. Taking advantage of such an international opportunity, however, is more complicated than one might think.

Increased access to international markets does not necessarily mean increased acceptance of ideas or products. Rather, differing expectations of how concepts should be presented affect cross-cultural transfers of information. Cultural differences in presentation expectations, moreover, can be pronounced in relation to visual design. As Web sites are essentially visual media, these expectations can have an important effect on the success of e-marketing materials.