The Internet continues to expand as a global communication medium. Today, most companies cannot afford to not have their own website. Making your online presence felt requires time, money and imagination.

While English is the language most widely used in the business world, multilingual communication is essential in reaching a global audience. Establishing such communication is a challenge faced by many organisations. In terms of the Internet, even though English language sites (particularly American) are most prevalent, recent studies show that:

• Over 50% of Internet users have a language other than English as their mother tongue. Around 45 million users live in Asia or Europe, where there are vast differences in language, culture, and values.
• 93% of the world's population has a mother tongue that is not English. Despite this, 70% of WWW content is still written in English, although that situation is changing rapidly.
• Your target audience's willingness to delve further into your website increases by over 300% if the site is written in their native language. Internet users are twice as likely to stay on a site and three times as likely to make an online purchase if the site content is communicated in their own language.
• Communicating with users in the language of their choice is not only a preferred option for web users today, but is becoming an expectation.

Providing for multilingual communication does mean an investment of time and money, but it is becoming a business necessity. Multilingual communication can benefit your business in a number of ways, offering:

• Low cost entry into international markets. With a multilingual website, you can establish your business internationally  and reach a global audience via the web in a much more cost-effective manner when compared to traditional "bricks and mortar" expansion.
• Higher sales: By targeting a global audience, the opportunities for increased sales via the web are massive. In Australia for example, 69% of online purchases are made on overseas sites, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.