English, baby! News

Pearson, one of the world's largest educational businesses in the world, understands the enormous potential of international markets.

Chief executive Marjorie Scardino announced recently that the company plans to invest heavily in technology and education in India.  As part of its strategy for the country, Penguin Group has recently joined forces with mobile software firm Mobifusion to deliver books through mobile phones.

“We expect to increase our investment in India significantly over the next three years and see the provision of educational services as our number one area of focus,” said Scardino.

Recently the Le Monde newspaper in France published this map created by the research firm Datamonitor showing the number of hours (in millions) users spend on social networks around the world, and which sites are doing best in each country.

Each organization is launching country-specific sites due to language and cultural issues and trying to accomplish compartmental growth.  Each country is looked at as an individual territory requiring a unique site and group of users who will most likely remain geographically separated from the rest of the world.  Examples of this strategy include recent moves by LinkedIn and Facebook moving into France and Germany.

What's it going to take to connect these isolated areas of the world?  A common language.  English, baby!

More people from different countries are doing business together every day, and social networks like English, baby! that break down language and cultural barriers are helping to facilitate the process.

The latest installment of the Intuit Future of Small Business Report, written by the Institute for the Future, points to social networking as a key to smaller companies finding overseas buyers.

The report says, "Social networks will fuel borderless commerce. Online and offline social networks will help remove soft trade barriers, such as language and cultural differences. These networks will introduce small businesses to new markets and facilitate cross-border trade."

It's nothing new to mention the internet as a key contributor to globalization, and now international social networks are becoming part of the conversation.  The ability these sites have to help like-minded people cross borders at a very low cost is unprecedented and will help shape the world.