The movement toward globalization hit several bumps this year, with the U.S. economy losing steam and the business impact of the recent New York attack. The national press in France, where I live and work, is predicting a new phase of American isolationism is beginning. During the last few recessions, American companies tended to market more domestically and not take the risk of expanding globally. I've noticed a distinct pullback from international expansion in the last six months, especially since the attacks in September.

On the European side, however, the economy is holding up and businesses are growing across borders faster than ever. There is no recession in Europe at the time of this writing, and consumers are shopping as avidly as ever. Having spoken to several localization agencies recently in Europe, I've noticed that there has not been a European pullback from translating Web sites and expanding internationally as there seems to have been in the United States. Indeed, with American companies looking inward instead of outward for business, this may be a time when European companies make headway against their U.S. competitors in expanding international sales.

Non-English online markets are becoming more and more important. I've analyzed the online language zones, and it's clear the percentage of Internet users who speak English has steadily decreased (http://www.glreach.com/globstats). Online populations from English-speaking countries represented 62 percent of the global Internet community in 1998 and 49 percent in 2000, and will drop to 43 percent in 2001 and 37 percent by the end of 2002. In other words, Web sites that continue to address only English-speaking markets are reaching out to an increasingly smaller portion of the world's online population. They could greatly increase their sales simply by targeting the Chinese, Japanese, German, and Spanish online markets, which together account for 32 percent of the world online population -- about the same percentage of the world online population the United States itself represents.

Of costs and currency

Another stage of European integration is scheduled for the first six weeks of 2002: phasing out most European currencies in favor of the Euro, Europe's new pan-continental currency. Already, stores and Web sites are giving Euro pricing priority over country-specific currencies such as the deutsche mark and the franc. Euro-denominated coins and bills will be introduced January 1, 2002, and the participating countries will remove their currencies from the market by February 17, seven weeks afterwards. Of course, this makes it much easier for Europeans to compare prices when shopping in other countries, especially when they do it on the Web. Indeed, most European e-commerce Web sites, unlike their American counterparts, are available in several languages, and they lay out money for dealing with multi-cultural marketing. Where would Europeans prefer to shop, from American corporate Web sites (available only in English, with prices fixed in dollars) or from smaller companies in Europe with multilingual sites and prices in Euros and other currencies?

Unfortunately, we may see a period where American businesses backpedal on their plans to globalize, while European businesses continue pushing beyond national boundaries by deploying multicultural e-commerce Web sites. It's a shame American companies tend to rely on their domestic market for core business and consider markets in other countries "gravy" (i.e., "it's nice if sales come in from abroad, but not really necessary").

Make your move now

The transition to global markets still lies in the future for most American companies, it seems, even with all the talk of globalization. These companies should start considering the advantages of addressing overseas markets at an early stage. It takes serious effort and some investment to gain a foothold on foreign markets, but when these non-U.S. markets are taken seriously, they can grow to be a significant source of sales for U.S companies.