Babylon fall gave the world languages. Knowing too many languages means lower growth for local online advertising

Now let me give you a good example. During the ages, big countries such as Italy, Germany or France used to dub movies or cartoons in their national language. On the other hand, countries such as mine used subtitles. During the communistic age, TV stations were few, and in many countries was only one. After the fall of this “golden era”, subtitling was chose over dubbing for the simple reason it was cheaper. So, in a way, everybody got access to new languages. The point is, this is how I learned English, this is why I can understand languages like Italian, Spanish or French.

Context

Combined with the fact that kids learn in school mostly English and French, like I did, you get to understand and be able to speak and write in other languages in a simpler way than, let’s say, French people or Germans. They don’t use English because they don’t need it that much. Me, on the other hand, I had to learn it because I was too lazy to actually read the subtitles.

And it’s really annoying when you go outside your country (as I did last year, going to Cannes, France, or this year, when I went to Milan, Italy) and see that all TV shows are dubbed in local languages. So despite the fact on TV is playing some American movie, you are unable to understand a word.

So when all TV stations from a country are broadcasting foreign productions not dubbed, it’s easier for its people to learn a new language pretty fast. Especially when they read the subtitles and they associate words in other languages with their local correspondent.

So how this influences the local online advertising markets?

When people already know two other languages – or only one, for instance -, their area of information resources is already larger. So people will not stick to their usual local news resources, but they’ll be trying to find out more directly from the original source. For example, I will not stick to an article from one news website, but I will click the link to the source and read the original just as well. And that usually happens because the local reporter/editor will not translate everything, but just the essential.

For instance, on June 2nd – I think, I’m not really sure -, there was this plane crash over the Atlantic. You might know the story of the Air France charter that was supposed to leave Brazil and arrive in Paris, but never actually did. People will not stick to the local news, they will go instantly for BBC, CNN, Reuters and even Brazilian news websites. Because they might actually understand Portuguese, probably because they watched latin soap operas on TV.

The conclusion is…

Go to France or Italy and try to ask a question in English. Besides the youngsters, lots of people will not be able to give you a straight answer in English that you might actually understand. Because people in France and Italy don’t speak English. They don’t care about English because they don’t need to use it. The TV shows, the movies, they’re all dubbed, so who needs to learn a new language?

This countries will always have a bigger local online advertising market. Because people will stick to what they’re familiar with. In countries such as the one I live in, people will not use local social networks because they know English. They’ll go for Hi5.com, Facebook.com, MySpace.com or LinkedIn.com. It’s easier and everybody already uses them. Because they can understand English and if that’s popular, it’s there where they have to be.

I know it’s a paradox, my friend knows it’s a paradox, but it’s true. Countries where people know other languages will have smaller online advertising markets. Strange, isn’t it? Now, the only thing that’s missing is some education. But how could you educate 8 million stubborn internet users? Well, that’s a really hard question to answer.

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Image taken from here.