FOURTH STUDY ON WEB MULTILINGUALISM

Here comes the fourth study on Web multilingualism conducted using the DataProvider.com database. This time, the study is in Spanish, and the topic is: Una evaluación de la reciprocidad en el uso mutuo del español y del portugués en las Web lusófona e hispanófona (An evaluation of reciprocity in the mutual use of Spanish and Portuguese in the Web of Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries).

The main findings of the study are :

  • The rate of multilingualism of websites in Portuguese is below the world average.
  • There are 3 times more web sites in Spanish in Portuguese speaking countries than Portuguese in Spanish speaking countries. In any case the percentages are very low, below 1% in average.
  • Brazil is the country with higher percentage of web sites with Spanish version.
  • Mercosur and Caribbean countries are the Spanish speaking countries with the higher percentage of websites with Portuguese version.
  • The prevalence of websites with Portuguese version in USA is 15 times higher than Spanish’ if rates in proportion of speaker’s population.

Recommendations are :

  • Web sites in Portuguese should increase their multilingualism
  • Spain websites should increase the percentage of Portuguese versions
  • Spanish speakers in the USA should increase their virtual presence