THE OBSERVATORY OF THE

Linguistic and
Cultural Diversity
in the Internet

OBDILCI Logo

The Observatory of the Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in the Internet (OBDILCI) is a non-profit organization that researches the presences of languages and cultures online. Since 1998, we have developed methodologies to conduct this research, which have evolved to keep up with the changes in the Internet. Our work is peer-reviewed and we are the only organization dedicated solely to this work, and as such, our data is the most reliable and in-depth.

Our Projects

  • Indicators for the Presence of Languages in the Internet
  • The Languages of France in the Internet
  • French in the Internet
  • Portuguese in the Internet
  • Spanish in the Internet
  • AI and Multilingualism
  • DILINET
  • and more…

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Our most important work is peer-reviewed, published in scientific journals, and often presented at research conferences worldwide.

Funding and Partners

Second Period (Since 2017)

Funders: Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Instituto Internacional da LĂ­ngua Portuguesa, DĂ©lĂ©gation gĂ©nĂ©rale Ă  la langue française et aux langues de France du Ministère de la culture, Permanent delegation of Brazil in UNESCO

Partner: UNESCO Chair on Language Policies for Multilingualism

First Period (1998-2017)

Funders: Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Union Latine, UNESCO and DĂ©lĂ©gation gĂ©nĂ©rale Ă  la langue française et aux langues de France du Ministère de la culture, 

Partners: Union Latine and MAAYA

Did You Know?

  • As of May 2023, only 20% of Web content in the Internet is in English (not 50% or more!)
  • 19% is in Chinese
  • 7.8% is in Spanish
  • 3.5% is in Arabic, Hindi , Russian, French or Portuguese

* Sources : Ethnologue, ITU & a large collection of sources consultable in : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frma.2023.1149347/full#supplementary-material

** Confidence interval ±20%

Latest Blog

  • DLD Project
    DLD (Digital Language Death), a project entirely based on solidarity, is finally entering its development phase, thanks to 3 voluntaries joining the partnership. It’s about the systematic evaluation of the potential risks for all…

Often Cited,
Often Referenced

Our work has often been cited in research publications and even integrated into art exhibitions.