By Luciano Schlaen, General Director of PAGINAR.NET Europe
Article published in the magazine "Ejecutivos Instituciones y Empresas" (March 2010)
Spanish is the third largest language on the Internet. What Spain is doing to realize this opportunity?
In 1492 an expedition financed by the Catholic Kings of Spain found a new world. Five centuries later Spanish is the second language on the planet with over 500,000,000 people, of which 125,000,000 are connected to the Internet. This makes Spanish the third most widely used Internet language, after English and Mandarin Chinese.
This privileged position is a "gift" of history, a fortunate legacy, not the product of a carefully designed strategy. What would the French or the Germans do for having such a situation? It seems incredible that Spain is not doing anything to exploit this advantage and promote it.
The government of Spain has very valuable initiatives both in the fields of language and information technology. The Cervantes Institute, which works constantly to strengthen the Spanish language in the world, and Red.es, does an excellent job in developing the information society in Spain. But there is not a Global Strategy for Spain online. I think we should integrate the Cervantes Institute and Red.es, and implement policies that allow the consolidation and extension of the advantage of having one of the most widespread languages on the Internet.
Spain needs to develop a coherent and long-term strategy to occupy an area of influence in the online world. An influence that Spain doesn’t have today, but might have.
There are three reasons to place Spain in a unique position to achieve this:
1) Spain is the first Hispanic economic power in the world, by far. It counts with the necessary technical facilities and also has no competition. No other country can aspire to this.
2) It is the connecting point between Europe and the Hispanic world par excellence.
3) It is the original reference to the Latin American world, for cultural identity and history, despite having lost weight in relation to the United States in the region.
But beyond these strong arguments, there is an obvious reason to develop this strategy. And the reason is that there is a shared language. Language is the first tool of communication.
Of the 500 million just 125 are connected to the Internet. So a first step to ensure the dominance of Spanish on the Web might be to help increase the number of Internet Spanish speaking users. The goal, then, are the 375 million that still lack access to the Internet.
A Global Strategy for Spain on the Internet should have two basic areas:
- Providing access to the Internet in Latin America, where is the bigger “reserve” of Spanish speaking users and where the limitations to get into the online world are harder.
- Produce and distribute content according to Spanish interests.
This would increase the target audience and create the proper channels of communication and interaction with this giant mass of users.
With such strategy Spain would deliver a unique and privileged position in the world. Would be "dominating" public space "in Spanish" guided by long-range goals: to connect the world with Spain and Spain with the world, to build links with of commitment and trust through knowledge with Spain and also to position Spain as a concerning cultural, educational, scientific and economic referent.
What advantages would bring this to Spain?
1) Distribution of cultural products on a large scale.
2) Promotion of Spain at all levels (tourism, education, research, entertainment, etc.)..
3) Investment Attraction.
4) Improving the perception of companies and Latin American Spanish products, market potential of the entire Spanish economy.
5) Influence on political and economic perception of reality.
6) Creating direct channels with potential investors and capital markets.
7) Creating an online community with Latin American countries to establish common interests in the world.
8) Construction of an agenda on issues of strategic importance to Spain in the region and worldwide.
9) Enhance Spanish telecommunications industry.
10) Promoting a Hispanic lifestyle in the world.
The list is huge and probably could not end in a first approach to the subject. But it is clear that carrying out only one of these ten objectives and strategies would be successful.
Given that this is fertile ground in which the only really important actors are private and usually North American as Google or Facebook, it seems we have a free space to occupy.
If the situation is so obvious the problem is probably lack of leadership or will, as if there wasn’t a desire to create such a large area of influence. However it is clear that Spain wants to occupy a privileged place in the international arena and it is clear that the natural global environment today's Internet. So why do not we do something to build that space in the Hispanic online world?
In any case it is clear that we are facing an incredible opportunity, something that very few countries can dream. The first thing would be to draw attention to this great opportunity to fill the space it deserves in the public agenda. And from there generate a debate to define what the priorities of Spain are. Which would lead directly to establishing a clear and simple a Global Strategy for Spain on the Internet with specific targets.
The first stone is thrown. Now we need two things: vision and desire.
