Europe is a significant frontier for businesses, particularly those involved in e-commerce. Recent figures have shown that 24.2% of the world’s Internet users come from the European Union. Germany has the most European web surfers with 65.1 million users, followed by Russia with 59.7 million users, and then the UK with 51.4 million users. The total figure for European Internet users is 475 million, which represents a remarkable 352% growth since 2000.
A recent survey by the EU Eurobarometer, however, has indicated that European web users are frustrated by a lack of native language content. According to the latest research, over half of all European Internet surfers use a language other than their native tongue when online, with 44% of those surveyed stating that this was a barrier to truly understanding the online content.