A few days ago, someone asked me a very reasonable question.
If I am involved in an international project and trying to connect with people around the world, why don’t I simply create all my content in English?
Fair question.
For a long time, I actually did something very close to that.
Most of my online content was in English.
My international website is in English.
Many of the people I have connected with online come from different countries, and English has usually been the language that allowed us to communicate.
So I understand the logic.
English is incredibly important for international business.
But that conversation reminded me of something that is easy to forget:
International does not mean English only.
And that is where international business localization becomes much more interesting than simply translating a few sentences on a website.
English Is Global — But the World Is Much Bigger
There is no question that English has an extraordinary global reach.
It is the most widely spoken language in the world when native and second-language speakers are combined.
Recent 2026 estimates put the number of English speakers at roughly 1.5 billion people worldwide.
That sounds enormous.
And it is.
But look at the number from another perspective.
The world’s population is now well above 8 billion people. UN data placed it at approximately 8.23 billion already in 2025.
That means those 1.5 billion English speakers still represent less than one fifth of humanity. Statista’s 2026 analysis makes the same point: more than four out of five people worldwide are outside that estimated English-speaking population.
Suddenly, “English = global” starts looking a little different.
English gives us enormous reach.
But it does not give us everyone.
Not even close.
Why Does English Feel Even Bigger Online?
There is a reason many of us unconsciously assume almost everyone online understands English.
The internet itself creates that impression.
English dominates huge parts of:
technology,
business,
scientific research,
software,
entertainment,
online education,
and digital marketing.
In fact, 2026 data cited by Statista shows that roughly 49% of websites are written in English, even though English speakers represent less than 20% of the world’s population.
That is an enormous mismatch.
If you work online every day, your view of the world can become distorted.
You open LinkedIn.
English.
You research a business tool.
English.
You watch a marketing tutorial.
English.
You attend an international webinar.
Probably English again.
Eventually, it becomes natural to think:
Everyone important online speaks English anyway.
But that is not the real world.
It is partly the result of the corner of the internet we happen to see.
The Question That Changed the Conversation for Me
That is why I liked the question I was asked.
It was not criticism.
It was logical.
If your ambition is international, why create Croatian content at all?
Wouldn’t English give you a larger audience?
Yes.
Potentially.
But audience size is not the only thing that matters.
I started thinking about the people who may never discover certain opportunities simply because the information never reaches them in a language they are comfortable using.
And I am not talking only about complete beginners.
There are successful people all over the world who do not speak fluent English.
Entrepreneurs.
Producers.
Freelancers.
Creators.
Shop owners.
Farmers.
Consultants.
Small manufacturers.
People with decades of experience in their local markets.
Some of them may speak a little English.
Some may understand considerably more than they are comfortable speaking.
Others may know almost none.
None of that tells you whether they have something valuable to offer.
A Great Product Does Not Need to Speak English
Imagine a small producer somewhere in Croatia.
They may produce exceptional olive oil.
Honey.
Wine.
Natural cosmetics.
Food.
Handmade products.
Something people in another country might genuinely want.
But perhaps that producer does not know how to write an English landing page.
They do not know international digital marketing terminology.
They would never comfortably participate in an English-language Zoom presentation.
Does that make their product less valuable?
Of course not.
Their problem is not necessarily the product.
Their problem may simply be access.
The same applies elsewhere.
A talented freelancer in Africa.
A creator somewhere in Asia.
A family business in South America.
A small European manufacturer.
Someone may have an excellent product, skill or service while having almost no ability to communicate it to an international English-speaking audience.
That is one of the reasons international business localization matters.
Localization can become a bridge.
Localization Is More Than Translation
People often use localization and translation as if they mean exactly the same thing.
They do not.
Translation asks:
How do we say this sentence in another language?
Localization asks a much bigger question:
How do we make this understandable and useful for people in another market?
Language is part of it.
But so are:
culture,
local habits,
expectations,
currencies,
payment methods,
examples,
communication styles,
regulations,
products,
and sometimes even the way people build trust.
You can translate every word of a website perfectly and still fail to connect with the people reading it.
Good international business localization is not about forcing one message into twenty languages.
It is about understanding that twenty markets may not behave in exactly the same way.
Global Business Should Not Require People to Become Someone Else First
This is the part of the conversation I find especially important.
For decades, international expansion often worked in one direction.
A company entered another country.
The local market adapted to the company.
Its language.
Its systems.
Its business model.
Its communication.
The digital economy gives us an opportunity to think differently.
What if the infrastructure itself became better at meeting people where they already are?
Different language.
Different country.
Different culture.
But connected through the same wider system.
That does not mean every element has to become completely different in every market.
A global structure still needs common standards.
But common standards and local identity do not have to be enemies.
Global infrastructure can coexist with local participation.
This Is Where Digital Ecosystems Become Interesting
This idea connects directly with something I have been writing about a lot lately:
digital ecosystems.
A digital ecosystem connects different layers.
Social interaction.
Business tools.
Commerce.
Communication.
Community.
Products.
People.
Markets.
Once the structure becomes international, another layer becomes impossible to ignore:
language.
If a digital ecosystem genuinely wants participation from different parts of the world, eventually it has to think beyond a single-language audience.
Otherwise, “global” can easily become:
global for people who already speak our language.
That is still useful.
But it is not quite the same ambition.
One Signal I Find Interesting in SFT21
This is also one reason the developing SFT21 Business Concept caught my attention.
The project is international.
English naturally plays an important role.
I use English myself when communicating with many people involved internationally.
But the project has also been preparing educational video content in more than 20 languages.
I find that significant.
Not because translating videos alone proves that an international business will succeed.
It doesn’t.
There is much more to building a functioning international ecosystem than multilingual content.
But it tells me something about the direction.
The idea is not simply:
Build everything in English and wait for everyone else to adapt.
There is already recognition that people may enter this ecosystem from different linguistic and cultural environments.
For me, that is an important signal.
Think About the Producer, Not Only the Marketer
Online business conversations often focus heavily on marketers.
How do we get traffic?
How do we make sales?
How do we build funnels?
How do we recruit customers?
Those are valid questions.
But when I think about a larger digital ecosystem, I increasingly think about someone else too:
the person who actually has something to sell.
The producer.
The small business.
The entrepreneur.
Perhaps they are excellent at what they do.
They simply are not digital marketers.
And perhaps they should not have to become one.
Imagine giving that person access to:
digital visibility,
a marketplace,
community,
distribution,
and potentially customers outside their immediate local area.
Now internationalization becomes something more meaningful than an English-language advertising campaign.
It becomes infrastructure.
English Still Matters — A Lot
None of this means I am moving away from English.
Quite the opposite.
English remains one of the most useful bridges available to anyone interested in international business.
It allows me to communicate with people I would otherwise never be able to speak with.
It gives access to huge amounts of information.
It connects markets.
And it will remain an important part of my own content strategy.
The British Council also expects English to remain deeply important globally even as technology, translation and the way people use languages continue changing.
So this is not:
English or localization.
It is:
English plus localization.
That is a very different idea.
Why I Create Content in Both English and Croatian
This also explains something about my own content.
I publish in English.
And I publish in Croatian.
For a while, I could easily have looked at the numbers and concluded:
Why spend time producing Croatian content when English potentially reaches far more people?
Because reach is not the only metric that matters.
Sometimes you can explain something much more naturally in someone’s own language.
Sometimes trust develops differently.
Sometimes examples need local context.
Sometimes someone who would never engage with an English article will read five pages in Croatian.
That person matters too.
Creating Croatian content does not mean I am thinking smaller.
It can actually be part of thinking more globally.
Because the same principle can eventually apply to many languages.
Technology May Make Localization Even More Important
There is another interesting development happening now.
AI translation is improving quickly.
Video can be subtitled automatically.
Websites can increasingly adapt content.
Communication between languages is becoming easier.
For a long time, language itself was one of the practical barriers preventing truly international participation.
That barrier is becoming smaller.
And paradoxically, I think that could make localization more important, not less.
Because if technology makes it easier to communicate with people in their own language, why would international businesses continue expecting everyone to adapt to one language?
The technical excuse is disappearing.
The opportunity is expanding.
International Business Localization Is Really About Participation
That is ultimately how I see international business localization.
It is not simply a marketing trick for increasing conversion rates.
It is about participation.
Who gets access?
Who understands what is happening?
Who can communicate?
Whose products can be discovered?
Who feels that the system was designed with them in mind?
A truly international digital economy should not belong only to people who speak perfect English.
There are millions of people who may never write an English business post.
They may never record an English YouTube video.
They may never confidently walk into an English-language networking event.
But they may have a fantastic product.
A useful service.
A valuable skill.
A business worth discovering.
We should be thinking about how to build bridges to those people too.
Different Languages. Same Global Ambition.
So yes.
I will continue creating content in English.
It is one of the best languages for connecting internationally, and it remains an essential part of what I do.
But I will also continue speaking to people in Croatian.
And I am increasingly interested in digital systems that can communicate with people across many more languages.
Not because I want to divide a global audience into smaller pieces.
Because I think a genuinely global ecosystem should be capable of connecting those pieces.
Different countries.
Different cultures.
Different languages.
Same wider ambition.
Maybe the future of international business is not a world where everyone learns to speak the same language.
Maybe it is a world where our technology and infrastructure become good enough to let more people participate without asking them to leave their language and local identity at the door.
To me, that feels much closer to the real meaning of global.
Follow the Development
I write about digital ecosystems, international online business, ecommerce, digital tools and the developing SFT21 Business Concept on filipdoric.com.
If you are interested in how these pieces may connect — and how digital ecosystems could create opportunities across different markets and communities — join my newsletter.
No hype.
Just ideas, developments and my perspective as the story unfolds.
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