Guangdong Famous Export Brands: Multilingualism and Global Reach in 2017

This section delves into the language options available on the official websites of the 147 Guangdong Famous Export Brands of the Year 2017. The study seeks to understand how these brands utilize language to connect with their global audience. Chinese serves as the primary language for 146 of the brands, with the sole exception of Hopeful Enterprise, which exclusively provides an English website. The choice of Chinese as the primary language is understandable, considering these companies are based in China, and the Chinese market is crucial to their success. Table 3 showcases the language options offered on these brands' official websites.

Of the 147 brands, 123 offer English language support, accounting for 84% of the total. For 107 brands, English is the only foreign language option available on their official websites. This is unsurprising, given that English is deemed a hyper-central language and widely used as the international lingua franca for business and transnational communication. However, solely offering English language support could leave non-English speaking consumers feeling overlooked. Research has indicated that people prefer websites in their native language or a language they comprehend, underscoring the significance of making websites multilingual.

Only 13 out of the 147 brands provide multiple language options on their official websites. These language options encompass English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, and Arabic. These languages belong to the super-central language group within the world language system proposed by De Swaan (2001), which possess the highest communication values. Supporting these languages can aid Guangdong brands in reaching a wider base of internet users globally. Additionally, Gree and Midea have established country-specific websites, supporting local languages and demonstrating a willingness to cater to the needs of local consumers.