Some facts about German

THE GERMAN LANGUAGE is spoken in:
Germany
Switzerland
Austria
Luxembourg
Liechtenstein
Italy
Brazil (small German speaking minorities)
Argentina (small German speaking minorities)
U.S. (small German speaking minorities)
Denmark (small German speaking minorities)
Poland (small German speaking minorities)
France (small German speaking minorities in Alsace)

Details of each country's market

Germany. Population: 82.8 Million (1999 est.; CIA).
Gross Domestic Product : US$1.86 trillion (purchasing power parity; 1999 est.); CIA
GDP per capita : US$22,700 (1999 est., CIA)

Switzerland. Population: 7.2 Million, out of which 5.4 Million are in German-speaking Switzerland (1999 est.; CIA)
Gross Domestic Product : US$197 billion (1999 est. - Purchasing Power Parity; CIA)
GDP per capita : US$27,100 (1999 est.; CIA)

Austria. Population: 8.1 Million.
Gross Domestic Product: US$190.6 billion (1999 est. - Purchasing Power Parity; CIA)
GDP per capita : US$23,400 (1999 est.; CIA)

Italy. Trentino (a small province adjacent to Austria) contains around a half a million German-speakers.

Belgium. A small province adjacent to German contains a small German-speaking population.

Brazil. There is a small part of Brazil where a high concentration of German-speaking people lives.

Argentina. There is a small part where a high concentration of German-speaking people lives.

U.S. There are 1.5 million German-speaking people living in the U.S. (according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 census). Historically, many German-speakers immigrated to the U.S. in previous centuries. Two centuries ago, German was nearly voted as the national language of the U.S. This accounts for such a large population still in the U.S. who claimed to the U.S. Census that they speak German at home.

eBusiness in Germany:

Background: Western Europe's richest and most populous nation, with 82.7 Million people (there is a large Turkish population in Germany: 2.4%). In August of 2000, there were 18 million Germans online.

Economy - overview: Germany possesses the world's third most technologically powerful economy after the US and Japan, but its basic capitalistic economy has started to struggle under the burden of generous social benefits. Structural rigidities - like a high rate of social contributions on wages - have made unemployment a long- term, not just cyclical, problem, while Germany's aging population has pushed social security outlays to exceed contributions from workers. The integration and upgrading of the eastern German economy remains a costly long-term problem. The adoption of a common European currency (the euro, which will be phased in starting in 2002), and the general political and economic integration of Europe will bring major changes to the German economy in the early 21st century.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $1.864 trillion (1999 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 1.5% (1999 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $22,700 (1999 est.)
Econonic composition by sector:
agriculture: 1.2%
industry: 30.4%
services: 68.4% (1999)

Industries: among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics, food and beverages; shipbuilding; textiles

For companies buying from Germany, these are the industries that are most exported: machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures, foodstuffs, and textiles.

For companies wanting to sell to Germany, these are the industries that are most imported into Germany: machinery, vehicles, chemicals, foodstuffs, textiles, metals.

It makes sense to take the total European German-speaking market as a whole, since German is the principal language of Switzerland and Austria (both rich countries as well). That would make the entire German-speaking market 100 million people. As a company establishes itself in this market, it can start to differentiate between these three countries, but to do so at first would simply cost too much. Funds could be put to better use in marketing and getting sales going to start with.

Use of Internet in Germany:
90% of all German businesses are online, and 56% of German companies have their own Website (and another 30% should have one by the middle of 2001). Although the businesses that sell online only realize 0.1% to 10% of their entire turnover, the prognosis is that in 2001 there will be 14% of German businesses that realize 25-50% of their turnover online. Germany is quite strong in the Internet world... actually, number two position in the world. A newly published research at StatMarket (http://www.statmarket.com/) gives Germany the second position in the world, after the U.S. Around 5.56% of all Internet traffic originates in Germany (the U.S. accounting for 55%). Research company "Consulting Partner" studied 1300 companies in German-speaking Europe last year, and found that one-third of them did not have any defined, clear e-commerce strategy. Another one quarter of these companies did have an e-commerce strategy. 17% of German mid-sized companies did not even have an email address or any plans for eBusiness. It is usually the larger German companies who are more developed in their online strategy than small companies. On the consumer side, recent research shows that 40% of online Germans bought online last Christmas. Credit cards are rare in Germany, but most new bank customers are given a debit card (usually Mastercard), which can be used to buy on e-commerce sites. Most B2B purchases are paid for by bank transfers, and checks are not a part of the German banking system (unlike the U.S./U.K. and Southern Europe).

Germany