@patschifig @shiftphones sure, I know about DeepL. But do you bother to translate every message you come across in a language you don’t understand? And you are tech savvy, the majority of people aren’t.

Also, for the folks at ShiftPhones. Sorry to single you out, but it was just such a classic example. I have seen the same from French companies that could have pan-European reach too.

@lisapichon @shiftphones
Depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to build a pan-European business that reaps all the benefits of scale, you need to use a common language. If you want to be a regional niche player, using language as a differentiator to appeal to patriotic feelings surely is an option.

Europe needs to build global scale businesses. Small regional businesses get outcompeted on costs or get acquired by big corporations, usually American companies who can leverage the scale of a 330million unified single market and easy access to capital.

For European businesses to scale, they need to reach as many people as possible in the European market. That means using languages that reach the most people.

ShiftPhones used a number of English language hashtags in their posts aligning themselves with the Go European movement, but the rest of their post was in German. So it would have been more appropriate for them to use German hashtags or an English language post.

Look I have nothing against languages. I understand that they are closely aligned with culture and identity. But languages also divide us and are one of the factors stopping us from competing at a global scale. Instead, we play in niche national markets and buy our products from American and Asian companies.