Country snapshot : Belgium

[emjay]

I guess the catalyst for this particular country snapshot was a rather unflattering thread title that was recently posted here by Electric Light, namely: What the hell is the point of Belgium?

As I write, the thread itself has drawn no conclusions, but instead has several references to chocolate, beer, waffles and Jean Claude Van Damme Thus far, no-one has pointed out that Begium in fact a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters in its captal Brussels, as well as those of other major international organisations, including NATO.

Not that this instils any patriotism. I vaguely recall in a survey conducted a while back that something like seven out of ten Belgian youth wished they were a different nationality. And after having driven through it on countless occasions, I can concur: Belgium does in part seem to be spectacularly unspectacular. But, hey, it?s not all bad: it?s the only country in the world to have a fully lit freeway road network at night. Lucky them.

Belgium has a population of some 10.5m people, just over half of which have access to the internet at this time.

Since the country is effectively billingual, you will need to communicate with these surfers in two languages, not just one, if Belgium is to feature as part of your globalisation strategy.

Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north, with just over half of the population, and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels region, although officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking.

With this in mind, we serve both French and Dutch language texts to Belgium surfers and, as with all countries, a ?revert to English? feature to capture any expatriates or businessmen visiting there. Phone billing remaings a popular way for Belgians to pay for web content, thanks in large part to to ease, convienience and anonymity of this ?buy now, pay later? way of paying you.

As for credit and debit cards, the adoption of Maestro in Belgium is expected to increase transaction opportunities both within Belgium for both consumers and merchants. Two operators, Visa and MasterCard (under the Maestro brand), continue to account for the majority of transactions across all sectors of the industry.

The number of financial cards has increased tremendously over the past two to three years in Belgium, reaching an all-time high in 2007. As most credit and debit cards are directly linked to a bank account, the major financial institutions benefit from the acquisition fees on all transactions, and these cards became a prosperous revenue stream for the banking industry.

By offering both telephone and debit card billing both in Dutch and en français, you will be able to maximise your revenues from this small but relatively rich country.

[u-Bob]

Originally Posted by emjay

Since the country is effectively billingual, you will need to communicate with these surfers in two languages, not just one, if Belgium is to feature as part of your globalisation strategy.

Just make sure you're not addressing the Dutch-speaking majority in French (spacash for example is doing this...)! It pisses of a lot of surfers.

[lafosca]

I'm Belgian

Website are not designed for "Belgian surfer", but for a specific language.
French speacking are groind to french website (France, Belgium, Canada) and dutch are goind tu dutch site and english site (They are accustomed to english)

So ... make a "french" website or an "english" website, and you will touch Belgium (small market)

Philippe