According to Comscore, a company that measures pretty much anything digital, the world now has over 1 billion internet users, with China being the country with the most users. as you can see in the below stat’s, the largest number of users are in the Asia Pacific region (which includes Australia).

China represents the vast majority of these users, and will continue to do so into the future as the % of internet users in that country continue to increase. Japan, India and South Korea also feature in the top countries.

You can find the full article here – http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2698

What does this mean for property companies around the world? Well most do not currently focus at all on any market other than their immeidate local market. Many do not even look at the entire domestic market let alone the international market. However as capital continues to flow from the western economies to the developing world, it will be essential for leading property firms to establish a solid understanding of these markets, and mechanisms for penetrating them. This means have multi-lingual skills, networks and systems that support international property transactions.

Brightfox is one of the few genuinely international technology firms in the world that focus exclusively on the property industry. With offices in Australia and the UAE, and customers in many countries around the world, we have developed significant experience in assisting our clients open up and do business in a wide diversity of markets. We have also spent many years now customising our software and systems to ensure they meet these specific requirements, which is also very unique.

I suppose the best example of the international focus of our business is the range of languages we speak. They include Arabic, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Portugese, Spanish, Farsi and Sinhala.