Spanish Medium — It Must Happen!
By: Cristina Juesas
Tags: Medium, Spanish Medium, Spanish

“I’ve learned to follow the hunch, but never assume where it would go” — Ev Williams

Now that everybody on Medium is buzzing about the redesign of the logo, the new API, and monetization opportunities, it’s time to look at another gap:

Medium must be in Spanish.

A Medium in Spanish is not the same as a Spanish Medium.

We, the Spanish-speaking people, are social animals. We love conversations. Our culture is built on conversations. This is the reason social networks have an incredible penetration rate in Spanish-speaking countries, surpassing, in relative terms, the penetration rate of any other country in the world — including the US.

One of the reasons I love Medium is the lovely people I’ve found here. I like to get involved with people who are doing exactly the same thing as I am: expressing themselves and trying to find their place. These tangles always bring good things. Most of these people are native English speakers. Language is not a problem in my case, but it is really a big challenge for other Spanish speakers who are getting into Medium in search of the same things I look for, and not finding them. And 410 million people, whose culture is dominated by the art of conversation do not have an online, long-form conversation platform.

Then the answer is a Spanish Medium.

Spanish language around the world. Source.

Medium was born in English, and it’s still a toddler. Communities and conversations are flourishing now. Everything is new, and, as anything new, it is yet to be fully built.

Spanish is the third most prevalent language on the internet, in terms number of users (after English and Chinese). Ten percent of the internet is built in Spanish — English represents 30%. Spanish is a first language for 410 million people, and a second language for another 90 million. It’s the de facto second language in the United States, spoken at home by 52 million people. The Spanish language is the gateway to South America and to Spain. We are a huge community and we are willing to be early adopters of any new cool stuff out there. However, Medium is not just cool stuff out there. Medium is the place where, once you’ve stepped in, you want to stay and live.

Spanish has always been a language (and a culture) that values the written word. Some of the most renowned authors are Spanish and Latin American. Think about Antonio Muñoz Molina, about Mario Vargas Llosa, about Isabel Allende — to name just three who are still alive. There is also a growing culture of slow reading; Jotdown, Libero, or Yorokobu are some good examples of this new trend: quality pieces that people love to read and are willing to pay for, just like print magazines or any other merchandising articles brands sell in their online stores.

However, online conversations in Spanish are mainly happening on Facebook and Twitter now. We don’t have any alternatives — for now — to these social networks to spread our ideas. And these ideas are clearly siloed and hard to discover for anyone not following someone. These ideas should be growing and spreading faster, but we are stuck in Facebook…

I know (because of the examples mentioned above) that the Spanish-speaking audience is craving for a site to funnel this need for slow reading + slow writing + relaxed conversations.

And, from what I see, Spanish Medium is the answer.

Yet, despite being the language that 410 million people are speaking at any given time, the language that naturally matches discussion, the language whose culture embraces conversation, there are only 108 publications in Spanish, all of them collected in an index by Medium en Español. But,

many have not been updated for over a year. Some are updated just twice or three times a year.

some are just translations from English language publications or official Medium publications, as are La Historia, En Español, Centro de Ayuda or Motivaciones de Escritura.

some are not 100% in Spanish, but a mix of Spanish and English.

one is misleading, as it has the same name — and purpose — as the official publication, Medium en Español.

This is not the way to attract a Spanish-speaking audience.

Sharing a language shortens the psychological distance between people.

When I started writing on Medium I did it in English, but soon realized some of my topics needed to be in Spanish, so I started writing for Medium en Español, the official publication. I also became a translator because I wanted to share with “my” community some of the great thoughts and ideas I was reading around here. This has also allowed me to get in touch and connect with English authors, which has also enriched my community.

But, how do we attract a Spanish-speaking community? There’s no magic. People are willing to come to Medium in search of a place to read and write quality content. But there’s not enough content because of the language barrier. The platform has to be in Spanish.

Estimates of the number of Internet users by language as of December 31, 2013. Source Wikipedia.

This is not the first time I’ve gone through something like this. I remember when Facebook and Twitter were only available in English. Some of us were able to be there, our English level was good enough; but that’s not the case for the majority of the Spanish community. I like to have language set to English everywhere, on my computer, in the social networks setup, on my cell phone… but, as I say, it’s obviously not the case for most of Spanish speakers. When Facebook reached an international audience, it was soon opened to translation (between 2007 and 2008) by engaged community members because again, we like to see things in our native languages. Same thing for Twitter, though in its case the Spanish version arrived in 2009.

It’s the economy, stupid!

Many people in Spanish-speaking countries learn English, but not everybody is able to understand a long thoughtful essay, and even less so to write their own ideas. A Spanish Medium would have the opportunity to engage in a market of 410 million people that’s experiencing a spectacular growth of more than 800% since 2005.

Spanish-speaking countries share more than the language. They share an economy. It’s estimated that multilateral trade among them exists because sharing the language reduces the cost of business transactions. And we are talking about an economy whose total GDP is more than 5 trillion €. This is not a second class economy.

In addition, we need to take into account that Spanish has also become — over the last decade — a powerful business language in the United States. And it’s still growing.

Spanish-speaking countries, as we have seen, also share a common cultural background. The cultural background might sound absurd when talking about GDP, yet it is as important as relationships between the UK and the US, or between the US and Canada. Culture means money in this context, and if I think about mainly cultural expenses, Spain and South America, for instance, share editorials, share a cinema industry, a music industry… There are no borders when it comes to language, even when slight differences in meanings, as it were, make us smile from time to time. Don’t try to say the verb coger (to take) in Argentina, for example, because this word’s meaning in that country could get you in trouble.

However, understanding a little bit of local cultures is a must before going fishing in a different ocean.

When Facebook landed in Spain, as I said before, the platform was in English. By that time, some tech savvy guys here built Tuenti, completely in Spanish. This social network was a great success, above all among teenagers, and it took Facebook many years to beat Tuenti in terms of number of users, and, of course, in terms of revenue in Spain.

Spanish Medium — how it happens

I’ve spent the last 8 years making things happen online. I’ve won a Bitacoras Award (the most important award for blogs in Spanish) for my project unadocenade.com, a collaborative lists site. I’ve implemented social networks at the regional government level, and have taught many civil servants in City Halls around Spain. I’ve worked with international teams which include South, North American, and European countries.

I want to lead a Spanish Medium because I believe the future of the world is dependent on all cultures sharing ideas first in their native languages and then with others.

Medium needs to hire a small team to make this happen.

Think of Wikipedia. It’s edited by a legion of volunteers, but there’s a team behind it all making sure everything works properly.

A team is needed that combines PR functions, with strong writing/editing skills; a team that has the background knowledge of the cultural differences between the Spanish-speaking countries; a team with strong connections with local celebrities, journalists, and also with writers and bloggers; a team with experience leading writing projects on the Spanish internet; and a team with international experience and connections as well.

This team would lead the troop of volunteers, translators, writers. Exactly in the same way there’s a team working towards Medium’s growth in English.

Popularity matters

Why is Medium so popular? There are a few factors involved. One of them is the community around it. Medium hired a perfect team. Everybody is spreading the word from their own publications, sharing their love, sharing their little corner of the world with their own communities.

Another way it’s getting more popular is by getting some celebrities engaged in the community. It seems these celebrities are already using Medium. I’ve read articles by Bono, Melinda Gates, Mitt… These are globally known people. There are a lot of journalists and TV personalities as well. That’s a key point. Get someone well known to write on Medium and people will follow them. There are no journalists, no TV stars, no singers, no politicians, no thoughtful leaders from any of the Spanish-speaking countries in here, and we need them to engage more and more people. People and companies that are leading the way in these countries are mostly doing self-advertising of their articles on other sites. They haven’t understood anything.

We’ve seen this before.

Medium can make both history and money by building a Spanish Medium.

A relatively small investment could lead to large returns. Saul, I think the time is right for a conversation. I look forward to catching up with you soon.