German companies' two most-targeted foreign markets are Austria and Switzerland. Dutch companies' first is Belgium. The pattern that beats both geography and market size is a shared language, and where language runs out a regional bloc takes over.
Each row is a seller headquarters country. Sellers is how many companies headquartered there appear in our data: 470 German companies, 189 French ones. The three target columns are the foreign markets those sellers most often target, in order.
Each percentage is that column's market as a share of the sellers in that row: 36.8% means 173 of the 470 German companies target Austria. Hover any cell for the company count. Shares rather than counts make corridors comparable between countries of very different size.
Driver reads Language where the top market shares the sellers' language, and Region where it does not: the Nordic countries, which trade as a bloc instead. Domestic targeting is excluded throughout, so a German company targeting Germany does not appear here.
| Seller HQ | Sellers | #1 target | #2 target | #3 target | Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 470 | Austria36.8% | Switzerland34.0% | UK / US13.8% | Language |
| Netherlands | 503 | Belgium32.0% | Germany28.2% | United Kingdom19.5% | Language |
| United Kingdom | 1,003 | United States23.9% | Ireland11.6% | Germany11.4% | Language |
| United States | 2,217 | Canada19.6% | United Kingdom10.8% | Germany7.1% | Language |
| France | 189 | Switzerland21.2% | US / Belgium20.1% | Germany17.5% | Language |
| Finland | 943 | Sweden24.9% | Germany16.0% | United States14.4% | Region |
| Sweden | 463 | Norway30.7% | Finland28.1% | Denmark27.0% | Region |
| Denmark | 523 | Sweden27.3% | Norway23.7% | Germany22.8% | Region |