translation demand up but-not-prices
TRANSCRIPT
Translation Demand is Up, But Not PricesThis article was originally published on the Acclaro blog.
Category: Global Trends
Last month Common Sense Advisory published
a report with findings from a global survey of 651
language service providers (translation firms) and
freelancers in 75 countries about their pricing
structures, processes, and customer bases.
The report includes pricing data in average prices for
156 language pairs, as well as the major 10 languages
with the greatest global economic impact (i.e., French,
Spanish, Chinese).
Below are three key findings from the report:
Automation and technology integration is benefiting everyone. Translation vendors that
effectively use technology to partially automate the translation process can offer substantial
savings to businesses. Whether it's using translation memory to process previously translated
text or providing human post-editing services for machine-translated text, there is a high
potential for cost efficiency.
Pricing by source content is standard. Most respondents (72.5%) said they base pricing on
the source content they receive versus just 13% who charge by the words that they generate.
Other factors contribute to pricing structure, such as the client and the complexity of the job.
Extra-cost fees might include terminology research, project management, testing, quality
control checks and preparation of final materials.
It's a good time to localize. As more businesses look to foreign language markets as a source
of growth, demand for translation and localization services has lifted 13%. However, that doesn't
mean that prices have gone up in kind. In fact, some language pairs have dropped. French and
German translations remained relatively stable. And among the world’s top 10 languages,
English into Russian showed the most price compression over that period.
Page 1: Translation Demand is Up, But Not Prices Copyright © Acclaro 2012
Interested in "what's next"? The CSA report also lists the 23 “next-wave languages” used in
rapidly developing markets or in countries that are important to the global supply chain. Arabic
and the languages of India, for instance, are high on the list.
About Acclaro: Acclaro is an international translation and localization company that helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. We specialize in website translation, marketing campaigns, documents and software localization to give clients an authentic voice in key language markets.
North America: 1-866-468-5106 Worldwide: +1-914-468-0222 www.acclaro.com [email protected]
Page 2: Translation Demand is Up, But Not Prices Copyright © Acclaro 2012