Language Services Market Trends Nataly Kelly Chief Research Officer Twitter:@CSA_Research, @natalykelly Copyright 2011 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
About Common Sense Advisory Global business and language research Translation, localization, globalization, etc. Dedicated multinational research team Independent industry research firm Vendor-neutral, buyer-agnostic Qualitative and quantitative research Interdisciplinary demand-supply methodology Clients in 30+ countries
How we conduct research
1. Growth
Growth Common Sense Advisory calculates that the market for outsourced language services is worth US$31.438 billion in 2011. Top 50 = US$4 billion 912 companies surveyed / total LSP population of 25,256 Market growth from 2009 to 2010 (actual reported supply-side change in revenue) was 7.41%. Source: The Language Services Market: 2011, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Actual reported change in revenue from 2008 to 2009 Source: Language Service Provider Growth Factors, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Actual reported change in revenue from 2008 to 2009 Source: Language Service Provider Growth Factors, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Technology and experience affect growth Attitude toward Technology Respondents Average Growth Rate We re for it. 363 63.94% We have mixed feelings. 187 18.33% We re against it. 18 18.73% Years in Business Respondents Average Growth Rate 1 to 2 years 53 120.98% 3 to 5 years 114 34.50% 6 to 10 years 164 31.43% 11 to 15 years 137 114.88% 16 to 20 years 117 12.92% 21 to 30 years 85 17.49% More than 30 years 38 8.22% Actual reported change in revenue from 2008 to 2009 Source: Language Service Provider Growth Factors, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Which Services Are Growing the Fastest? Percent 2010 Percent 2011 Percent Change Translation 60.16 59.32-1.40 Multimedia localization 9.48 10.20 7.62 Software localization 18.27 16.56-9.36 Website globalization 19.64 18.31-6.79 Technology / software 8.65 6.91-20.15 International testing / QA 6.18 5.81-6.01 Internationalization services 6.32 4.06-35.75 Business process outsourcing 3.85 2.74-28.76 On-site interpreting 12.36 13.71 10.90 Telephone interpreting 7.42 7.79 5.02 Video interpreting 2.47 3.62 46.41 Subtitling 5.49 5.59 1.74 Voice-over / dubbing / narration 7.42 6.47-12.78 Transcreation 4.53 4.61 1.70 Other services 5.08 6.14 20.81 Source: The Language Services Market: 2011, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
2. Fragmentation
Source: The Language Services Market: 2011, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
3. Maturity
Source: The Localization Maturity Model 2.0, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: The Localization Maturity Model 2.0, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
4. Vendor Management
Source: How Buyers Manage Translation Suppliers, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: How Buyers Manage Translation Suppliers, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: How Buyers Manage Translation Suppliers, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
5. Speed
Global social media
6. Pricing
Source: Translation and Localization Pricing, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: Translation and Localization Pricing, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: Translation and Localization Pricing, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: Translation and Localization Pricing, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
Source: Translation and Localization Pricing, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
What you need to know about pricing Language combinations involving some languages have stabilized; room for price compression still exists for many languages Quality matters more for more mature buyers, yet very few mature buyers exist Don t immediately assume the low cost = low quality What to do about low-cost competition: out-market, outsell, and out-perform them Yes, prices could eventually increase but it s unlikely Source: Translation and Localization Pricing, Common Sense Advisory, Inc.
7. Transcreation
Transcreation vs. translation Purpose evoke a response or reaction Project types more limited, marketing & advertising Providers specialist LSPs, MLVs, ad agencies Volumes less than 5,000 words Turnaround time hours or days Starting point a creative brief Resources bilingual creative writers Costs more $$$, billed by hour or project, not by word Based on 30 interviews and a survey of 380 transcreation participants
8. Crowdsourcing
What you may not know about crowdsourcing Reasons? Speed and quality The people behind it? Often not the same people who buy localization/translation elsewhere in the organization Why are translators willing to work for free? Mostly not translators, but bilinguals with subject matter expertise
Three crowdsourced translation models Cause-driven Response to floods in Pakistan, earthquakes in Haiti Media demand for foreign content Product-driven Symantec Adobe Outsourcing-driven serviotranslate OneHourTranslation
How translators make money from crowdsourcing Community moderation Editing, review, validation Terminology management Project management Recruitment
9. Machine Translation
10. Globalization
Other factors related to globalization Not only are more of the buyers going global More LSPs are too! Global trade critical indicator to pay attention to for language pairs and growth sectors Content growth and web globalization
Final thoughts The age of the empowered buyer Quality measurement driven by buyers More innovation happening on buyer side With maturity comes empowerment Need for innovation and collaboration Growth has stifled innovation to a great degree Fragmentation has thwarted collaboration in many ways Tremendous desire among buyers to throw everything over the fence How will these trends affect our future strategy?
Q&A
Thank you! Nataly Kelly nataly@commonsenseadvisory.com +1.978.275.0500 x1203 Research: www.commonsenseadvisory.com Blog: www.globalwatchtower.com Twitter: @CSA_Research, @natalykelly Insight for global market leaders