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A new translation market on its way

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The Californian company Language Weaver, publisher of software and machine translation solutions, recently announced that the new up and coming gap in the translation market is the maximisation of new forms of translation. Machine translation currently reportedly accumulates about 67 billion dollars, a surprising figure if we compare it to the 14 billion estimated revenue by the consulting firm Global Watchtower.

Beyond the random nature of the amount stated by Language Weaver, we fully understand the message behind it. This estimate is to measure current demand for translation. As a translation agency we interpret the estimation of Language Weaver in another way: The first number means that the translation market has an outstanding growth potential, even in times of recession, reassuring information for those involved, the use of machine translation is therefore a useful resource. We also conclude that a large portion of companies is not currently prepared to pay human for translation at a standard market price.

Companies have high expectations of machine translation
A study based on more than two hundred interviews with U.S. and European companies (including Hewlett-Packard, Kellogg's and Nokia) highlights the growing interest of companies regarding machine translation. 17% of respondents have already used method and 11% plan to do so. It also states that 30% of companies surveyed do not use it, due to its poor quality and 60% rated human translation above machine translation.
This 60% reveals the distrust of companies regarding machine translation. The quality of machine translation will never be equal human translation (by a professional). Freelance translators and translation agencies can already get involved and develop strategies in order to win a share of this market potential. It is high time indeed.

The future points to a combination of machine and human translation and CAT tools
A solution to this is spreading in the professional circles, from software companies for machine translation. It is a method that would allow the translator to a increase its working capacity by tenfold and thus significantly increase their work capacity. Any decent translator is dedicated to having a high quality output, and therefore machine translation is unlikely to appeal considering its unpredictable results. However, in order to increase ones revenue, one must increase ones productivity, which in turn will allow one to remain competitive by offering fair prices. Translation rates are already low, and this looks sets to fall even further if machine translation really takes hold. In order to increase productivity, but to ensure quality results, a combination of CAT tools and human translation seems like a good compromise.