The global language services market size: ca bln US$ Market continues to grow: 6.23% (2014), 5.13% (2013), 12.17% (2012), 7.41% (2011) Expected to reach 47 bln US$ by Source: CSA, 2014
High fragmentation: most companies have below 10 employees Only 500 companies have 50+ employees 100 top LSPs represent 12.8% of the market (2013) Over LSPs* 3 Source: CSA, 2013/2014 LSP = Language Service Provider
4 Source: CSA 2014 Eastern Europe’s share of the market: % (ca. 0.9 bln US$) - to reach ca bln US$ by 2018 Top 20 LSPs cover 24% of the market Only CZ, RU, PL private companies in Top 20 Moravia – leader by far
5 Source: CSA, 2013/14 Eastern Europe Global market Shares of top 5 above: 9.3%, 6.2%, 6.0%, 5.7%, 5.6%
6 Investors believe in companies that bring new approach to servicing translation buyers (Smartling, Gengo, Safaba) or bring good growth, operational efficiency February 2015: Clarion Capital Partners, LLC (US private equity firm) has acquired a majority interest in Moravia Moravia: - founded in 1990, Brno, Czech Republic mln US$ turnover in 2014, 850+ employees - the first localization company to achieve 100 mln US$ organically (private company)
7 October 2014: Argos acquires SH3 Inc. and rebrands to Argos Multilingual - Argos Translations (Kraków, Poland), founded Focus on translations for IT/software and life sciences - SH3 Inc. (Kansas City, USA), founded Translation supplier for the US industrial manufacturing sector - Before they cooperated for 15 years - About 100 staff all together It seems to be the first acquisition of this type
8 April 2014: XTRF, developer of XTRF translation management system, attracted the first round of funding: - XTRF is based in Kraków, Poland - XTRF has grown 100% annually for the last few years - Experior Venture Fund provided ca. 1 mln euro for product and company development - Experior got a minority stake in the company
9 Wave of online translation companies (OTC) Like Gengo, OneHourTranslation, Tolingo, some based on close to crowdsourcing model Client friendly workflow Go online -> get a quote instantly (cost calculators) -> pay in advance by credit card -> get your translation quickly (track the progress online) Online localization platforms Like Transifex (a cloud-based localization platform) or Lokalise (apps, games or websites) – platforms (subscriptions) + can supply translation teams OTCs start with focus on shorter, simpler jobs But then try to add premium services and reach also big clients Will OTCs replace "traditional" LSPs? Will they cause the “Uber” effect?
10 Gengo introduced "performance transparency". They publish online raw data on customer satisfaction and first response time MemSource: integration with "Gengo human translation engine" Source: Gengo website, 15 March 2015
11 Global resource competition Translation services can be done using linguists from anywhere in the world. It results in more competition and lower rates. Levels of quality, "good enough" More clients started to accept several levels of quality – depending on type of content, markets needs and intended purpose. Shortage of resources, scalability problems In certain areas of the market LSPs can not find enough resources to handle clients’ needs. The technology impact on revenue: MT and platforms - MT is widely available. Volume of post-editing MT jobs increases. Often PEMT cannibalizes revenue from human translations. - The next wave of easier-to-implement software for translation management (such as Easyling, Memsource, XTM, Smartling, and Transifex). They help to decrease (or even eliminate) staff.
Questions? Grzegorz Wójcik, MAGIT