. kkkkk

Latin America: A Potential Translation & Localization Power House By Charles Campbell President, spanishbackoffice SA

An overview of the market, the players, and the trends  A volatile, incipient and exciting market A handful of small & medium sized dynamic translation and localization companies characterized by:  Hardworking, talented and gutsy management (cojones)  Low profile: sales by Internet/  Dependence on language industry clients  Very little full scale localization

Translation, Editing, Proofreading Project Management DTP Software TestingOthers??? Localization Proprietary Products ? The services provided:

Our largely undeveloped potential:  Culturally rich and diverse countries  Education: free universities in Argentina (!!!)  Comparatively low costs  Time zone compatibility with North America  Strong established translation and publishing industries  Steadily growing local software industry  Lots of translators (!)

A comparison with Eastern Europe:  Where are the Moravias, Skrivaneks and Argos of Latin America?  Eastern Europe emerged from dictatorship only 16 years ago but has quickly prospered (generally speaking). Why?  It is Europe after all – short distances to clients  Strong exact sciences and analytical focus at universities  Multilingual region  Sustained investment from Western Europe and the US

What is holding us back?  Few “real” companies  Very few quality project management/localization training events  Almost no cooperation with government, software companies, universities and other localization companies & professionals  Very little inter disciplinary cooperation with desk top publishers, engineers, programmers, localizers, etc.  No industry organization

Cooperation !!! Translation & Localization Companies Freelancers Software Industry Universities (public / private) Industry Organizations If we don’t all hang together, we will surely all hang separately

A look forward to 2016: Questions to ask ourselves: What if the peso revalues? What if more multinationals like Moravia set up offices in Latin America? What if server-based solutions and GMS systems replace in the box software? What if rates continue to slide downwards? What if quality translators/localizers get even harder to find? What if the tax authorities (AFIP etc.) get serious about income remittance and employment taxes for subcontractors?

A look forward to 2016: Is this as good as it gets? No! The future is bright, ¡animémonos a más!