Best Practices

Latest Insights and Statistics on Translation Industry Trends in 2023

Check out the latest insights and stats on translation industry trends in 2023! From language stats to the power of AI-driven tools, it's all here! Don't miss out on the opportunities for your business!

Arya Vikram

23 min

Overview of Language Statistics

Here are some fascinating statistics about our world languages for 2023:

The English language is the most spoken language in the world when counting both native and non-native speakers, with over 1.4 billion total speakers. (Berlitz)
The language with the most native speakers worldwide is Mandarin Chinese, with over 1.1 billion speakers. (Lingua)
With more than 512 million native speakers, Spanish is the second most extensively used language globally. (Lingua)
Hindi and Spanish were the third and fourth most widespread languages in 2022. (Statista)
With over 315 million speakers, Arabic is the world's sixth most popular language. (Babble)
The world's top five most-spoken languages are English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic. (Langoly)
With over 258 million speakers, Russian is the seventh most widely spoken language in the world. (Rubric)
German is the fourth-most lucrative language according to the CSA rankings, even though it is not one of the world's top 10 most spoken languages. (Rubric)
Portuguese is considered the fastest-growing language after English. (Indeed)

These data demonstrate how crucial language instruction and translation services are in today's globalized society.

Statistics on the Global Translation Market

The translation industry plays a major role in helping business capture the interests of international audiences.

Here are some statistics on the global markets that you should consider while creating your goals for growing your business:

According to CSA Research's study of 8,709 consumers worldwide in 29 countries, 76% of online buyers prefer to purchase products with information in their native tongue. (CSA Research)
The same survey found that 40% of consumers will never buy from websites in other languages. (CSA Research)
A Common Sense Advisory report states that 75% of consumers are more likely to purchase goods and services if the product information is in their native language. (Lokalise)
The report also found that 60% of consumers rarely or never buy from English-only websites. (CSA Research)
According to Alexika, 65% of buyers prefer to only make purchases in their mother tongue. (Alexika)
You can reach 80% of the world's online consumers by translating your website into the following tongues: English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Italian. (CSA Research)
Your business experience is improved, and online shoppers' purse strings are loosened when your material is tailored to foreign consumers. (Alexika)

If you want your business to reach global audiences and achieve success in international trade, your website content and marketing materials must speak the consumers' language.

Speaking your consumers' language increases understanding, and also establishes credibility between your company and your target audience, assisting with your worldwide sales potential.

Key Insights into the Localization Industry

Here are some key insights into the localization industry:

Businesses that invested in translation were 1.5 times more likely to observe an increase in revenue. (Redokun)
Localized social media content creation increased organic performance by 2500%. (Redokun)
Marketing professionals reported that content translation had increased their income by 84%. (Lokalise)
According to a Common Sense Advisory report, 75% of consumers are more likely to purchase goods and services if the product information is in their native language. (Lokalise)
If information is provided to consumers in their native languages, more than half of them will spend more. (HBR)
65% of buyers prefer to only make purchases in their mother tongue. (Alexika)
76% of online buyers prefer to purchase products with information in their native tongue, and 40% will never purchase from websites in other languages, according to a CSA Research survey. (CSA Research)
Social media localization provides limitless opportunities for businesses. (The WordPoint)
Brands using localization services are 1.5 times more likely to to be make more profit than those that don't. (HBR)

Translation Statistics 2023

Professional translation services are key in overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers and increasing performance. The global market statistics below show the translation industry trends:

The market for language services worldwide is estimated to be worth USD 60.68 billion in 2022 and to grow at a CAGR of 5.94% to reach USD 96.21 billion by the end of 2032. (Fact Mr)
The average translation budget for large-scale companies ranges from 0.25% to 2.5% of their annual turnover. (Fact Mr)
The U.S. federal government spends around US$ 700-800 million annually on outsourced language services. (Fact Mr)
The global machine translation market is expected to rise considerably between 2022 and 2028, with a value of $153.8 million USD in 2020. (My Language Connection)
The market size of the global language services industry was estimated to reach almost 60 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. (Statista)
The translation service market is projected to hit USD 47.21 billion at a CAGR of 2.60% by 2030. (Globe News Wire)

These translation industry statistics reveal a bright future for translation companies.

The Evolution of the Translation Industry: A Decade of Growth

The translation industry has experienced significant growth over the past decade. Here are some ways in which the language service providers industry has grown:

Despite a challenging economic climate and political upheaval around the globe, the translation industry has grown every year for the past ten years. (Alpha Omega Transitions)
The global language services industry saw more than a decade of year-on-year growth come to an end in 2020, with the market worth between $47.5 billion and $50.6 billion. (Tomedes)
The global translation market reached $56.18 billion USD in 2021, an increase of more than $5 billion in just two years. (My Language Connection)
Between 2017 and 2022, the market size for translation services in the US increased by 7.0% year on average, reaching USD 6.6 billion in 2022. (IBIS World)

Despite economic and political challenges, the translation industry has grown significantly over the past decade and is projected to continue growing in the coming years.

Statistics on Translators and Interpreters

Here are some statistics from around the world:

There are approximately 640,000 translators worldwide. (My Language Connection)
In 2022, over 52,000 interpreters and translators were employed in the United States. (Statista)
In the US, women make up 61.6% of all employed translators. (Statista)
Chinese, Spanish and Arabic are the most translated languages by translators. (Renaissance)
As of Jul 12, 2023, the average hourly pay for a translator in the United States is $28.73 an hour. (Zip Recruiter)

A Positive Outlook for Language Service Providers

A consolidated growth provides a positive job outlook for language service providers over the long term:

From 2019 to 2029, the number of interpreters and translators employed in the US is expected to increase by 20%. (Maverick Group)
Between 2021 and 2031, the Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts a 20.2% increase in employment for interpreters and translators in the US. (Money US News)
The global language services market is valued at USD 60.68 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 96.21 billion by the end of 2032, with a CAGR of 5.94%. (DZ Linkedin)
The market size of the translation services industry in the United States was USD 6.6 billion in 2022. (Statista)
German, Mandarin and Arabic are the highest paying languages for translators. (Indeed)

The ever-increasing demand for translation services worldwide, along with the current translation industry trends, have created countless opportunities for freelance translators and translation companies.

In conclusion, the 2023 translation trends anticipate a dramatic expansion in the translation industry during the next few years, which should reflect in the world economy.

Insights into the Translation Software Industry

The term "translation software" refers to a broad range of web-based or desktop programs used by translators, companies, and agencies to accomplish a number of goals in translation projects.

These devices are known as CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools. Make use of our custom filter, created to help you find the top translation tools of 2022 that match your criteria and tastes if you're looking for one.

Here are some interesting CAT tools statistics:

88% of full-time professional translators utilize at least one CAT program, according to a poll. (Webinar Care)
76% of them employed multiple CAT tools. (Go Proz)
According to translators, utilizing translation software can increase their output by at least 30%. (Webinar Care)
From 2020 to 2025, the market share for translation management software is anticipated to grow by USD 1.58 billion at a CAGR of 14.81%. (Redokun)
Using the right software can help cut translation costs by 90% that stem from human errors, unnecessary email communication, and time spent on uploading content and searching databases. (Webinar Care)
In 2020, there were 14,362 freelance translators working, with 58.2% of them being female. (Webinar Care)

Machine translation software is very popular among professional translators, most of which use multiple CAT products.

Because of the many benefits of a CAT tool, the market for translation management software is expected to expand dramatically.

Security Priorities of Software Buyers Mirrored in the Translation Industry

With the recent advancements in AI within the realm of translation, it's noteworthy to mention how software buyers behave when it comes to safety. While this data isn't directly related to the translation industry, it underscores the IT department's growing concerns on this topic.

42% of software buyers prioritize security above everything else. They value it more than even the intrinsic features and capabilities of a product, aiming to ensure that their data remains secure and in compliance with privacy regulations. After security, the factors they consider are ease of use, product features, cost, and seamless integration. (Gartner)

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Facts and Figures about Automated Translation Systems

Machine translation (MT) is a game-changer when it comes to translation speed because it employs artificial intelligence to translate material swiftly, supporting human translation. The two most common machine translation systems are statistical machine translation (SMT) and the newer neural machine translation (NMT).

Here are some machine translation statistics related to the market and usage:

According to translators, utilizing translation software can increase their output by at least 30%. (Globe News Wire)
The necessity to use the technology in favor of a more efficient translation is driving up the demand for machine translation. (Mordor Intelligence)
The expansion of the MT industry will be fueled by the growing need for multilingual communication and the need for translation devices. (Mordor Intelligence)
Between 2017 and 2022, the market size for language service providers in the US increased by an average of 7.0% per year. (IBIS World)

The use of a translation software can considerably increase a translator's or translation company's productivity. This is especially important in a world where multilingual communication becomes more and more relevant.

Trends of the Global Machine Translation Market

Machine translations climbed, and the average revenue growth rate for the translation machine market also looks promising. Here are some figures about the machine translation market:

The market for machine translation was estimated at USD 800 million in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of more than 30% from 2022 to 2030. (Gmin Sights)
The market for machine translation providers was valued at USD 812.6 million in 2021 and is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 19.9% to reach USD 4,069.5 million by 2030. (Globe News Wire)
The MT market is poised to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% by 2027. (Mordor Intelligence)
The global machine translation market size reached US$ 162.4 Million in 2021 and is expected to reach US$ 305.1 Million by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.08% during 2021-2027. (Pr News Wire)

In conclusion, the current CAGR points to the growth of the worldwide machine translation industry.

Translation Memory Statistics

The ability to store approved translations, allowing for reuse in subsequent translation projects, is a powerful time-saving feature that many translation software programs offer.

Here are some statistics related to TMs:

A survey of translators in 2006 found that 82.5% of 874 translators confirmed using translation memory. (Translate fx)
There are 24 languages currently supported by the DGT Translation Memory. (Joint Research Centre EC)
The use of TM can reduce translation time and costs by up to 50%. (Wolfram Alpha)
WorldServer now records the number of segment matches that each TM provides for each task. (Gateway Sdl)
Translation memories can be bilingual or multilingual, depending on the specific TM software used. (Pair A Phrase)
In order to create a TM, translation agencies and freelance translators need a CAT tool. (Pair A Phrase)
Repetitive text will be stored in a TM, which can improve translation quality and consistency. (Pair A Phrase)
The EAC Translation Memory is available in 23 languages and contains over 1.5 billion words. (Joint Research Centre EC)

Multiple languages are supported by the DGT and EAC Translation Memories, and WorldServer keeps track of how many segments matches each TM offers for each assignment.

Professional translators frequently use TMs in order to ensure consistency, quality, and the timely delivery of their translations.

What are the best Machine Translation APIs?

Four popular machine translation engines – Amazon Translate, DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft Translator – underwent an evaluation based on BLEU scores to gauge translation quality. The study also measured response time, which is important for real-time translation applications, offering valuable insights into engine performance. Here are the results:

DeepL and Amazon Translate were the top performers. DeepL achieved the best results for most European Languages and Amazon Translate for the Asian ones; (Bureau Works)
In general, the longer the sentence, the better the translation; (Bureau Works)
The engines’ API provided low translation time, with the exception of DeepL, in which the median time to translate a single sentence was close to 1 second. (Bureau Works)

Advantages of Generative AI Over Traditional MT Engines

AI-driven tools like the Generative Language Engine (GLE) are among the recent translation trends and have already had a powerful and transformative impact in the translation services industry.

According to Bureau Works, Generative AI revolutionizes the translation process, reducing post-editing time by 50%. (Bureau Works) (Merging Minds).
Although its performance may vary depending on the prompt and language, ChatGPT has the potential to deliver translations of better quality than conventional MT engines, especially when handling idiomatic idioms and sophisticated language. (Bureau Works)
With success rates ranging from 70% to 90% in languages other than Korean, ChatGPT excelled in all tested machine translation engines as a translator. Even with lesser ratings, ChatGPT still outperformed MT engines in the Korean language. (Bureau Works)
The accuracy of ChatGPT's translations ranged from 30% to 70%. Given the complexity and caliber of evaluation prompts, more study is necessary to comprehend its potential and difficulties as an evaluator for translation engines. (Bureau Works)

Interactions and Content Preferred by Buyers in Their Native Language

Many buyers prefer certain content to be presented in their native language. According to the '2023 Global Software Buying Trends' survey conducted by Gartner:

40% of participants desire support services and training resources in their primary language. (Gartner)
36% want software user interfaces in their primary language. (Gartner)
32% seek vendor communications in their native language. (Gartner)
31% have a preference for websites and landing pages in their primary language. (Gartner)

Summary

Machine translations, TM technology and AI-driven tools are revolutionizing the way the translation world operates. As a result, translation trends – as well as localization trends – point to a higher integration between human and machine in the short term.

Given that consumers prefer products and information in their native language, current translation industry trends and labor statistics indicate an increase in opportunities for interpreters and translators both in the short and the long term.

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Collaborative translation is a powerful tool for your business if you’re looking to expand to new global markets. By coordinating a team of professionals who work together in real-time, you can quickly deliver high quality translations that resonate with local audiences.

But what if you don't know how to synchronize a large team's efforts? Or are you‌ struggling to find the right software for a well-coordinated translation process? Well, look no further! In this guide, you'll learn all the know-how's of collaborative translation to bring your brand to global audiences.

Overview

What is collaborative translation?
Why seamless translation collaboration is important
Best practices for collaborative translation and global market success

What is collaborative translation?

Collaborative translation is when multiple people simultaneously work together to translate content. A collaborative translation process often makes use of specialized tools and software to make sure the translation is quick, accurate, and consistent.

Example: Let's say you're a B2B SaaS company looking to translate your marketing materials into a new language to connect with potential clients abroad. Use collaborative translation to bring together translators, developers, and other specialists to translate content into many languages at once.

Your team can use a collaborative translation platform like Redokun to work on projects simultaneously. A coordinated workflow will make sure that your translations use the same terminology and style, improving the quality of the translated product for your target audiences.

Collaborative Translation vs. Crowdsourcing

People often confuse collaborative translation with crowdsourcing and think the two are the same. However, these approaches to translation are different.

Crowdsourcing is when a large group of people contributes translations, often through an open call or invitation by a company or author. Brands can turn to crowdsourcing, community translation, or volunteer translation when they are looking to reduce costs and accelerate the process, especially for large multi-language projects.

In crowdsourced translations, the contributors can be volunteer translators, subject matter experts, or just anonymous individuals online. In other words, you may not know who's worked on the translation and what their qualifications are. It makes crowdsourcing distinct from collaborative translation, where the team would be an established group of professionals you've selected

Why seamless translation collaboration is important

As a busy B2B/B2C marketing manager or project manager, you might ask yourself: Isn't the "divide and conquer" a better strategy when working on a translation or localization project? It seems logical that each project team member, including translators, designers, and editors, works on their tasks separately and step by step.

However, collaborative translation can help your team reap many benefits compared to a traditional approach to translation projects:

Reasons why seamless translation collaboration is important

Produce high-quality translations consistently. When your whole team works on a translation project simultaneously on one platform, it's easier to stay in context and keep track of the translation accuracy for every target language. On top of that, your team can conduct agile QA throughout the project cycle.
‍Faster turnaround times. By working together, your team can complete projects faster and more efficiently. Centralization saves a lot of time at every stage of translation. And since your team can work on more than one translation at a time, you can publish your translated content in several new markets at once.
‍Reduced costs. You get to improve efficiency while working with a smaller team of translators. The smaller and more coordinated the team, the less the risk of costly translation errors. It means reduced translation costs and better project budget compliance.
‍Increased flexibility. Collaborative translation allows your team to produce translations into many languages at once and easily make changes to any project document. You can conveniently engage in a feedback loop and guarantee a continuous localization process.
‍Better communication. Collaborative translation effectively brings all members of your localization team together on one platform. It helps you make sure that everyone is working toward the same goals ‌and simplifies overall localization management.

Six best practices for collaborative translation and global market success

To be great at collaborative translation, you need to approach it strategically. Even if you've never used this approach before, you can follow the six steps below to build an efficient collaborative translation workflow. And if you're already familiar with this method, these practices will help you improve the way you collaborate on any translation projects.

Six best practices for collaborative translation for your global business success

1. Work out a detailed project plan

Before you start working on translations together, you need a clear-cut project plan. You should first identify the following items.

Project timeline: Define crucial deadlines, project milestones, and the overall project duration.
Translation volume and key deliverables: Calculate the general word count, and determine the workload for every language pair if you translate into multiple languages.
Project budget: Keep in mind possible added and hidden translation costs.
Project team: Define what kind of specialists you need: translators, editors, proofreaders, etc. Will you need to find external translators? Consider all your HR needs in advance.
Your approach to the translation process: How much do you want to rely on machine translation? At what point will you edit translated strings? Answer all these questions before you go on.
Quality assurance protocol: Establish an efficient QA procedure for all the language pairs you're working on.

It may sound like a handful but the more detailed the plan, the more streamlined the translations will be down the road. Besides, you can already use Redokun to boost this stage of the localization process!

Redokun is a translation management system you can use to automate, coordinate, and optimize your translation processes from content creation to publication.

Redokun simplifies your project planning. In particular, you can use the tool to:

Monitor your ongoing translations easily. Keep track of all of your translation files and projects across multiple languages in one space, and check their progress at a glance.

Meet deadlines with digest emails. Redokun will send you daily or weekly email digests to update you on the progress of translations. From there, you can initiate one-click reminders to your translators who are potentially falling behind schedule.
Making budget planning easier. Redokun has a transparent, scalable pricing structure that will cover exactly the volume of work your project needs.

Redokun is an easy-to-use tool that requires no onboarding. Your team can start using all the system’s features right away. During your project planning stage, you won’t need to factor in a lengthy training period to introduce team members to the tool.

2. Divide tasks and assign responsibilities the smart way

Good collaboration is impossible without a well-planned distribution and organization of roles and tasks. Ensure that every team member is on the same page and understands their respective responsibilities.

For example, the project managers should divide ‌translation tasks among translation team members according to their language proficiency, area of expertise, or subject matter knowledge.

On Redokun, you can invite translators to work on different language pairs and content types depending on their skills. All you need to do is enter the translator's email. The software will send them an email invitation and let you know once they've started translating the file.
You can also invite several translators to work on one document.

To maximize the efficiency of project management and task division, establish a clear structure of your workflow. Make sure all your pages, files, and folders are well organized and team members know where to find necessary resources for their respective tasks. A centralized, cloud-based storage for all your documents is a must.

Redokun is a cloud-based software that makes file management easy. You can create folders and customize permission settings for multiple users for better organization. No more need to look for spreadsheets and lost documents scattered around different digital locations.
Don't forget to make the most of the Reporting Dashboard. It shows you the status of the translation project and helps you see how users distribute tasks (for example, what methods they use to translate different content segments).

Redokun Dashboard with translation statistics

3. Enhance the collaborative translation process with clear communication

It's important to have open communication channels among all team members in your translation project, including internal and external translators. For a successful collaboration effort, you need a shared communication space to:

Conduct regular check-ins.
Discuss translation options and other aspects of the working process.
Update and adjust requirements and guidelines.
Maintain feedback loops.

It's up to you to choose between email, messengers, or tools like Google Drive or Slack to keep your collboarative operations flowing. However, using multiple channels for different aspects of the project can get messy. It's harder to manage your team and make sure all collaborators are up to date on the ongoing translation tasks.

You can avoid these potential problems by centralizing all your communications and project management. With translation software like Redokun, you can manage, translate, communicate, and collaborate — all in one place.

Translate content in context. Your translators or editors can use page previews in Web Editor to understand the context of the text while working on it.
Work together in real-time. Use Redokun as a full-scale collaborative translation platform. It enables real-time cooperation among your team members, improving efficiency and reducing communication errors.
Use comments, mentions, and notifications to exchange feedback quickly. Redokun's Web Editor is a convenient place to stay in touch and discuss your translation progress every step of the way.

Create a hybrid workflow. Work with your in-house teams or external translators to suit different localization project formats and scalability needs.

4. Use machine translation and translation memory tools

Computer-assisted translation tools are a great addition to human translation. Machine translation (MT) helps your collaborators speed up the localization process by automating translation. Of course, it doesn't have the quality of a human professional translation — it’s more like a helping hand that's always there to facilitate the translation of complex phrases or new terms.

Redokun is integrated with two Machine Translation tools: Google Translate and DeepL. Translation suggestions by these two tools pop up right below where the translator should key in the translation, as shown here.

To enhance collaboration even further, consider using translation memory tools. They ensure consistency and save translation software users a lot of time.

Translation memory (TM) is a translation technology that stores previously translated sentences or phrases as segments and creates a unique database for your localization projects. You can reuse your translation to increase efficiency and consistency in ongoing and future translations.

With Redokun as your collaborative translation platform, you can leverage TM to:

Consistently translate any repeated word, phrase, or sentence across different language pairs and documents. It's especially important for translating technical terms, marketing slogans, CTAs, and other catchphrases. Translation memory helps you stay consistent in your marketing messaging.
Pre-translate your entire documents. Combine TM matches from your previous translations with Machine Translation to get a fully pre-translated document even before your team gets to work.
Manage your translation memory database. Import and customize your TM database to further improve translation quality and consistency.

”The speed of translation is quite impressive in that it doesn’t take [much time], maybe a couple of minutes when you translate from English to eight markets. I think that’s what I’m most impressed by.”

Read more about how Kenni and the marketing team at Rockfon increased their translation productivity by 70% using translation memories and other Redokun features here.

5. Use glossaries and style guides

Glossaries and style guides are valuable resources your team can use for reliable reference.

A glossary is a list of terms and their corresponding translations that are specific to a company or industry.

A style guide outlines the preferred tone, voice, and style for a company's marketing materials across markets and languages.

Your collaborators can refer to these resources when they’re not sure about a translation. For example is when they're deciding how to translate a company abbreviation, whether to the Oxford comma, or choosing the right tone to address customers, etc. No more ambiguity about linguistic, stylistic, and cultural aspects of your translations.

Use Redokun's glossary feature to create a glossary and style guide that outlines rules for spelling, grammar, punctuation, terminology, and tone specific to your project.

6. Continuously review and revise

A key benefit of a collaborative translation platform is the ability to review and revise translations in an agile and efficient manner. By involving multiple specialists in the process of editing and QA, you can guarantee accuracy and consistency in the translated content at every stage of the project.

To implement effective review and revision procedures in your collaborative translation projects, it is important to:

Plan for review and revision in advance. Identify who will be responsible, set the timeline, and use specific tools.
Consider involving in-country reviewers who are familiar with the local market and culture to ensure that the translations are accurate and appropriate for the target audience.
Perform regular QA checks. They should include consistency in terminology and formatting, and verify that the translations are free from grammatical errors and typos.

Pro-tip: Ever experienced the headache of having to update a translation that’s already 70% done when there is a last-minute change to the source document?

With Redokun’s revision feature, you don’t have to spend hours poring over Excel sheets and comparing files to spot the places where new words have been added or sentences have been changed. Just upload the latest document version and the system will identify new text that needs translating — saving your team’s time and effort while keeping previous translations intact.

Summary

Collaborative translation is an excellent approach if you want to improve the consistency of your translations, reduce costs, and establish a strong presence in global markets.

The key to seamless collaboration is a combination of careful planning, role distribution, agile QA, and smart use of translation software.

Make Redokun part of your collaborative translation efforts and enhance the pace of your global business growth‌. Start your 14-day free trial today and benefit from a quicker and more streamlined translation workflow.

Till next time,

Anastasia

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