Translation Trends in 2016

Do you feel it – the post-holiday blue? How to cure? Let’s think positive because it’s time to embark on preparations for a new chapter in 2016. Did you set goals for this year? Let’s see how many of those trends may inspire your plan.

# 1 Less popular languages in the rise
Contrary to predictions that the language industry in the world tends to “centralization” and revolves around the popular languages such as English, Spanish, Chinese, and German, the language services companies and investor are gradually and locally change market direction in each small region. Do not fail to underestimate these segments as they are mostly the new community to the Internet and the activities related to technology, so if companies can proactively expand their brand right now, the market conquering progress will then become easier than ever. A typical example that should be mentioned is the big name in the online translation industry – Google Translate. Continuous updating of such small language as Amharic, Corsican, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kyrgyz, Luxembourgish, Pashto, Samoan, Scottish Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, West Frisian, Xhosa (listed from February 2016 ) seems to have created a special mark to turn Google into a “Perfect” and reliable translation tool compared to other online translation sites.

# 2 Quality “overwhelming” translation rates
When translation demand comes largely from the company, our customers seem to understand and appreciate the translated content delivered to their customers rather than how much cheaper translation price is. It’s easy to understand. In an age where everything happens so fast and all activities mainly revolve around the Internet, the very first impression customer get can decide the success and reputation of the brand. Companies are willing to spend large sums of money, or there is even a separate budget for localization & translation, for the aim of effectively reaching customers. The type of advertising as “Cheap translation” seems only appropriate to individual customers with the types of documents not related to the purpose of publishing, but the number of those buyers have fallen rapidly.

# 3 The demand for audio services spike
Transcription and voice-overs services are no longer a new service in the translation industry, but it will be a new and potential direction for many LSPs. To understand this point, firstly, we should turn our head to the new trend of modern marketing. Forgetting the days when marketer raced on each page of newspapers, trying to list its advantages over the arid word that 90% of readers will forget later. Modern marketing focus more on the customer’s senses, specifically here are visual and auditory. Only one clip shared on the company website, YouTube or social networks went rival will create a huge effect and be even more effective if it is done in the language of your target customers. The translation company should grasp this trend and make the appropriate strategy to meet the needs of customers in the coming years.

# 4 What about translation companies and freelancer translators?
In recent years, the translation company tends to expand in the width while freelancer translators do in depth. The company focused on meeting the diverse needs of customers from language pair to the service (interpretation, translation, localization, voice recording, subtitling). Freelancer translators develop “self-brand” according to their strength. Both trends are remarkably effective, but we should remember that the translation company has positioned itself as an intermediary between clients and translators and is a key channel to reach customers.