This video by Nataly Kelly with Common Sense Advisory summarizes the situation of the translation market as follows:
- The market is worth more than US$33 billion and growing.
- There are more then 26,000 agencies and hundreds of thousands of freelancers.
- The market is growing at a rate of 12.17 compound annual growth in 2012.
- The average price per word is falling (in most language pairs).
- Demand for content is booming (85% of localization buyers expect their volume of services to increase in the next 12 months).
- Profit margins remain high (60% of translation agencies report profit margins of 20% and more).
- Productivity is stagnating (about 2500 words per day is still the norm, even with CAT tools).
- Machine translation use is growing (20.64 % of freelance translators have used it).
See: Animoto
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United States
Local time: 12:18
Spanish to English
+ ...
and yet
"The average price per word is falling (in most language pairs)."
Sounds like someone wants to convince translators to lower rates. Sorry, I don't buy it. 2012 has been my busiest year ever and my rates remain in the double digits per word. If only there were a way to open an agency witho... See more
and yet
"The average price per word is falling (in most language pairs)."
Sounds like someone wants to convince translators to lower rates. Sorry, I don't buy it. 2012 has been my busiest year ever and my rates remain in the double digits per word. If only there were a way to open an agency without translators - imagine the profits!
As Sheldon Cooper would say: "Hokum!"
[Edited at 2012-10-01 21:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
Local time: 18:18
Polish to English
+ ...
Different universe here.
Out of 15 years in translation, for me this year has been the worst so far. Guess it depends on the language pair and areas of expertise.
2004-2010 had double-digit rates for me, and I boasted rejecting jobs daily. 2012 has lower rates, and fewer jobs. Even though I have more experience and stellar references.
Still, I'm optimistic. And I have more time for frequenting forums.
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
English to Spanish
+ ...
Thinking that I was going to see a video of sexy translators...good info though
South Africa
Local time: 19:18
Member (2008)
German to English
+ ...
I was very busy earlier this year and am very quiet now. Much busier in previous years. If the translation market is so big, I'm obviously looking in the wrong places (??).
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
German to English
... taking bald stats. If, for sake of argument, the world can boast one million working translators, each can dream of an income of 33k USD per year. But does anyone know how many working translators there are?
Must be over a million surely?
South Africa
Local time: 19:18
Member (2008)
German to English
+ ...
@Daniel - there were around 700,000 translators worldwide in 2008 according to CSA.
http://tandibusiness.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-is-total-number-of-translators-and.html
and
http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/mygengocom-state-of-global-translation-industry-2009.
Local time: 14:18
English to Spanish
+ ...
Just like Paula, I think that I am looking in the wrong places. No boom here at all
United States
Local time: 12:18
Spanish to English
+ ...
$33,000 is barely enough to survive in the U.S. You would be better off managing a fast-food restaurant.
You need to make a minimum of $65,000 if you want a decent place to live, food, a vehicle, health insurance, a retirement fund, etc. not to mention paying the high self-employment and social security taxes. You can't do that on .07 a word without getting government assistance.
... taking bald stats. If, for sake of argument, the world can boast one million working translators, each can dream of an income of 33k USD per year. But does anyone know how many working translators there are?
Must be over a million surely?
[Edited at 2012-10-02 16:34 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-10-02 16:35 GMT]
United States
Local time: 09:18
English to German
+ ...
$33,000 is barely enough to survive in the U.S. You would be better off managing a fast-food restaurant.
You need to make a minimum of $65,000 if you want a decent place to live, food, a vehicle, health insurance, a retirement fund, etc. not to mention paying the high self-employment and social security taxes. You can't do that on .07 a word without getting government assistance.
There is nothing to add.
United States
Local time: 12:18
Spanish to English
+ ...
What no one dares tell these excited new translators is that with some rare exceptions, it takes years (not days, weeks or months) to gain experience and build a successful business. In the meantime, they need an additional income stream.
On average, new translators should expect to earn less than $500 during their first year, between $2,000 and $5,000 during their second year and then maybe $10,000 to $15,000 during their third year if they have the right stuff.
Related articles [How I Tripled My Translation Business in One Year]:
http://translationjournal.net/journal/62prof.htm
[Using Low Rates to Attract Clients] (don't forget to read the comments section too):
http://thefreelancery.com/2012/09/using-low-rates-to-attract-clients/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=using-low-rates-to-attract-clients
[Edited at 2012-10-03 00:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
Russian Federation
Local time: 20:18
Italian to Russian
+ ...
Number of claims: which would give a material dimension to the "booming" market.
United States
Local time: 09:18
English to Russian
+ ...
Internet and CAT tools allow agencies to choose low bidders to keep the costs (as well as quality) down. It drives price per word down, pushing those of us, who will spend extra time to find the right word and really polish the final translation, to look for income elsewhere.
Agencies report high profits, but most o... See more
Internet and CAT tools allow agencies to choose low bidders to keep the costs (as well as quality) down. It drives price per word down, pushing those of us, who will spend extra time to find the right word and really polish the final translation, to look for income elsewhere.
Agencies report high profits, but most of the time when I read a translated document I wonder if the only thing they used was Google Translate. ▲ Collapse
Spain
Local time: 18:18
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
I think the video misses one important point: with CAT tools and (for those who use it) machine traslation technology, the norm is still 2,500 words/day... but we all probably agree that these are 2,500 NEW words/day, or their equivalents in different ranges of matches.
My productivity today is easily double of what I would achieve without a CAT tool, and if I compare my current main tool (memoQ) with the previous one (Trados 2007), my p... See more
I think the video misses one important point: with CAT tools and (for those who use it) machine traslation technology, the norm is still 2,500 words/day... but we all probably agree that these are 2,500 NEW words/day, or their equivalents in different ranges of matches.
My productivity today is easily double of what I would achieve without a CAT tool, and if I compare my current main tool (memoQ) with the previous one (Trados 2007), my productivity has easily increased by 25%. Productivity is clearly NOT stagnating! ▲ Collapse
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