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[chambers]

Translation tech helps firms talk business round the world
By Daniel Thomas Business reporter

A man uses Google's voice translate app on his smartphone during an event at the City of Fashion and Design, Paris

English is the language of business, right? Er... not really.
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Technology of Business


If the oft-heard maxim were universally true, the outsourced translation market wouldn't be worth a chunky $37bn (£23bn) or be growing at about 6% a year.

While content in English still dominates the web, "billions of people don't read English at all or well enough to make buying decisions," concludes a survey by Common Sense Advisory, a business research consultancy.

In reality, businesses must translate and localise products into a host of different languages, and that requires linguists.

And with competition among translation firms fierce, many are turning to technology to steal a march on their rivals.

Found in translation

Take The bigword, a Leeds-based firm employing about 12,000 linguists in 73 countries covering 500 languages. Its previous clients include Ricoh, Electrolux and DHL.

The firm says it can connect you with an interpreter in just 31 seconds by phone, localise your market messages or translate your documents.

However, it believes the real weapon in its technological arsenal is its new "translation management system" (TMS), which claims to deliver projects four times faster than the industry standard by automating project workflow and using computer-assisted translation tools.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29985865