The 2018 Nimdzi 100 – LSP Rankings (Revised May, 2018)

Methodology

In the course of this market analysis, Nimdzi has uncovered prominent LSPs that have previously been invisible in market reports because they do not participate in surveys and are reluctant to disclose their revenue. Nimdzi has employed an investigative approach and invested countless hours into intense research, data collection, and analysis in order to present data that have previously been unavailable.

We are very proud to offer broad access to our data. This report is offered to all who are interested. No paywall. No strings attached. Localization buyers, investors, savvy job seekers, and analysts are welcome to use this document, just don’t forget to reference Nimdzi Insights LLC as the source. Interested parties are free to reach out to us directly should they have any questions. 

Below is a summary of the methodology used for the Nimdzi 100 Ranking.

1. We concentrated on identifying LSPs with USD 10 million or more in revenue with the assistance of in-country experts. In most countries, there are only a few providers of that size, and they are impossible to hide from local competitors because they hire staff, take part in requests for proposals, and employ a large number of translators. Once we identified the relevant LSPs, we researched information that could help us make more accurate estimates of their size and talked to the management directly to verify findings.
2. We’re listing full company revenue, not just language services revenue. It is not possible to separate these in external sources of information, such as annual reports, press releases, and stock listings which provide the foundation for our work. To separate LSPs from other types of companies, we’ve decided to include organizations in the ranking only if language services make more than 50% of their income. Language services business units inside large organizations are featured in a separate list. 
3. This is a live document. Nimdzi reserves the right to publish revisions. We expect some players to submit new or revised financial figures and we may release a second edition of the ranking if material and appropriate.
4. We use data from the latest fiscal year for each company. This means the numbers for some companies will not reflect 2017 calendar year revenues. We are aware that this may complicate comparisons between companies which is why we have clearly marked companies with non-standard fiscal years in the Nimdzi 100 Ranking. 
5. Our definition of language services includes: translation, transcreation, localization, multilingual desktop publishing (DTP), language quality assurance, linguistic testing, multilingual copywriting, multilingual technical writing, language project management, interpreting, video remote interpreting, telephone interpreting, linguist verification and staffing, media localization, versioning, adaptation, subtitling, voice over, dubbing, machine translation, training machine translation engines, cultural consulting, and related services.
6. Growth rates are calculated in the company’s reporting currency. For example, a German company that reports revenue in euros has its growth rate calculated in euros. But when we rank it in the table against other companies we use USD as a common denominator.
7. We use average annual currency conversion rates to US dollars for each day of trading in 2017.