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The 2024 NIMDZI 100

Ranking of the TOP 100 LARGEST
Language Service Providers

The annual language services industry report covering market research and analysis around translation, localization, interpreting, investment, language technology, and much more. Ranking of top companies in the sector. Visit this year’s report.

100+
Companies

5+
Researchers

8
Report sections

The 2024 NIMDZI 100

Ranking of the TOP 100 LARGEST
Language Service Providers

The annual language services industry report covering market research and analysis around translation, localization, interpreting, investment, language technology, and much more. Ranking of top companies in the sector. Visit this year’s report.

100+
Companies

5+
Researchers

8
Report sections

Too Long; Didn’t Read

No time to read the full report but still want to stay up to date?
We’ve got you covered.

This is the executive summary of the main findings from this year’s analysis: insights on market size and growth, mergers and acquisitions, geographical distribution of revenues, buyers’ viewpoints, and key trends.

01

State Of The
Language Industry

The language industry is still a growth market, and it would be an overstatement to declare its demise. 2023 saw constrained growth and recalibration amidst a wait-and-see attitude of many buyers due to macroeconomic factors and GenAI uncertainties.

Having factored in the effects of the shifting economic landscape, the providers’ optimism, and that – on a large scale – AI seems to complement rather than replace existing workflows, technologies, and human skills, we maintain our 7.0% industry growth projection for 2024 and beyond. 

02

The Nimdzi 100

Chances are the information you came here for is the Nimdzi 100 Ranking, the list of the largest language service providers across the globe.

Delve into the industry’s flagship revenue-based ranking of the top-tier players that includes their locations, revenues, and main business areas.

03

Just Shy Of The Top 100

While the Just Shy companies did not quite make this year’s Nimdzi 100 ranking, their work in the translation and localization space is still impressive.  They may well find themselves on the top-tier list in the future with continued growth and innovation. 

Nimdzi’s Watchlist includes companies that could contend for the ranking, and we keep tracking them as they also compete for clients, talent, and resources on a high level.

04 Market

Nimdzi estimates that the language services industry reached USD 67.9 billion in 2023 and projects it to grow to USD 72.7 billion in 2024 and, at 7% CAGR, to USD 95.3 billion by 2028. Let’s dive deep into concentration, growth rates, and productivity. We also honor women-led or -owned LSPs and discuss the highly dynamic interpreting sector. 

While LSPs are positive about their future revenue outlooks, there is optimism related to pricing as well, and fewer LSPs are pressured to take actions on the cost side. Growth is not the only objective, as our heatmap highlights all top-of-mind business challenges. 

05 Money

Although the industry has been consolidating for some time, it is highly fragmented by nature. 2023 saw many noteworthy transactions, although peaking interest rates undoubtedly contributed to the lower appetite for M&A activities.

LSPs, investors, and buyers are still on the path to figuring out how disruptive generative AI is in the long term. “AI white-washing” blurs the lines between players who passively use and those who actively add value with the new AI technologies.

We predict big movements in the top 10 of the Nimdzi 100 in the next two years due to further consolidation among the top-tier LSPs.

06 Atlas

While growth in all regions slowed down in 2023, and Asia again produced the highest levels of average growth at 20.9%, Europe at 3.0%, and North America at 4.1%.

Europe has more LSPs in the top 100 than North America (41% against 34%), but by market size these continents switch places: North America represents 45.9% (USD 31.2 billion) and Europe 38.5% (USD 26.2 billion) opportunity.

07 Buyers

The LSP landscape with the buyers’ eye: clusters of top players for 5 top sectors within the language services industry.

What buyers want: the main challenges of buyer-side localization leaders are  quality, on-time delivery, and the need for a proactive and knowledgeable engagement of the LSP partners. The most valued aspects of buyers’ relationships with LSPs don’t include price. 

08 Technology

Generative AI is the most discussed driver of change. The incredibly rapid development in and the hype around LLMs implies that all previous technology trends and predictions are annulled, while LSPs expect a positive impact in 2024.

Other technology trends and predictions include machine interpreting on the rise, AI dubbing making big strides, and orchestration as the new automation.

Appendix

All the abbreviations in the Nimdzi 100 in one place to make sure we speak the same language.

Experts Insight