In countries with low government centralization, the market tends to be messy, for both the provider and the buyer. There are lots of small players and individual interpreters that compete for a myriad of small contracts and individual assignments. For both the buyer and the provider this usually means that a lot of time is wasted on the procurement process and there is usually an overload of bureaucracy. In these markets, we won’t see many large players because it is much harder for an LSP to make significant profits. Examples of this are countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium.
In countries with high government centralization, usually one or two large players occupy the majority of the market. While this significantly reduces the time spent on procurement, it also means that these one or two large players are in a monopoly position. This poses a number of risks that can have a negative knock-on effect:
A medium level of centralization is the Goldilocks Zone countries should aim for.
Examples of this can be found in Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK.
Machine interpreting (MI) is a hot topic right now as technology providers boast their latest advances in this field. It is likely that the advent of MI will revolutionize the interpreting industry as we know it, similarly to how machine translation (MT) upended the translation industry and ushered in a new era for all stakeholders involved. So, now is the perfect opportunity to take a deep dive into the world of machine interpreting.
19 December 2022
Continuous improvement in machine translation (MT) technology means that MT engines are expected to get ever more effective. One of the areas where this is already happening is fuzzy matches for MT.
1 December 2022