Consolidation of translation market

As I said a few entries earlier, there are many estimates of the size of the translation market. EUATC, the European Union of Associations of Translation Companies, has published an interesting paper about the market size and growth at http://www.euatc.org/conferences/pdfs/2006/Boucau_FactsAndFigures.pdf.

The study points out that the translation market is going towards more consolidation, i.e. the bigger agencies are gaining more market share and growing faster than the 5% of the overall translation market. Then again, there is still a lot to consolidate: according to EUATC, about 3,000 translation companies manage 25% of the market, whereas about 200,000 free-lancers take care of 75% of the market, worth over $9bn.

As companies begin to see the importance of multilingual communication, instead of looking at translation only as a cost, they will need more complex and extensive services. At the same time they will still require a lot of individual skills. Managing a high level of personalized service to companies operating in several geographical locations is going to be an interesting skill in itself.