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Translation and Localization Pricing
 
Keywords
translation pricing, LSP, freelancer, localization pricing, machine translation

Abstract
Translation underpins successful business globalization. While technology, business practices, regulatory compliance, and marketing issues support the global or domestic multicultural outreach of any organization, “words” always convey information about who you are, how to use your products or services, and what value you offer to your customers. Thus, the first question that many buyers and suppliers ask is “What does translation cost?” or “What should translation cost?” Dozens of other questions follow. In this report, Common Sense Advisory looks first and foremost at the price of translation for a wide range of languages. We also review the cost of related services, ranging from engineering to machine translation training.
 

Benefits
In General: This report presents a comprehensive overview of translation pricing, based on a global survey of 651 language service providers and freelancers in 75 countries. It should help both buyers and suppliers of language services understand the market dynamics related to translation and localization, and have benchmark data for either buying or selling translation and localization services.

Physical Details
Authors: Donald A. DePalma, Robert G. Stewart, and Belinda Whittaker
Date: 30 July 2010
ISBN: 978-1-933555-86-7
Pages: 80

Table of Contents  

Topic

What You Will Find in this Report

Analysis

Research Methodology

Demographics: Who Responded to Our Survey

What Translation Costs in 2010

Prices for Many Language Pairs Have Dropped Since 2007

How Language Vendors Set Prices

Most Suppliers Calculate Charges Based on Source Content

Prices Show Wide Variability in Translation Unit Composition

Besides Translation, Other Services May Be Included in the Quote

Services for Which Translation Buyers Should Expect to Pay

Some Buyers Get Better Deals than Others

Vendor Location Does Affect Prices

How and Where Technology Affects Translation Pricing

Translation Memory Has a Big Impact on the Invoice

A Religious Debate Circles around Translation Memory Ownership

Transactional Translation Simplifies Job Submission for Some Buyers

Machine Translation Represents a Volume Multiplier or Price Reducer

Some Language Pairs Represent Both Growth and Price Compression

Pricing Data

Guide to Language Pricing Data

Figures

Figure 1: Number of Full-Time Employees of Survey Respondents

Figure 2: Survey Respondent Company Size Ranges

Figure 3: Headquarter Locations of Survey Respondents

Tables  

Table 1: Sample Price Distribution – English to Spanish (Latin America)

Table 2: Translation Prices for English<>Mega-Languages, by Company Size

Table 3: Translation Prices for English<>Next-Wave Languages, by Company Size

Table 4: How Mega-Language Translation Pricing Changed from 2007 to 2010

Table 5: How Next-Wave Language Translation Pricing Changed from 2007 to 2010

Table 6: How Respondents Define Translation Units

Table 7: Translation Unit Definitions Vary by Company Size

Table 8: Prices for Other Tasks Increase with Complexity (English and FIGS)

Table 9: Prices for Other Tasks Increase with Complexity (Asian)

Table 10: Related Project Tasks that Increase Translation Project Costs

Table 11: Pricing Varies Depending on Who and Where the Buyer Is

Table 12: Premium-Priced Services by World Region for European Languages

Table 13: Premium-Priced Services by World Region for Asian Languages

Table 14: Translation Memory Widely Used, Other Technologies Less So

Table 15: Translation Memory Re-Use Saves Money

Table 16: Who Owns Translation Memories Upsets a Few People

Table 17: Portal Works Well for Business Fulfillment at Smaller Suppliers

Table 18: Post-Edited Machine Translation Delivers Solid Savings

Table 19: Training Machine Translation Engines

Table 20: Top 10 Language Pairs in Terms of Growth and Price Compression

Table 21: Price Distribution – Arabic to English

Table 22: Price Distribution – Bengali to English

Table 23: Price Distribution – Chinese (Simplified) to English

Table 24: Price Distribution – Chinese to English

Table 25: Price Distribution – Croatian to English

Table 26: Price Distribution – Croatian to German

Table 27: Price Distribution – Czech to English

Table 28: Price Distribution – Czech to German

Table 29: Price Distribution – Danish to English

Table 30: Price Distribution – Dutch to English

Table 31: Price Distribution – Dutch to French (France)

Table 32: Price Distribution – Dutch to German

Table 33: Price Distribution – Dutch to Italian

Table 34: Price Distribution – English (U.S.) to French (France)

Table 35: Price Distribution – English (U.S.) to German

Table 36: Price Distribution – English (U.S.) to Italian

Table 37: Price Distribution – English (U.S.) to Japanese

Table 38: Price Distribution – English to Amharic

Table 39: Price Distribution – English to Arabic

Table 40: Price Distribution – English to Assamese

Table 41: Price Distribution – English to Bengali

Table 42: Price Distribution – English to Bulgarian

Table 43: Price Distribution – English to Catalan

Table 44: Price Distribution – English to Chinese

Table 45: Price Distribution – English to Chinese (Simplified)

Table 46: Price Distribution – English to Chinese (Traditional)

Table 47: Price Distribution – English to Croatian

Table 48: Price Distribution – English to Czech

Table 49: Price Distribution – English to Danish

Table 50: Price Distribution – English to Dutch

Table 51: Price Distribution – English to Estonian

Table 52: Price Distribution – English to Farsi

Table 53: Price Distribution – English to French

Table 54: Price Distribution – English to French (Canada)

Table 55: Price Distribution – English to French (France)

Table 56: Price Distribution – English to German

Table 57: Price Distribution – English to Greek

Table 58: Price Distribution – English to Gujarati

Table 59: Price Distribution – English to Hebrew

Table 60: Price Distribution – English to Hindi

Table 61: Price Distribution – English to Hungarian

Table 62: Price Distribution – English to India, Languages of

Table 63: Price Distribution – English to Indonesian

Table 64: Price Distribution – English to Italian

Table 65: Price Distribution – English to Japanese

Table 66: Price Distribution – English to Kazakh

Table 67: Price Distribution – English to Khmer

Table 68: Price Distribution – English to Korean

Table 69: Price Distribution – English to Latvian

Table 70: Price Distribution – English to Lithuanian

Table 71: Price Distribution – English to Malay

Table 72: Price Distribution – English to Marathi

Table 73: Price Distribution – English to Norwegian

Table 74: Price Distribution – English to Polish

Table 75: Price Distribution – English to Portuguese

Table 76: Price Distribution – English to Portuguese (Brazil)

Table 77: Price Distribution – English to Portuguese (Portugal)

Table 78: Price Distribution – English to Punjabi

Table 79: Price Distribution – English to Romanian

Table 80: Price Distribution – English to Russian

Table 81: Price Distribution – English to Santali

Table 82: Price Distribution – English to Serbian

Table 83: Price Distribution – English to Slovak

Table 84: Price Distribution – English to Slovenian

Table 85: Price Distribution – English to Somali

Table 86: Price Distribution – English to Spanish

Table 87: Price Distribution – English to Spanish (Latin America)

Table 88: Price Distribution – English to Spanish (Spain)

Table 89: Price Distribution – English to Sunda

Table 90: Price Distribution – English to Swedish

Table 91: Price Distribution – English to Tagalog

Table 92: Price Distribution – English to Tamil

Table 93: Price Distribution – English to Thai

Table 94: Price Distribution – English to Turkish

Table 95: Price Distribution – English to Ukrainian

Table 96: Price Distribution – English to Urdu

Table 97: Price Distribution – English to Vietnamese

Table 98: Price Distribution – Estonian to English

Table 99: Price Distribution – French (France) to Dutch

Table 100: Price Distribution – French (France) to English

Table 101: Price Distribution – French (France) to German

Table 102: Price Distribution – French (France) to Italian

Table 103: Price Distribution – French (France) to Portuguese (Portugal)

Table 104: Price Distribution – French (France) to Russian

Table 105: Price Distribution – French (France) to Spanish (Spain)

Table 106: Price Distribution – French to English

Table 107: Price Distribution – French to German

Table 108: Price Distribution – French to Italian

Table 109: Price Distribution – French to Russian

Table 110: Price Distribution – French to Spanish

Table 111: Price Distribution – German to Bulgarian

Table 112: Price Distribution – German to Chinese (Simplified)

Table 113: Price Distribution – German to Croatian

Table 114: Price Distribution – German to Czech

Table 115: Price Distribution – German to Dutch

Table 116: Price Distribution – German to English

Table 117: Price Distribution – German to English (U.K.)

Table 118: Price Distribution – German to French

Table 119: Price Distribution – German to French (France)

Table 120: Price Distribution – German to Hungarian

Table 121: Price Distribution – German to Italian

Table 122: Price Distribution – German to Japanese

Table 123: Price Distribution – German to Polish

Table 124: Price Distribution – German to Portuguese (Portugal)

Table 125: Price Distribution – German to Russian

Table 126: Price Distribution – German to Spanish

Table 127: Price Distribution – German to Spanish (Spain)

Table 128: Price Distribution – German to Swedish

Table 129: Price Distribution – Hindi to English

Table 130: Price Distribution – Hungarian to English

Table 131: Price Distribution – Italian to Bulgarian

Table 132: Price Distribution – Italian to Dutch

Table 133: Price Distribution – Italian to English

Table 134: Price Distribution – Italian to French

Table 135: Price Distribution – Italian to French (France)

Table 136: Price Distribution – Italian to German

Table 137: Price Distribution – Italian to Portuguese (Brazil)

Table 138: Price Distribution – Italian to Russian

Table 139: Price Distribution – Italian to Spanish (Spain)

Table 140: Price Distribution – Japanese to English

Table 141: Price Distribution – Korean to English

Table 142: Price Distribution – Norwegian to English

Table 143: Price Distribution – Polish to English

Table 144: Price Distribution – Portuguese (Brazil) to English

Table 145: Price Distribution – Portuguese (Brazil) to Spanish

Table 146: Price Distribution – Portuguese (Portugal) to English

Table 147: Price Distribution – Portuguese (Portugal) to Spanish (Spain)

Table 148: Price Distribution – Portuguese to English

Table 149: Price Distribution – Portuguese to Spanish

Table 150: Price Distribution – Romanian to English

Table 151: Price Distribution – Russian to English

Table 152: Price Distribution – Russian to French

Table 153: Price Distribution – Russian to German

Table 154: Price Distribution – Russian to Italian

Table 155: Price Distribution – Serbian to English

Table 156: Price Distribution – Slovak to English

Table 157: Price Distribution – Slovenian to English

Table 158: Price Distribution – Spanish (Americas) to English

Table 159: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to Arabic

Table 160: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to Dutch

Table 161: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to English

Table 162: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to French (France)

Table 163: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to German

Table 164: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to Italian

Table 165: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to Portuguese (Portugal)

Table 166: Price Distribution – Spanish (Spain) to Russian

Table 167: Price Distribution – Spanish to English

Table 168: Price Distribution – Spanish to French

Table 169: Price Distribution – Spanish to German

Table 170: Price Distribution – Spanish to Portuguese

Table 171: Price Distribution – Spanish to Portuguese (Brazil)

Table 172: Price Distribution – Swedish to English

Table 173: Price Distribution – Thai to English

Table 174: Price Distribution – Turkish to English

Table 175: Price Distribution – Urdu to English

Table 176: Price Distribution – Vietnamese to English
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