WHICH TRANSLATION COMPANY FOR THE FUTURE?

The transformation of the translation society

As an innovative translation company, Lexling reflects on changes in the profession. The business model and the way the sector does business have remained extremely traditional. A client assigns an agency to translate its document. The agency is looking for the best translator to accomplish this mission, mostly a freelance professional translator. The translator does his job, the book to the agency which itself delivers it to the client. The translation company therefore places itself in the middle of a relationship between a client and a translator, who do not know each other.

As new technologies and the automation of administrative tasks by algorithms grow exponentially, isn't it time for the translation services market to be pushed around? It seems that the traditional translation firm should leave a greater place for the independent translator. We believe that he will soon be obliged to do so, in the face of the freelance revolution in the labour market.

Will translation agencies still be relevant?

In recent years, the Internet has enabled a fundamental economic revolution: disintermediation. A client can now find the professional they need. A professional can find and work with his client without being the employee of a company. This revolution is enabled by marketplaces, Uber and Airbnb platforms. These changes are expected to affect all economic sectors.

In the face of this, how can a translation agency justify its very existence? What is the added value of an agency if the client has the right tools to recruit the perfect freelance translator?Very little. The traditional solution is only relevant to clients wishing to delegate their entire translation project, leaving the agency with the choice of selecting independent providers. But this only makes sense for large projects, for agencies specializing in a particular sector such as legal translation and in which the client will have full confidence.

However, the majority of translation needs are not there. Most of the time, to have a document translated into English or a good quality Chinese translation,using an independent professional translator is the best way to do this.

The upheavals to come in this disintermediation of the labour market go far beyond the translation/interpretation sector. But it is one of the most ripe for change