A Jaunt Across the World of Language Technology

穿越语言技术世界的短途旅行

2020-09-24 10:00 Nimdzi Insights

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On June 10, 2020, we published our Nimdzi Language Technology Atlas, the comprehensive resource that maps hundreds of language technology solutions from all around the world. Two months later, after receiving and reviewing feedback from more than three dozen companies who submitted requests to add new tools or change their categorization, we released an update to the infographic on August 27. You can find it on our main Atlas page. As we were going through the latest changes and data updates, we couldn’t help but wonder where all these technologies are actually being developed. Which countries offer the best environments for technology companies to flourish in? And what would the Language Technology Atlas look like as an actual atlas of the world? We spent a couple days travelling the world virtually — having a look at  where language technology is being developed. We found that some companies had their headquarters (HQ) in a country like Germany, for example, but did the actual development in Russia. This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, with companies seeking low-cost locations that allow for more scalable development work. To simplify the mapping process, we counted only those countries where companies are headquartered. The result is some 500 companies spread out over 45 countries. A small number of technology providers wouldn’t disclose where they’re located and some are stateless open source developers. The United States is driving the wave of technological development, hosting the greatest number of language technology companies: 32.62 percent of those mapped have HQs in the US. The most popular tools developed here are Virtual Interpreting Technology (VIT) and Translation Management Systems (TMS). Audiovisual technology (AVT) comes in third.  Interestingly, it’s not the TMS category (the largest in the Atlas) but VIT that’s the most-developed language technology in the US, which underscores the US as the largest interpreting market in the world. It’s also in line with the trend of VIT booming worldwide as the COVID-19 pandemic requires companies to accelerate their digitalization for the ongoing remote work environment. Thus, some VIT providers have seen as much as a 250 percent increase in inbound inquiries over just three months, and one particular US-based VIT company had to double the number of its internal staff within a single month. Language technology development in the US: data on ~150 companies Germany comes in as the second largest homebase for technological innovation in the localization industry. 9.22 percent of the companies are located here. After that comes the United Kingdom, China, and France (6.62, 5.67, and 4.26 percent, respectively): Headquarters of n language technology providers, n-->500 The next five countries, which are home to 10 or more language technology companies are: Moreover, data shows us an interesting trend that’s being observed in Europe: six European countries each have the exact same number of registered HQs there: Note: the geo map leaves off 13 countries that each have only one single relevant tech company HQ we’re aware of. This includes Albania, Macedonia, Uruguay, and ten others. We’ve found that, in multilingual and multicultural countries, business expansion is unimaginable without a language component. Astute governments and public bodies have been complementing the demand for technology historically driven by buyers of language services through funding and by offering the supporting infrastructure language technology developers need to thrive. This much-needed jaunt across our online world has given us a better understanding of where language technology comes from. We’d like to thank everyone who provided feedback for our Nimdzi Tech Atlas and helped us map the technology. We encourage our industry peers to keep it coming. Happy travels!
2020年6月10日,我们出版了Nimdzi语言技术图集,这是一份涵盖了来自世界各地的数百种语言技术解决方案的全面资源。两个月后,在收到并审查了来自30多家提交了添加新工具或更改分类请求的公司的反馈后,我们于8月27号发布了信息图表的更新。你可以在我们的地图集主页上找到。 当我们经历最新的变化和数据更新时,我们不禁想知道所有这些技术实际上都在哪里开发。哪些国家为科技公司的蓬勃发展提供了最佳环境?语言技术地图集作为一个实际的世界地图集会是什么样的呢? 我们花了几天时间环游世界,看看语言技术在哪里发展。我们发现,有些公司的总部(HQ)在一个国家,比如德国,但实际发展是在俄罗斯。这并不让人感到意外,因为公司都在寻找低成本的地点,以便进行更多可扩展的开发工作。 为了简化绘图过程,我们只统计了公司总部所在的国家。其结果是大约500家公司分布在45个国家。少数技术提供商不愿透露他们的所在地,有些是无国籍的开源码开发者。 美国正在推动技术发展的浪潮,拥有最多的语言技术公司:地图所绘制的32.62%的公司在美国设有总部。这里开发的最流行的工具是虚拟口译技术(VIT)和翻译管理系统(TMS)。视听技术(AVT)排在第三位。 有趣的是,美国发展最快的语言技术不是TMS(地图中最大的),而是VIT,这凸显了美国是世界上最大的口译市场。这也符合全球VIT蓬勃发展的趋势,因为新冠肺炎流行要求公司为适应正在进行的远程工作环境加速数字化。因此,一些VIT供应商在短短三个月内收到的咨询量就增加了250%,一家美国VIT公司不得不在一个月内将内部员工数量增加一倍。 美国语言技术的发展:150家公司的数据 德国是本地化产业技术创新的第二大基地。 9.22%的公司设在这里。其次是英国,中国和法国(分别为6.62%,5.67%和4.26%): n个语言技术提供商总部,n-->500 接下来五个拥有10家或更多语言技术公司的国家或地区: 此外,数据向我们展示了欧洲正在观察到的一个有趣趋势:六个欧洲国家的注册总部数量完全相同: 注意:地理位置图中没有提到13个国家,每个国家只有一个只有我们知道的相关科技公司总部。这包括阿尔巴尼亚,马其顿,乌拉圭和其他十个国家。 我们发现,在多语言,多文化的国家,如果没有语言因素,商业扩张是难以想象的。精明的政府和公共机构一直在通过提供资金和提供语言技术开发人员蓬勃发展所需的配套基础设施来补充技术需求,而技术需求历来是由语言服务购买者驱动的。 这次穿越网络世界的急速短途旅行让我们更好地理解了语言技术的来源。我们要感谢所有为我们的Nimdzi技术图谱提供反馈并帮助我们绘制技术地图的人。我们鼓励我们的同行业同行继续努力。旅途愉快!

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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