Detailed global survey results show a decline in translation and localization prices
According to new research by Common Sense Advisory the price of translation and localization services has dropped. This comes as the net result of global supply, advances in technology, economic troubles, and more aggressive buyers.
Common Sense Advisory based these findings on a detailed global survey of 651 language service providers (translation firms) and freelancers in 75 countries about their pricing structures, processes, and customer bases.
Key survey findings include:
Demand is up, but price is down. While demand for language services has continued to grow (at a rate of over 13% per year), for the most part the price of translation and localization services has dropped.
Automation benefits buyers. Businesses can obtain substantial cost savings by working with translation providers that partially automate the translation process. The research found that most providers discount the per word price by as much as 48% when using translation memory to process previously translated text. Machine translation with human post-editing generates even larger savings.
Less than half give discounts. Price anxiety remains a big concern among suppliers. Forty-two percent of the respondents give some type of discount, based on customer loyalty, frequency, or volume. Respondents overwhelmingly stated that they face price pressure and client sensitivity driven by competition from large LSPs and low-cost (and sometimes unqualified) translators both in their home markets and abroad.