How GAFA changed the localization process

Sharing economy from a different perspective.

?

Will crowdsourced translations replace professional translators? Probably not, but the new trend is gaining momentum across global tech companies

Sharing economy is one of the hot topics everyone in the tech sector is talking about. No wonder, as the core principle behind that idea could resolve the biggest issue that traditional economy is struggling with. How to fulfill people’s infinite needs with limited resources. In theory, sharing economy helps in efficient management of unused assets. Take cars as an example. According to PwC’s survey, vehicles are only effectively used 1% of the time. In general, resources are not properly managed in any business, from logistics to healthcare. Still, what does the localization process have in common with this type of economy?

Actually, it has a lot. Localization has become a part of global business strategy as it is crucial in reaching new markets and building a presence in those already existing. Therefore, approaches toward methods had to be changed. For instance, the translation process has evolved from professional-based cooperation to translation based on crowdsourcing.

GAFA has transformed how we perceive the localization process. Until recently, traditional translation was based on cooperation with professional translators, i.e. language service providers (LSP) or freelance translators. Big tech companies like Facebook or Twitter no longer rely on that type of workflow. Instead, they started using some aspects of sharing economy such as crowdsourcing. Facebook members contribute to translation for little or literally no fee. However, the translated content is later checked by professionals.

Translations prepared by communities are usually of good quality as the community members are virtually always users of the product or software. They frequently better understand product specifications. However, there are also some challenges that could backfire in the process. One of the major issues are logistics. There is the question of how volunteers will submit their translations. Emailing translations back-and-forth has a major setback: it is unreliable as the process is insecure and slow. Moreover, on a larger scale it is simply impossible to collect whole data from emails. Nevertheless, big companies are showing more and more interest towards sharing economy and crowdsourcing in particular. On the other hand, in the digital era, speed is one of the factors that brings competitive advantage. No wonder enterprises want to get easily to new markets and build long-lasting relationships by launching products and upgrading their functionalities faster. Tech companies are determined to deploy codes in shorter timespan in order to reach wider audiences. For example, Facebook pushes code twice a day while some websites do it almost 25 times a day (according to Transifex). In that regard, businesses shall decide how they are able to cope with the new translation processes. Supervising complex workloads and communicating with thousands of volunteers can be impossible to manage even by the major players. The Continuous Localization Platform (CLP) is one of the solutions that can fulfill that demand. The CLP synchronizes the workflow of developers and crowdsourcing translators. Every time, the code or file is changed, people working on the project are automatically notified. Moreover, platform enables the developer to create an internationalization source file that is available for anyone concerned in the process. Thanks to that solution the translation process, including crowdsourcing translations, can be automated. Some platforms offer built-in feature such as translation memory so that translators can easily find a previous version and reuse it.

Even though, crowdsourcing translations are becoming more frequently used by global companies, the traditional translation process will still remain popular across many industries. Certainly, professional translators will effectively support those with no translating experience.