In 2009, I was contacted by the Language Technology Centre Ltd (LTC) in the context of the European Commission’s study on the size of the language industry in the European Union. Since 1998, LTC has worked with the Directorate General for Translation of the EC and has won several framework contracts.
In mid-2009, more than 1000 participants (including me) responded to a questionnaire set up by LTC. The final study report published by LTC gives a good picture of the various activities involved in the language industry with a high growth and innovation potential. The language industry includes sectors such as translation, interpreting, software localization and website globalization, language technology tool development, language teaching, consultancy in linguistic issues and organization of international conferences with multilingual requirements.
Under the umbrella of the EC, especially the Unit S3 (Multilingualism and Translation Studies) of the EC’s Directorate General for Translation, LTC operated secondary and primary research which allowed to propose an estimated value of the language industry within the European Member States of 8.4 billion € for 2008. As far as market forecast is concerned, an approximate value of the language industry in 2015 was estimated at 16.5 billion €. It seems therefore that the language industry is less affected by the financial crisis than other industry sectors.
The survey results clearly show that the importance of multilingualism in Europe is currently underestimated. Proper presentation of a foreign company’s products and/or services in a target country’s language as well as the impact of this aspect while competing with national competitors is often undervalued, especially by SMEs. Implementing subsidiaries in other countries, staffing, office location and facilities usually remain of primary concern to companies’ managers indeed. It is nevertheless necessary to actively and visibly address and promote the importance of overcoming language barriers for ensuring European companies’ economic success much more than it is currently the case. In the case of the translation and interpreting sector, the LTC study led to an assumed value of the sector of 5.7 billion € in 2008. In the sector of subtitling, there seem to be a real need for regulations on the European scene in order to counteract trends such as peer-to-peer subtitling and outsourcing to Asian countries, which result in decreasing quality levels.
Research clearly shows that the language industry has the highest growth rate of all European industries. On the whole, the study results also confirm that the profile and image of language experts need to be raised and their remuneration increased accordingly. In an environment of increasing globalization and growing need for multilingualism, the language industry will have to be better understood, sustained and stimulated in the future.
The study methodology included systematic and comprehensive searches performed on the basis of statistics databases from the EU, publications by professional associations, databases and other published market research reports. More than 200 national, European and international professional associations were contacted with the request to provide published studies or stats about the language industry. In addition, over 100 national authorities were contacted with the request to supply available data on the local language industry. Contacted authorities include Statistics Offices, Business Registers, Ministries of Education, Tax Offices, Ministries of Finance as well as other entities. Moreover, a comprehensive questionnaire was developed and distributed among several thousand individuals, language service providers and language service departments across the EU.
In comparison to the other reports that are usually focusing on only one or some of the aspects of the language industry, the survey led to more substantial results. This report can be used as a starting point for future work by the EC.
For more information concerning LTC, the EC’s contractor, please go to the following web site: www.langtech.co.uk.
Download the full LTC study now:
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