Over the years there have been many exuberant predictions of change that would fundamentally alter the localization business. However, most of these dreams of the industry have never come to pass.
Trends that never arrived: An industry leader (a “Microsoft
of translation”) will emerge and grow by buying up
mid-sized players to dominate the localization marketplace
There still is little in the way of a dominant leader (much
less standards) in the industry. While we still see many acquisitions in the
business, it seems mainly along the lines of original owners cashing out of the
firms they founded by transferring client bases to other companies. These acquisitions
also seem to run along the lines of “we are all out of ideas of how to add
value and thus gain customers so let’s just buy market share from other
companies instead.”
Additionally, it could be that acquiring customers by buying
one’s suppliers is a better business strategy long term than by having to
compete for them with lower pricing or giving increased levels of service.
NEXT: Trends that never arrived: All translation will be
done online
