Techcrunch - Is Bitcoin or Litecoin The New Euro-Disrupt Europe 2013 (Part2)
As the global language industry continues to evolve rapidly driven by technology and an influx of investment, Slator is launching the
Slator Language Service Provider Index (Slator LSPI)
to focus our coverage of providers to the large enterprise language market.
Slator LSPI participants were selected referencing their revenues and market activities for 2016 and 2017, and they represent a meaningful composite of leading vendors.
The LSPI will be a useful resource to language industry stakeholders such as service vendors, buyers, consultant, technologists, and investors when used in conjunction with Slator’s online news service and research, such as our recent
reports. The Slator LSPI also provides an expandable building-block approach, similar to
in financial markets, as we deepen coverage geographically and within industry segments.
The Slator Language Service Provider Index contains 33 LSPs whose 2017 revenues exceed USD 30m plus two companies on a
we are monitoring for inclusion in 2019. LSP revenues have been independently verified by Slator, led by Research Analyst
, with company representatives or publicly accessible sources such as annual reports filed with regulators or stock exchanges.
Our approach to data collection is detailed in the Index section below. The combined revenue of the 33 Slator LSPI companies grew 16% in 2017 to USD 4.7bn. This is an attractive headline rate but growth across the index is mixed and the Slator LSPI is not a market-sizing exercise.
Its 12% organic revenue growth is an impressive USD 65.8m in absolute terms – more than double the USD 30m revenue required to make the Slator LSPI. In October 2017,
TransPerfect CEO Phil Shawe presented at SlatorCon New York
on how they built this sales machine and keep it well oiled.
with the growth of Over-the-Top (OTT) media services over the past three years. This is fueling growth for players such as BTI Studios (interview with
Video interpreting is growing in the United States,
aided by regulatory drivers such as the Language Access framework. This has propelled players such as LanguageLine, Cyracom, and Stratus Video to double digit revenue growth.
core organic revenue growth was relatively flat for many LSPs
with a few notable exceptions such as TransPerfect.
For more commentary on performance data and organizational changes for each
is not meant to be inclusive of all possible companies given the size, complexity and fragmentation of the global language industry. Some companies are part of conglomerates, where verifying the specific language service revenue can be difficult, while a few others have declined to participate.
section contains a round-up of relevant performance and organizational changes for 11 companies known to have significant language service revenues, but whose performance Slator has not been able to independently verify.
Contact Slator co-founder Andrew Smart if you would like to submit your company for inclusion in the 2019 Slator LSPI; or if you would like to discuss consultancy services including a strategy review, senior management workshop, technology assessment or custom industry research.
Unless otherwise noted, the figures reflect revenues obtained for the company’s fiscal year, and therefore do not always represent the calendar year;
Figures are presented in US dollar millions (USDm) for the purposes of the index;
Where relevant, exchange rates are based on historical data and taken to be
Unless otherwise noted, the percentage growth is calculated based on the actual currency as reported to / acquired by Slator.
Figures are self-declared or from publicly accessible sources such as annual reports filed with regulators or the stock market
What a year 2017 was for TransPerfect: Epic struggle for control, wave of
, but still growing 12% organically and acquiring the bragging rights of
to current co-CEO Phil Shawe, with the sales completion deadline set for June 2018. Upon completion, TransPerfect is expected to re-start its M&A activities in earnest.
2017 saw Lionbridge enter a transition phase, post-sale
, the company posted 7.3% revenue growth in 2017, and 16% in Q4 2017. 2018 looks set to be a transformative year, with Lionbridge announcing
over 100 layoffs while shooting for acquisition-led revenue growth
in 2016, LanguageLine solutions is now part of Teleperformance’s “Specialized Services”. The company’s revenues grew by 8.7% in 2017, but their
, reportedly impacted by a weak dollar and an operational glitch. LanguageLine is a
major player on the North America interpretation scene
SDL continues its transformation. The company posted a
compared with 2016, and cut around 100 positions. Publicly-listed SDL also expects to do away with another 160 jobs in 2018. SDL is driving to increase the
. Analysts have made note of the disappointing financial performance for 2017 but have highlighted the progress made on the operational side – many rate the stock as BUY or POSITIVE.
RWS’s position on the index understates its current size. That’s because our figures do not yet include revenues from Moravia, which RWS acquired in a transformative acquisition in
ended September 2017 and therefore did not take into account any revenues attributed to Moravia). In the half-year period from October 2017 to March 2018 vs the previous year, RWS’s reported
. Investors were not impressed with RWS’s half-year performance and shares have lost around 20% since the results were posted. Still, consolidating Moravia for the full year 2018 will mean RWS is on track to generate around USD 400m in revenues, pushing the company further up the index.
and its growth in revenue is representative of the worldwide
, also being enjoyed by others in the space. In November 2017, the company
, whose clients include Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios, BBC, 20th Century Fox, Sky, Netflix, NBC and Sony Pictures.
Private-equity owned Welocalize spent several years expanding its service offering, acquiring companies such as
(digital marketing, now Adapt Worldwide). Of late, the company appears to be focusing more on
In 2017, Keyword Studios made 11 acquisitions, adding 15 locations to its 2016 total of 27, and delivered a strong 56.3% growth vs 2016.
. Among its seven business lines, localization is the
, gaining a foothold in the United States. The Luxembourg-based LSP, formerly known as Euroscript, was originally almost entirely reliant on business from EU institutions, a segment whose portion now accounts for about 12-15% of the business. Amplexor has aggressively diversified since and is looking for
The Swiss-based STAR Group is a very private company. No acquisitions, few public appearances of online marketing efforts. Based in a former monastery at the northernmost tip of Switzerland, STAR Group’s performance was a steady affair with a slight increase in revenues of 1.3% from 2016.
After several exceptional growth years, CyraCom showed a comparatively modest increase of 8.7% up from 2016. The company featured on the Inc. 5000 list two years running,
. Along with the likes of LanguageLine, CyraCom is one of the giants of the remote interpreting space.
BTI posted impressive year-on-year growth of 57.4% in 2017, capitalising on the
Ppc Usd Chart
in recent years: in 2010, 96% of BTI’s revenues were from subtitling in 2010 and only 3% from dubbing, whereas today, dubbing accounts for 60% and subtitling less than 40%. The shift to
will also continue to be a big growth factor for BTI in coming years. *Percentage growth was calculated on USD-converted revenues since the 2017 and 2016 figures were obtained in two different currencies (EUR and SEK respectively).
Private-equity owned Semantix has been on an acquisition drive across the Nordics recently, buying up
earlier in 2018. (2017 figures do not include Amesto revenue, which is estimated at around USD 18m annually). The company also appointed a
. Although they continue to dominate the Nordics, Semantix now has a footprint in other parts of Europe, as well as Chile and China (through the Textminded deal). Semantix will have to diversify away from its core government interpretation business if it is to succeed in the long-run.
acquired Media Research Inc and a purchased a 13% stake in Mirai Translate.
the revenues above are for the 2016 and 2017 calendar years. Although financial performance was flat across the business for 2017 Ppc Usd Chart , the revenues above are for the 2016 and 2017 calendar years. Although financial performance was flat across the business for 2017, impacted by declining sales in the conventions segment, translation verticals registered growth above 5%. Honyaku Center has also recently
Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN), the new parent company of Donnelley Language Solutions, was formed in the
in 2014, any future acquisitions are likely to focus on
. The company is also prioritising transcreation, website localization, video dubbing and subtitling, and machine translation post-editing as growth areas.
Pactera is the IT outsourcing unit of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group that was
. However, pre-IPO fundraising work was stopped back in November 2017. HNA itself
only one year earlier. The Globalization Services unit currently accounts for about 9% of Pactera’s revenues and traditionally services
, going up against the likes of Lionbridge and Moravia (now part of RWS).
The France-headquartered LSP has a long history of dealmaking, having acquired 20 companies in the past 15 years. In 2017, the company
: Celer Soluciones (lifesciences) and Traducciones Poliglota (generalist). In a next move, Ubiqus plans to streamline and integrate their own in-house TMS.
, posting an impressive 40% growth, and outperforming the company’s own prediction of 35%. This growth is largely credited to the UK-based company having secured a large
in August 2016 (worth GBP 120m), and they and also achieved organic growth of about 5% in 2017. CEO Larry Gould is expecting FY2018 growth to reach 20% (thebigword’s fiscal year runs until May).
, the newly formed ULG swiftly acquired Language Select (2016),
(since quietly settled), but continues to execute its original buy-and-build strategy.
With 2017 revenues up 19.5% from 2016, VSI expects to see
in demand as organizations continue to recognize the value of adapting their content into multiple languages to extend their global reach. As a Netflix Preferred Vendor (NPV), VSI has experienced fluctuations in demand to an extent, but has been able to prepare for demand surges by training new talent ahead of time.
Worldwide Language Resources is one of the major language service providers to the
issued by the Department of Defense in 2017. The company was also jointly awarded a
in March 2017 along with nine other companies, for a total value of USD 10bn.
KERN is a Germany-based LSP with over 50 branches in Europe, North America and Asia. The company posted growth of nearly 10% year on year in 2017. Germany continues to be one of the most highly fragmented language service markets worldwide with hundreds of small LSPs competing for business from the country’s export champions.
acquired a majority stake in Technicis Group in early 2016, and Technicis itself has been consistently acquiring in recent years, having bought
in July 2016 and Italian LSP Arancho Doc in 2017. Technicis posted a strong 46.7% growth from 2016 to 2017 and has continued its buy-to-build strategy into 2018 with the
earlier this year. The company is targeting an annual revenue of EUR 60m for 2018 and may move to
Out of the dozen or so US-based LSPs included in the 2017 Inc. 5000 list, Stratus Video earned itself top spot for its 2016 revenue growth, which was up by
from 2015. The virtual remote interpreting (VRI) provider
acquired over-the-phone (OPI) provider Optimal Phone Interpreters
at the start of 2016. Stratus Video, bought by private equity firm Kinderhook Capital Fund in 2015, also posted huge growth in 2017 (41.6%).
Morningside Translations, a New York-headquartered LSP that focuses on IP, patent, legal, and other regulated industries, was
by a group of individuals led by co-CEOs Tom Klein and Roland Lessard. The pair come from outside the language industry and opted for Morningside because of its industry vertical mix and growth track record. True to form, the company posted strong growth of 24.6% for 2017. The company has also recently
appointed a LanguageLine’s former CEO and Chairman
and, in doing so, secured itself a production hub in a tech-savvy location (Poland). They also
the same year. Amid an influx of asylum seekers to Europe, the company was mandated to provide
, along with a number of other LSPs. It was also awarded a
issued by the Departamento de Interior in Barcelona, Spain. Growth remains strong at 21.8%.
Certified Languages International made the Inc. 5000 list two years running (in
based on 2016 growth). Growth was 81% and 59% for 2015 and 2016 respectively, and the company has posted yet another strong performance for 2017, with 25.6% year on year growth.
Akorbi featured on the Inc. 5000 list two years running (in
based on 2016 growth). Growth was 758% and 450% for 2015 and 2016 respectively, but slowed for the company in 2017, with 6.6% year on year growth. They have been seemingly focusing on
The Brussels-based LSP with a global footprint posted strong growth for 2017 with an 18.1% year on year increase.
acquired cloud translation platform Livewords and was itself then
acquired by private equity firm Bencis Capital Partners
in 2017 before rebranding to Livewords. Year on year growth for 2017 was slightly negative at -2.2%.
in late 2016, expanding operations to a third European location. The company remains open to acquisition opportunities that would strengthen its presence in Germany, the UK and the US.
IYUNO’s revenues have skyrocketed by 86.4% from 2016, indicative of the Ppc Usd Chart
. In a further boost to its growth potential, Singapore-based IYUNO Media Group received an
from SoftBank Ventures, one of the world’s biggest investors, in April 2018.
and finished the year with a respectable 10.1% growth. The company is starting to execute its buy-and-build strategy, having recently
to further build out its proprietary translation management system. LanguageWire remains in dialogue with other software companies as possible acquisition targets.
*ZOO Digital’s fiscal year runs until March and the figures reported in the table above should be interpreted as follows: 2017 reflects the expected revenue for the
(April 2017 to March 2018); and 2016 is the reported revenue for the company fiscal year 2017 (April 2016 to March 2017). ZOO Digital attributed the strong growth (69.7% – projected) to its subtitling and dubbing services and recently announced a strategic partnership with Olive Digital in the UAE as part of its plan to extend its reach to key Middle East countries. The company’s performance makes UK-based media localizer ZOO Digital an
in terms of stock performance as it continues to benefit from the
(Apostroph did a small transaction in early 2018, buying local rival
since mid-2016, has a strategy of buy-and-build expansion in the DACH region. The company has continued to operate the Swiss division under “Apostroph”, which was awarded a number of lots in a
. Wieners+Wieners’ portfolio is approximately 50% advertising and marketing sector, with other verticals such as legal, finance, luxury goods, and others contributing the remaining half.
Other Companies with Significant Language Service Revenues
Mission Essential Personnel started out as an LSP, and has since
to serve other government requirements. In 2017, the company was awarded an unconfirmed portion of the
(ca. USD 10bn over 10 years), having fulfilled almost 75% of the previous DLITE contract, worth USD 1.2bn. Estimates based on new and continuing contracts awarded to Mission Essential Personnel put the company’s
at around USD 243m for 2017 and USD 266m for 2016. The US Federal Government awarded upward of
USD 500m in new translation and interpreting contracts
Global Linguist Solutions supplies services to the US Federal Government, working on contracts such as the
, worth a total of USD 10bn over 10 years, which it shares with eight other companies. Estimates based on new and continuing contracts awarded to Global Linguist Solutions put the company’s
at around USD 31m for 2017 and USD 34m for 2016. Global Linguist Solutions also provides a variety of language services, cultural and business consulting to commercial companies.
Hewlett Packard’s Enterprise Services, which housed its language division, ACG (Applications and Content Globalization), was spun off and merged with CSC in 2017. The new company, called DXC, is an end-to-end IT company, which reported USD 25.4bn in consolidated revenues for 2017. The language component its integrated within Global Business Services (GBS), which posted USD 9.5bn revenue in 2017. GBS focuses on customers within insurance, banking, healthcare and life sciences industries, as well as manufacturing and other diversified industries.
to GBP 8.5 (USD 10.5m) in 2016 vs 2015, and went on to be
acquired by cross-media production platform Prodigious
(part of the Publicis Groupe) in 2017. Translate plus CEO Robert Timms said that Prodigious revenue for 2017 came in at EUR 235m (USD 282m) and that income from local adaptation, translation or language services accounted for around 80% of this total. Although translate plus is the only fully dedicated language services arm within the Group, these figures suggest that Prodigious’s language-related revenue could be as high as USD 226m.
Japan-based Crestec Global Communications has three business lines including Technical Documentation, which houses the Localization division along with the Writing and Data Creation units. The company’s localization activities focus on technical translations for documentation such as user guides, user interface (UI) menus, messages, packaging, and brochures. The company offers MT and MT post-editing services in addition to human translation using productivity tools. Crestec Global Communications does not break out revenues for its divisions.
) reported revenues of GBP 102.8m (USD 126.8m) for 2016, vs GBP 80.6m (USD 119.1m) for 2015, meaning that the 2016 growth for the UK entity was 27.5%. No comparison with 2017 growth can be made since the 2017 reports had not been filed at time of publication. In addition, these are the UK-only accounts and there are
from overseas entities. London-based Hogarth is a marketing implementation agency that is part of WPP’s Digital business line, and typically competes more with advertising, advertising-production and technology sectors rather than LSPs directly.
acquired UK transcription provider Mendip Media Group
in 2017. Company revenues for 2017 were USD 130.6m, up by a gigantic 63% from USD 80m in 2016. Appen has a Language Resources Division that provides datasets for training AI engines, and a Content Relevance Division that helps clients train AI driven products. Their operations are therefore quite different from that of a pure-play language service provider, with
Language Resources revenues accounting for around 35% of business
in the first half of 2016. Appen’s shares have outperformed strongly since the IPO in early 2015, lifting the company’s market capitalization to over 1 billion Australian dollars as of early May 2018.
Paris-based multilingual digital content platform Datawords
acquired Luxembourg-based digital marketing firm Vanksen
in 2017. Datawords recorded revenue of USD 65m in 2017 and has 500 FTEs (full-time equivalents) worldwide, with the main hubs based in Paris, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, New York, Brussels, Milan and Barcelona. Further acquisitions are likely to follow in 2018 and beyond.
Språkservice posted earnings of USD 61.7m in 2016, and had not yet filed its annual report for 2017 at time of publication. The Sweden-based company has a strong customer footprint across the Nordic region across the public and private sectors. In 2016, Språkservice’s owners founded a consulting and recruitment agency, International Minds, seeking to put the LSP’s database of freelance interpreters to work in IT, sales, marketing, finance and engineering roles that require candidates with experience of other languages or cultures.
US-based CTS Language Link has a multi-vertical offering, which includes e-learning, voters’ guides and finance. Part of the company’s core focus is on supplying translation and interpreting services to Limited English Proficient Individuals (LEP), an industry that has been
because of the ever-expanding linguistic diversity across nations. Requested services commonly involve over-the-phone interpreting (OTP), video-remote interpreting (VRI) and face-to-face interpreting services, and companies use a mix of software and technology to optimise delivery.
, who filed for bankruptcy leaving GBP 858.6k (USD 1.1m) in money owed to trade creditors. Earlier in 2018, the company released a new
. The app is designed to improve delivery of language services for individuals of limited English proficiency (LEP). It aims to enhance the overall care and service through fast access to qualified video or voice interpreters via a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Co-Founder of Slator. Financier, businessman, rolling stone. Based in the Swiss clone known as Singapore.
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