Following Google’s recent release of solutions that allow uploaders to easily translate closed captions for their videos, the search giant last week announced its partnership with two translation firms in a bid to further enhance its multilingual offerings. Google bought YouTube in 2006 and has since grown the website to be the most popular online video sharing platform.
With the most recent announcement, content creators will be able to select from two translation agencies (Gengo and Translated.net) to get a professional translation of their content. Google says there will be plans to increase the number of translation firms it cooperates with.
Currently, YouTube and Google work to translate the subtitles of videos automatically once they have been uploaded with a video. Publishers can also get fans to translate content or upload their own translations. This latest offering allows publishers to get a quote for the translation of their closed captions as well as a time estimate.
The importance of multilingual translations
Significantly, Google announced that 70 per cent of its visitors are from outside the USA an enormous proportion of international traffic. Furthermore, the idea that everyone speaks English is a fallacy – while it is arguably the most widely spoken language in terms of geographical spread, there are many countries and regions were English is very much a minority language.
In several of the BRIC economics (Brazil, Russia, India and China), regular English usage is at a minimum. In India’s 2001 census, English was listed as the native language of only 226,449 people – or approximately 0.02 per cent of the population at the time (bearing in mind, English is also the second language of the union after Hindi and has official status).
In Brazil and Russia, just five per cent of the population use English on a regular basis, while in mainland China that number drops to only one per cent (including native speaker expats).
Therefore, it is of great importance for companies to create content in the local languages of target markets, or provide adequate translations wherever possible. Failure to do so negatively impacts the effectiveness of international marketing efforts, whatever the industry.
At Today Translations, we fully understand the importance of multilingual content across all industries, including the legal, financial, energy and media industries. With a global team of over 2,000 translators and interpreters, we have countless years of expertise in several industries. Our translators are selected not just based on their linguistic knowledge but real-world experience in the target industry. To discuss your translation needs, please call us on +44 (0) 207 397 2770 or email us [email protected].