Before you write off translation services as an unsexy business, consider our global economy.

如果你认为翻译行业没那么厉害，请想想全球经济。

Companies are going global. Translation factors in because every aspect of their services must be comprehensive, says Rick Antezana, a partner with Dynamic Language, a language translation provider based in Seattle.

各大公司都在走向全球化。西雅图语言服务供应商Dynamic Language公司的合伙人Rick Antezana表示，各大公司都应该重视翻译因素（Translation factors in介词翻译成动词），因为他们提供的各项服务必须能被客户理解。

"More than ever, companies of every size are looking to expand their market and to engage with customers on a deeper level. Consumers worldwide want everything on their own terms, and that includes a preference for communicating in their own language," says Antezana.

Antezana还认为：“各种规模的公司都比以前更希望扩大市场，在更深的层次上与客户接触（engage with customers on a deeper level. ）。全世界的消费者都希望所有事情能按自己的方式进行（want everything on their own terms），包括用自己的语言交流。”

Phil Shawe, co-founder and CEO of TransPerfect, says the sweet spot for his company has been e-commerce. Retailers overseas, for instance, may be giants in their own neighborhoods, but when they expand out, they're virtually unknown and need to work hard to introduce themselves.

TransPerfect集团联合创始人（co-founder ）兼CEO Phil Shawe说，他们公司的最佳选择是电商。比如，海外零售商可能在自己的周边范围内（neighborhoods）堪称商业巨头，但当公司规模扩张到外地时，可能（virtually事实上）并不为当地人所知，这就需要公司奋力（努力）经营，打响品牌（introduce themselves自我介绍，将自己推广出去.）。

Antezana adds that companies must also craft their marketing messages to new audiences or risk looking silly if miscues arise. "Tracking all that content and translating it accurately takes so much," he says. "There have to be multiple steps in the quality control process so the content doesn't embarrass the company."

Antezana还表示，公司也必须为新的受众打造（craft）营销信息，否则就会面临着错误百出、损坏品牌的风险（risk looking silly if miscues arise. ）。“跟踪和准确翻译这些内容需要花费很多时间，”他说，“对于质量必须要层层控制，这样，内容才不会有损公司形象（embarrass让公司难堪，就是有损公司形象）。"

You might think a translation service simply employs hundreds or thousands of pajama-clad linguists who sit in front of their computers all day translating line by line, but those days are long gone. Translation services have increasingly become technology companies.

你可能认为翻译服务就是雇佣成千上万个穿着睡衣的语言学家，他们（who）断句就十分重要了整天坐在电脑前逐行翻译，但是那些日子已经一去不复返了。翻译服务供应商正逐渐发展成为技术公司。

Often, the biggest barrier to entry is the technology required of the industry. "It's a huge differentiator," says Shawe, noting TransPerfect's Onelink technology, which allows companies to host a foreign language site on another company's servers. "It requires a research and development budget, and time. It's taken us 10 years to get our software to where it is."

通常进入这个行业最大的障碍就是行业所需的技术。“这是一个很关键的鉴别因素（ huge differentiator愿意是很大的区别，这里根据上文翻）。” Shawe提到了TransPerfect集团的Onelink技术，它能够使公司在另外一个公司的服务器上托管（host）一个外语站点。“这需要研发经费和时间。我们的软件为实现这个目标（to where it is."指上文的，此时模糊翻译用这个目标代指上文的内容）花了10年时间。”

Specialization is also important for translation businesses just entering the market, says Elizabeth Elting, the other TransPerfect co-founder and CEO. "It's about being an expert and your reputation and doing the best you can do, and then growing from there."

另一位TransPerfect集团联合创始人兼CEO Elizabeth Elting说，专业化（Specialization）对于刚进入市场的翻译企业也很重要。“这关系到企业能否成为（It's about being 关系到+能否）行业专家，还关系到企业的声誉，要做到全力以赴，然后发扬光大（growing from there从这里发展就是发扬光大。发现不会准确翻译的时候就用一个俗语或者成语就可以。大概是因为两方都无法准确表达而折中的一种方式吧）。”

Still, when an industry is projected to grow to $39 billion by 2018, as translations services is, investors shouldn't be too difficult to convince. "We're seeing a lot of new players enter the market and starting to get good-sized funding rounds," says Jani Penttinen, the founder and CEO of Transfluent, a tech platform that connects 50,000 translators and specializes in content management tools that help clients receive and send email in a foreign language or do the same thing on their blogs. "There's a lot of new activity in the U.S. for language translation, which is a great thing."

2018年翻译服务业规模预计增长到390亿美元（约合人民币2545亿元），达到这一程度的行业（前提）容易受到投资者的青睐（investors shouldn't be too difficult to convince.）。技术平台Transfluent与50000名译员建立了业务联系（connects）搭配建立…联系，专攻帮助客户收发（receive and send）外语邮件的内容管理工具，或者通过博客开展类似业务（do the same thing搭配）。其创始人兼CEOJani Penttinen说：“我们看到很多新企业加入市场，开启了可观（good-sized大规模的）的各轮融资（funding rounds）。在美国，语言翻译行业注入了大量新鲜血液，（lot of new activity有许多大动作，新活动）太赞了（这太棒了）！”

Commoditization remains a big hurdle in the industry, as are clients who fail to appreciate the link between high prices and stellar results. Both may drive prices down. To counter this, entrepreneurs must convince these clients that when they're dealing with sensitive products like medical devices, the threat of legal action is real.

商品化依然是这个行业的一大阻碍，客户没有对高价与高品（stellar一流的）之间的联系加以重视，双方都可能压低价格（drive…down）。为解决这一问题，企业家必须让客户信服，表明他们在面对医疗器械等敏感产品时，承担法律责任（legal action）的风险是切实存在的（real）真的，但是翻译成切实存在。

Translation companies are also seeing a trend toward consolidation, something Antezana has noticed. "It's happening now more than it has in the past," he says. "For some organizations, that's their growth strategy. They're not trying to grow by marketing."

合并也是翻译公司面临的一个趋势（Translation companies are also seeing a trend toward consolidation改变主语，让物体事件为主语有时候让句子更加通顺）。Antezana指出：“如今合并之势比以往更加明显，对有些机构来说，这是他们的增长战略，他们不想通过营销实现增长。”

Dry content such as appliance manuals are more likely to be cannibalized by machine translation, says Shawe, something "Google and other places are getting better at

像设备手册这样的干货翻译业务更有可能被机器翻译所攫取蚕食，shawe说道。这正是谷歌和其他公司说所擅长的。

With machine translation now more sophisticated than ever, customers are beginning to demand services that were once hard to come by, such as video interpreters who can help clients communicate with the deaf and off-site interpreters who assist with doctors' appointments. "It's about staying up on what the tech is and finding the best way to utilize it," says Antezana.

如今机器翻译的发展比以前要成熟得多，消费者开始对曾经难以获得的服务提出需求，如能帮助客户与聋哑人交流的视频传译（video interpreters）、协助异地（off-site）预约（appointments）医生的口译员等。Antezana说：“这就需要我们持续跟进（staying up on ）技术的发展状况，找到利用技术的最佳方式。”