Founded in 2008, One Hour Translation is one of the oldest and largest online translation companies, with more than 15,000 active translators in 100 countries who cover more than 75 languages. The Cyprus-based company processes 100,000 projects a month for customers ranging from large corporations (including Toyota and Shell) that need enterprise-grade multilingual content management systems to smaller companies in search of a more polished alternative to cutting-and-pasting content into Google Translate.
Over the last five years, CEO and founder Ofer Shoshan, who bootstrapped One Hour Translation, has seen an increase in demand for online translation as companies seek to diversify into global markets.
“When there are financial crises in certain markets, we see customers from those markets that want to start getting international customers,” says Shoshan. “In this context, the translation market has done well. It’s a huge market, worth more than $30 million last year.”
Though there are many online translation services now available (including Gengo, Conyac and Dakwak), Shoshan says that One Hour Translation’s advantages are its scale, speed and patented technology.
The company’s proprietary products includes WeST (short for Web site translation), its latest offering. WeST allows administrators to add multilingual support to their sites by inserting a few lines of code. Once implemented, WeST maps all site text and automatically sends updates to human translators. This allows content to be translated on an ongoing basis. One Hour Translation’s Translation Memory cloud, another of its patented technologies, reduces the cost of translation by eliminating charges for repeated phrases. The company’s platform also allows real-time peer edits of translations for quality assurance.
Though technology facilitates the speed and accuracy of its translations, One Hour Translation’s most important resource is still its 15,000 translators, who have to pass an exam before they start working for the company. Translators only translate content into their native language and include people who specialize in copywriting and app localization, as well as legal, medical and financial documents.
Want to try out One Hour Translation? The company is offering free home page translation (up to 200 words to any single language) for the first 1,000 TechCrunch readers who use this link.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/aKRl2ZFnzvQ/
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