Welocalize has been investing heavily in growth, and I am happy to report that our consistent growth has been recognized once again.  For the 7^th year in a row, we have won the Inc 500|5000 award for America’s fastest growing private companies.

It is rare for a company to win this award for so many years in a row, and it is a great achievement for all of our staff to enable this incredible growth for so long.  I know it has been hard work, and I want to sincerely thank our staff, clients and partners.  Many companies grow, but only a small few grow consistently while building a strong company that stands the test of time.

Here is the list of non-government language service providers recognized by Inc magazine:

Rank         Company                                    Growth    Revenue         

1283	G3 Translate	225%	$2.8 million
1474	Global Language Solutions	190%	$9.9 million
1517	SignTalk	183%	$4.1 million
1886	Language Services Associates	137%	$26.8 million
2230	CyraCom International	111%	$37.4 million
2328	Welocalize	104%	$59.6 million
3117	CETRA Language Solutions	64%	$3.8 million
3202	Universal Language Service	61%	$5 million
3216	TransPerfect	61%	$251.2 million
3338	ProTranslating	55%	$11.1 million
3548	U.S. Translation	48%	$2.2 million
3771	Para-Plus Translations	39%	$2.3 million
3935	Geneva Worldwide	34%	$7.5 million
4003	Dynamic Language Center	32%	$6.8 million
4412	Fluent Language Solutions	21%	$5.9 million

Regards,
Smith

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The US Debt Ceiling crisis has created no shortage of drama over the last several months.  Whether in government or in business, one simply has to pay out less than what is taken in order to stay financially solvent.  Fortunately, Welocalize has not had this problem.  Our revenue in the first half of 2011 increased 44% over 2010, and our earnings continued to grow and remain healthy.  But like any other business or government, we have had to make tough choices.  There is never enough time or money to accomplish everything on the wish list.  The decision making challenge is in prioritization, and the goal should be an enduring structure with not only a stable ceiling but also a sound roof to keep out leaks.  This is the kind of business we are building here at Welocalize.

High growth creates great opportunities, but growth also creates structural challenges.  As an example, Ireland has endured through the perils of both.  After reaching an historical high of 5.47 percent GDP growth in March of 2007, Ireland fell to a record low of -4.47 percent in December of 2008. The cause of the decline, as we all know, was a systemic failure in the financial system, and not only in Ireland.  Debt knew no ceiling throughout the world; the growth was not built upon a scalable foundation and the roof caved in.

Learning from this example and others over the past 14 years, it has been my priority to make sure that Welocalize continues to grow upon a scalable and reliable foundation.  We have made significant investments to ensure this.  We have added over 100 staff in the past 12 months giving us a current total of 500 worldwide, and we will invest nearly $4 million this year in our technology products and infrastructure.  At the core of our growth will remain our 4-Pillars: Customer Service, Quality, Innovation and Teamwork.  We regularly ask our clients to measure us in our 4-Pillars, and we also use them to measure ourselves. 

Entering the second half of the year, I feel very fortunate and optimistic.  Economic challenges still persist around the world, but all signs are pointing to 2011 being a great year for Welocalize.  I want to thank our clients, staff and vendors.  Our industry is changing, and I plan on Welocalize being a leader in that change.  As President Herbert Hoover once said, “About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.” 

Smith

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The recent ranking by Common Sense Advisory (CSA) of the Top-50 Language Service Providers listed an incomplete total for Welocalize's 2010 revenue.  Although it was no fault of their own, CSA has been wonderfully supportive in helping us to correct the revenue total and agreed to issue a correction notice.  Our total 2010 revenue was US$59.61 million giving us a corrected ranking of #15 in the world in their report.  Here is the link to the correction notice on the CSA website, and I have also included it below.

Correction Notice: Welocalize

In May 2011, Common Sense Advisory published a ranking of the Top 50 language service providers (LSPs) in the world (see "The Language Services Market: 2011," May11). This report contained information about provider growth rates and revenue for both language services and technology.

Description of Corrections
After the report was published, Common Sense Advisory was made aware that the 2010 revenue listed for Welocalize corresponded only to language services revenue, and did not in fact include technology and associated services revenue.

Had the company’s technology and associated services revenue been included, Welocalize would have been listed as #15 in the Top 50 instead of #18, with total revenue from language services plus technology of US$59.61 million for 2010, a significant jump above the services revenue of US$44.71. Table 2, in which the Top 50 companies appear, is located on Page 20 of the report.

Given the company’s prior year’s revenue of US$50.30, the company grew at a rate of 18.50%. This growth rate was more than double the average market growth rate of 7.41% as measured from a sample of 912 language service providers worldwide. This growth rate also would have qualified Welocalize for inclusion on Table 3, which language service providers that outperformed the underlying market growth rate.

In addition, while Welocalize did not appear on our first ranking published in 2005, which was based on 2004 revenue, the company did appear in subsequent rankings starting in 2006, and has appeared every year since its first appearance. Therefore, the company qualified to be mentioned on Page 21, under the bullet titled, "Perennial Performers."

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The Multi-Screen Opportunity

What is the biggest driver of growth in our industry right now?  I believe it is what I refer to as the “multi-screen” opportunity.  Let me explain.  In the past, accessing many forms of content was cumbersome and slow.  Finding what you wanted in a printed manual took a long time.  Renting or buying a video required a trip to the store.  Accessing various forms of content required specialized devices, and connecting these devices was either challenging or nor possible.  These factors contributed to limits in growth and subsequently growth in the translation industry to support multilingual versions of that content and its underlying applications.

But this has all changed, and the change is accelerating.  The TV, the music player, the phone, the game console, these devices are all converging in exciting ways all over the world in nearly every language.  Content is now doubling on the internet every 18 months, and millions of new users are becoming connected every day.  Thus, the way they are accessing information is changing.

I can’t remember the last time when I referenced a hard copy version of content to answer a question.  Like many people, I just Google it.  And I Google it from any screen: my desktop, laptop, phone or TV – and even more so now, my iPad.  The convenience is great, and it is not just content; I am using more and more applications on a variety of screens.  What I am looking for in both content and applications is simple: a great user-experience supporting anything I want, on any device, on-demand, at any time of day and at any place in the world.  And I am not alone.  Look at video as an example.  I recently read that  25% of video is already viewed on mobile devices and internet-enabled televisions, and that number is growing rapidly.

This change as it relates to our industry is centered on two main themes: in a cluttered world with myriad choices, quality content is king, and people will pay for a better user experience on their devices.  Higher quality content and a stronger economic underpinning mean one thing to our industry – more words to translate!  The challenge is how?

Given the momentum in convergence across the information technology spectrum, our industry risks being left behind.  Our technologies must also begin to converge.  Our user experience must become simpler and on-demand.  The quality and speed of our services must progress through collaborative innovation.

There are a variety of innovation efforts being lead by our associations such as GALA and TAUS.  I recommend getting involved.  Change is afoot.  Greater adoption of standards and interoperability benefit all of us in the industry.  If we don’t innovate together, we risk missing an enormous opportunity for our industry as a whole.

Smith

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Many people have been asking me about our team in our Tokyo office, and I am happy to report that they are all safe.  Thank you so much for the well wishes.  Our people in Japan really appreciate the support.

We heard from Shinji, our Manager in Tokyo, throughout the weekend, and I have included our last update from Shinji below.

Our primary concern is the safety our colleagues, clients and their families.

Regarding our work: No data has been lost, but obviously the timing of some deliverables will be impacted. Everyone in our company will do their best to support our colleagues in Japan as they manage through the aftermath of this disaster.

The company has provided assistance through a donation to the Red Cross. If you feel you would also like to offer support please visit the Red Cross website or any other reputable support organization of your choice.

To our colleagues and clients in Japan, stay strong, be safe and our thoughts are with you.

Smith

Last update from Shinji:

There have been aftershocks almost every half hour since the big one hit us, and we expect this to go on for a while. We honestly don’t know what to expect, how safe it is to go back into the city area, or what. There is also a warning/forecast of another 7.0M aftershock (70% chance) predicted to happen, but when no one knows.

Because of all the devastation and nuclear reactor explosions, energy, gas, electricity, etc are nearly depleted. In order to help the situation of energy, surrounding regions will be having a schedule electricity outage to save and share this energy. Although the heart of Tokyo (also the heart of Japan basically) will not be affected by this power outage for obvious reasons (there would be literal chaos), there are still concerns of being able to use public transportation.

Therefore, some staff may not be able to make It to work, and some deliveries may be affected. We will do our best to work this out of course, but your patience and understanding is well appreciated. Although we are all ruthless at work, I know we all have hearts ;-)

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The Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) is a dynamic Academia-Industry partnership with over 100 researchers developing novel technologies addressing the key localization challenges of volume, access and personalization.


I am very excited to have Welocalize become an Industry Partner with the CNGL. It is an organization whose Mission is “to revolutionize localization via breakthroughs in automation, composition and integration”, and this is exactly in line with our goals at Welocalize. We are looking at ways to revolutionize the way localization services are performed and delivered across the translation supply chain.

Specifically, we will be working together with the CNGL on the interoperability challenge in the translation supply chain. Our goal is to create a working demonstration of standard data exchange across a content management system, connected to a translation management system, connected to a data cloud, a machine translation engine and a translators workbench.

The era of the walled garden is over. New, open ways of performing and delivering translation are emerging, and we plan to work closely with the CNGL to lead beneficial change for all.

Smith

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I was recently asked to be a Guest Blogger on the TAUS website. My post is on the topic of standards:


The Dark Side of Standards:  Why the lack thereof is significantly undermining both business prosperity and social progress around the world

Please click on the title above to have a look.

Smith ...

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