TAUS Asia Translation Summit Beijing 2012
Back in Beijing
－TAUS Asia Translation Summit 2012 レポート－
Arthur Lin
Senior Vice President
HiSoft Technology International Ltd.
名称●TAUS Asia Translation Summit Beijing 2012
期間●2012年4月24日（火）～ 25日（水）
場所●Park Plaza Beijing West Hotel（北京）
主催●TAUS（協賛：CCID, Translators Association of China）
詳細●http://www.translationautomation.com/conferences/taus-asia-translation-summit.html
In April, the translation automation organization TAUS returned to China where they organized the TAUS Asia Translation Summit for the first time in five years. One of the anticipated participants was hiSoft, China’s leading Language Services Provider. hiSoft is an IT Services company, offering IT Services and Research and Development Services, of which End-to-End Globalization/Localization Services make out an important part. Currently, hiSoft is listed as number 20 on the Common Sense Advisory top list of Language Service Providers worldwide, and has offices in China, Japan, Singapore, Spain and the US.
A changing landscape
Since the last TAUS summit in China the global translation industry landscape changed significantly and even more so in China. At the time of the previous TAUS Summit in China, the regional market was relatively immature, but with the increased importance of the Chinese economy globally, the translation industry has grown exponentially.
A few years ago, there was a fairly common misconception that the Chinese LSPs mainly competed on price, but this has changed fundamentally as companies like hiSoft innovate and develop their services offering with proprietary solutions. Today, hiSoft is competing with the leading MLVs globally for contracts with multinational corporations who expect their suppliers to be partners who provide innovative solutions to their specific problems, not just traditional translation agencies. In order to win in this market, it’s imperative to innovate and automate, and participation in discussions on the future of the industry is critical to the long-term success of all leading companies. The TAUS Asia Translation Summit was a good opportunity to discuss and contribute to the future of the industry, and hiSoft was joined by participants like Baidu, Huawei Technologies, Telenav and Trend Micro.
Machine Translation and automation grows in importance
In a number of sessions Machine Translation was highlighted as essential to the success of companies in the language industry. Just like hiSoft with its hiMT, more and more companies choose to use MT as a productivity enhancer in human-based translation. The interest in MT systems is growing in China. The workshop on the pre-conference day attracted forty participants, which is testament to the increasing adoption rate of Machine Translation in the industry.
During the first day of the conference, hiSoft participated in a panel discussion on Challenges and Opportunities in Translation Automation, along with Huawei, EC Innovations, Google, EMC and MicroMice. Arthur Lin, Senior Vice President of hiSoft, shared his thoughts on how MT can be leveraged at modern LSPs and how the language business will be impacted by disruptive innovations in the industry.
On the second day, one of the most appreciated presentations was given by Chris Wendt who presented Microsoft’s collaborative machine translation platform which is now commercially available. Later, the program committee selected Chris Wendt’s presentation of the Collaborative Machine Translation portal as the most interesting and most advanced use case.
Takeaways
After an eventful conference and many interesting conversations, it’s clear that the Language Services Industry has made great strides in China and that Chinese Language Service Providers will contribute significantly to innovation in the industry, not only for Machine Translation but also for automation in general. Automation is critical for LSPs in the future and TAUS is facilitating the exchange of ideas and encourages more innovation. Let’s hope they don’t wait five years until they return to China the next time.
