Florian Faes is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Slator and host of the weekly SlatorPod podcast. Based in Zurich, Florian Faes spent almost a decade in Asia before launching Slator in 2015. In Asia, he was with CLS Communication (now Lionbridge) as Head Asia-Pacific. Slator is the most up-to-date source of industry news and analysis covering language services and technology. Headquartered in Zurich, Slator runs editorial and research desks in London, Chicago, and Manila and has a presence in Bangkok. [More about him here]
In conversation with Florian Faes, Managing Director, Slator
Q: There has been a lot of buzz around India lately. Some global LSPs have even set up offices here and there have been a couple of M&As too. As the world’s leading language industry news, analysis and research company how do you see India?
A: We think India’s language industry is at a very interesting juncture. The country’s huge domestic market and vibrant multilingualism present an attractive mix to future growth. Increased affluence and the rise in spending power linked to consumers preferring a local language other than English is creating a massive potential market for language services.
India’s rise from a relatively small local market to a potentially very large one will likely happen much faster than the earlier transitions in Europe or the United States. This might enable the Indian localisation ecosystem to leapfrog in terms of leveraging the very latest language technologies such as machine translation (MT) and related natural language processing (NLP) applications. India’s large pool of highly-educated computer scientists will certainly be a competitive advantage.
A major challenge that remains for India’s language industry is the need to educate enough highly-skilled linguists to work with the ever more powerful language technologies.
Q: Considering that the translation and localisation industry in India is coming of age, what are the key things Indian LSPs should focus on in order to grow as well as to be attractive options for potential M&As?
A: Indian LSPs should carefully evaluate the domestic market and decide on a few segments where they feel they have a very strong market position. As India’s market grows, international competitors will increasingly look to establish a presence in India and attempt to compete either by setting up a local base from scratch or entering the market via M&A. A defensible market position in an attractive niche will make any LSP a sought after target for M&A.
As mentioned above, Indian LSPs should focus on recruiting, training, and qualifying linguists. They should be fearless in adopting new technologies and open to collaborating with outside partners. Finally, while the domestic Indian market provides ample room for growth, Indian LSPs should also look abroad for potential expansion. A smart and prudent internationalisation strategy typically supports the long-term growth of an LSP in a number of ways.
Q: How would Slator like to be a part of the emerging India story?
A: A very tangible contribution by Slator is our recent initiative to launch the Slator-CITLoB India language industry survey. We are looking forward to compiling the data and sharing the results with India’s language industry.
Q: What message would you like to give our readers from the language services and technology companies, academia and a cross section of the industries we serve?
A: These are incredibly exciting times for the language industry. The Covid-19 pandemic has again proven just how resilient the industry is and how essential a service it provides. While automation and machine learning technology does present a challenge to the traditional ways of doing things, the rise of AI is a net positive for the language industry in particular and enables a dramatic rise in productivity to those bold enough to embrace the change.
