The world’s most populous nation is offering great business growth opportunities domestically and internationally. Yes! We are specifically discussing the scope of China in global growth and the important role of translation services. China’s tremendous growth especially in the exotic tech market put it under different sanctions by its competitors. To briefly recap the watershed growth moment of Chinese language translation services, we would like to refer to the rule of Communist Party Leader Deng Xiaoping in 1978. The coming decades showcase the positive outcomes of the decisions of Deng Xiaoping with incremental growth for language service providers in numbers and value. The Translators Association of China (TAC) reported that currently there are over 369,000 Chinese companies that are offering language services.
On the contrary, the USA and Europe are witnessing a precipitous down in language studies, with Chinese data indicating the opposite. More than 300 Chinese universities are offering masters of translation and interpretation (MTI) studies. Suppose 20 students complete their graduation each year, 6000 translators are available to take on the work heads annually. Moreover, most of them choose to learn or excel in any field of their choice. Enabling them to offer not only native translation services but also subject matter expertise.
Decoding the Success Journey of the Chinese Language Industry
As we have mentioned earlier, Chinese translation trends are growing exponentially contrary to Western and European countries. Diving deep into the growing demand for Chinese translators, the Western language market is focused on producing professionals with native language professionals creating a void for the growing demand for Chinese native translators for other languages. That resulted in the high demand and very low supply of Chinese to other language translators like French, Russian, German, etc.
The insight of Chinese leadership motivated the local industries to create local language experts who are well-versed in Chinese to a first, second, or third language. This futuristic move will make sense when taken from the perspective of the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. In fact, the growth of the Chinese language industry was rightfully taken as a part of Chinese global expansion and creating the image of soft and modern China.
So despite relying on international language courses, China has started investing in its modern MTI programs at domestic universities and is currently reaping the benefits of the exponential results of that policy.
Language Service Market Analysis of China (2024-2029)
These are the defining factors of the demand and supply of language services across China and all over the globe.
- Growing trends of globalization of business, digitalization of content, and increased demand for multilingual customer support.
- More and more language service providers started to offer machine translation and other advanced computer-assisted tools (CAT) that cut costs and increase the delivery time and quality of translations.
- Besides, big multinational businesses, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) created an unprecedented demand for translation services like translation, interpretation, and different types of other language services.
- The exponential increase in international trade facilitated taxes, and free trade agreements, which are major factors of increased demand for a professional translation agency locally and internationally.
- Widespread availability of the internet, increased use of social media, and growing trends of e-commerce and online platforms created a high demand for localization and translation services.
Chinese Language Service Providers are receiving high demand in these industries
| Industries | Demand |
| IT | 63.0% |
| Education & Training | 52.0% |
| Government Communication | 45.3% |
| Study Abroad & Immigration | 45.0% |
| Tourism & Transportation | 45.0% |
| Equipment and Manufacturing | 41.3% |
| Cross Border E-Commerce | 36.7% |
| Conferences & Exhibitions | 36.7% |
| Media & Culture | 36.7% |
| Intellectual Property | 36.0% |
Usage of Machine Translation by Chinese Language Service Providers
| Usage | Percentage |
| Never | 3.7% |
| Very Rarely | 9.7% |
| Occasionally | 44.3% |
| Other Alternatives | 41.0% |
| Always | 1.3% |
Some Geocultural Challenges for Doing Business with Chinese Companies
With all these spiked trends in the Chinese language industry, China remains a challenging country to do business with, mainly because of the tight scrutiny and to do business with foreign companies and data privacy concerns. Moreover, the US restrictions on Chinese companies are another challenge for those businesses, brands, and companies aiming to do business with Chinese companies. Another worth mentioning aspect for foreign investors is that Chinese business partners tend to have a hold over 51% of the business operations including the IP of the company. Creating a dominant role of Chinese partnership and showcasing a weak projection of their foreign partners.
Especially if you are operating in the technology infrastructure, the threat of intellectual property theft is increasing day by day. The Chinese government is trying to do everything it can to mitigate this challenge. Despite being a difficult country to navigate the shapeshifting international political landscape, China remains the apple of the eye of global investors, primarily due to the size of the economy and huge market.
Takeaways
Amid the challenging landscape of international politics and China’s global growth trends, language service providers remain the unsung heroes of China’s international growth. With advanced technologies and artificial intelligence, the Chinese language service industry is booming with leaps and bounds. If you aim to work with Chinese language service providers, make sure to study the Chinese business culture and dynamics of technology adoption in the selected Chinese translation service provider.
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