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The World's Top Translation Companies by Revenue (Updated 2023)


LanguageWire Icon  LanguageWire ||  Reading Time: 3 minutes

The language services and technology industry includes over 18,000 players worldwide, ranging from small translation agencies to global content behemoths.

This diverse group of language service providers (LSPs) and translation technology vendors adds up to an industry with an estimated value of $67.2B in 2022 and is expected to grow by 6.2% to $98B by 2028.

This brief article offers one method of analysing the complex language industry by listing the world’s largest language service providers (LSPs) by revenue.

What is the Language Industry?

Before we rank the top companies in the language industry by revenue, we need to note that this kind of analysis isn’t a precise science. The language industry is constantly changing, and you should view any ranking as a brief snapshot.

For starters, what is the language industry?

The European Union’s Language Industry Platform (LIND) defines the language industry as “professionals working in translation, interpreting, subtitling and dubbing, localisation, language technology tools development, international conference organisation, language teaching, and linguistic consultancy.”

But this definition still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. As language services and technologies evolve, the boundaries between the industries become blurred.

For example, AI tools like Google Translate, Grammarly and most recently ChatGPT, are perhaps some of the most frequented and better-known translation and proofreading applications in the world. However, none of these companies are active players in the language services industry.

The World’s Top Translation Companies According to Slator

So, how do we make sense of it all?

One group that works to provide us with industry insights is Slator, a leading purveyor of news, analysis, and research for the language industry. Like the Fortune 500 approach, Slator ranks the world’s largest language service providers by revenue in their annual report, The Slator Language Service Provider Index (LSPI).

Slator is a highly respected source of business insights into the translation & technology companies that make up the large, complex, and ever-changing language service industry.

As such they have recognised the need to highlight a greater diversity within the industry both in terms of the size of a provider, from boutique to super-provider, as well as the range of services they can provide. Their 2023 Language Service Provider Index reflects this with four new categorisations that segment the industry by revenue.

They are, as defined by Slator themselves:

  • Super Agencies – full-service, standalone LSPs with revenues greater than USD 200m;

  • Leaders – LSPs with revenues greater than USD 25m and that do not fall into the Super Agency category;

  • Challengers – LSPs with revenues between USD 8m and USD 25m;

  • Boutiques – LSPs with revenues between USD 1m and USD 8m.


LanguageWire and Slator’s 2023 Language Service Provider Index

In Slator’s 2023 Language Service Provider Index, LanguageWire ranks 26th out of 350 of the world’s top providers with the segmentation of Leader.

We achieved this position in part thanks to a constant focus on innovation and our dedication to customer success. Recent advances in AI & machine learning, together with our dedicated teams of experts, have made it possible to carve out additional growth in a crowded and highly competitive industry.

However, it’s crucial to note that bigger is not always better and the new segmentation reflects this. Sometimes smaller specialists can serve niche multilingual content needs best, while not all LSPs can boast the same level of data security and quality standards.

LanguageWire always strives to find the perfect balance for our customers without compromising on the highest levels of quality.

Now, without further ado, here are the top translation companies, according to Slator:

Rank Company 2022 Revenue in Millions LSPI Segment
1 TransPerfect $1,160.0 Super Agency
2 RWS $906.7 Super Agency
3 LanguageLine Solutions $836.0 Leader
4 Keyword Studios $724.4 Super Agency
5 LionBridge $575.0 Super Agency
6 iyuno $500.5 Super Agency
7 Acolad Group $340.2 Super Agency
8 Welocalize Inc. $292.0 Super Agency
9 Hogarth Worldwide $281.0 Leader
10 AMN Language Services $216.0 Leader
11 STAR Group $200.1/td> Super Agency
12 Centific $182 Leader
13 CyraCom $177.4 Leader
14 Dubbing Brothers $155.6 Leader
15 PTSGI $153.4 Leader
16 Valiant $138.0 Leader
17 VSI $111.3 Leader
18 Visual Data $110.0 Leader
19 Propio Language Services $96.3 Leader
20 ZOO Digital $95.8 Leader
21 United Language Group $86.0 Leader
22 Honyaku Center $84.7 Leader
23 Big Language Solutions Pending Leader
24 thebigword Pending Leader
25 Argos Multilingual $71.5 Leader
26 LanguageWire $68.8 Leader
27 SeproTec Multilingual Solutions $68 Leader
28 Sunyu Transphere $59.8 Leader
29 Akorbi $58.2 Leader
30 Certified Languages International $55.3 Leader
31 Global Talk $53.4 Leader
32 KERN Global Language Services Pending Leader
33 EC Innovations $50 Leader
34 Motion Point Pending Leader
35 Translated Pending Leader
36 Språkservice Sverige ABGlobal Talk $43.7 Leader
37 MasterWord Services, Inc. $42.7 Leader
38 Plint AB $41.7 Leader
39 Ai-Media $40.9 Leader
40 Straker $40.6 Leader
41 CSOFT International Pending Leader
42 GLOBO $36.2 Leader
43 EVA $36.0 Leader
44 Jonckers $35.2 Leader
45 PGLS $35.2 Leader
46 Alpha CRC Ltd. $34.7 Leader
47 Summa Linguae Technologies S.A. $33.8 Leader
48 Crestec Inc. $31.7 Leader
49 Toppan Digital Language $30.9 Leader
50 Apostroph Group Pending Leader

To download the full report please visit Slator's website.

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