Slator - Language Industry News

  A Pinch, a Twitch , and Everything in Between: Pinch’s Christian Safka and Twitch’s Susan Maria Howard were among the top language industry leaders who joined hundreds of attendees on March 18, 2025, for the first SlatorCon Remote conference of the year. Kicking off the day’s events, Slator’s Head of Advisory , Esther Bond, welcomed attendees and invited Managing Director Florian Faes to share the latest findings and insights in his highly anticipated 'industry health check. In his presentation, Faes began by reflecting on the challenges of 2024. He discussed data from Slator’s 2025 Language Service Provider Index (LSPI) and highlighted the growth of interpreting-focused companies, contrasted with the struggles faced by small, undifferentiated agencies and the rapid rise of language AI, driven by companies like ElevenLabs and DeepL . Faes also highlighted key findings from Slator’s 2025 Localization Buyer Survey , including the challenges buyers face in implementing AI and the ...

In an December 29, 2024 paper by Sony Research India researchers Pratik Rakesh Singh, Mohammadi Zaki, and Pankaj Wasnik comes a framework specifically designed to "improve entertainment content translations" in Indian languages. They "believe it is the first of its kind," using an amalgamation of context awareness along with style adaptation to produce not only accurate translations but also entertaining for the targeted audience. The researchers explained that traditional machine translation MT systems usually struggle to handle entertainment content because they mostly translate sentences in isolation. It leads to "disconnected" translations that can't really capture the emotional depth or cultural references behind the original dialogue. This has a particular pronounced effect in entertainment, where all these interconnected conversations and subtle cues in the narrative are so vital. The challenge, in entertainment translation, lies in preserving ...

New SAG-AFTRA Game Localization Contract Restricts AI Usage in Dubbing On November 14, 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)  announced  an updated version of a previous agreement that covers the localization of  video game  projects produced in a non-English language. With approximately 160,000 members, SAG-AFTRA calls itself the “world’s largest union representing performers and broadcasters.” The union also represents voiceover artists, including those who provide dubbing.  As comics and gaming website Bleeding Cool  reported , the new Independent Interactive Localization Agreement is essentially an updated version of the base terms from the union’s Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement, plus  AI  protections. The new agreement is signed on a project-by-project basis by employers whose project was originally scripted in a language other than English, and whose intellectual ...

Sijie Wei, Co-CEO of language services, technology, and game localization specialist   EC Innovations   ( ECI ), joins SlatorPod to talk about   his new role   as co-CEO and leading one of Asia’s largest   LSPs with revenues exceeding USD 50m in 2023 . Sijie describes how ECI's initial focus on assisting Western blue-chip companies to enter China evolved into helping Chinese digital titans like Tencent and ByteDance extend their product offerings internationally. Sijie emphasized the difficulties facing the Asia-Pacific market, where localization maturity in several verticals still lags behind that of the US and Europe. But as sectors like e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles develop, he sees enormous development potential. Sijie noted that Chinese businesses want to create their own language AI solutions, which makes the industry extremely competitive. This study helps ECI apply state-of-the-art AI developments to client projects.  h...

Smartcat's Series C Funding, YouTube Dubs Launch, Viva Translate Closes Down Slator- Language Industry Intelligence Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where they give their impressions from  SlatorCon Silicon Valley  and touch upon the findings from the 2024 ALC Industry Survey. In a significant funding update, Esther reports that  Smartcat raised USD 43m  in a Series C round, bringing their total funding to USD 70m. This funding will support product innovation in AI translation and multilingual content generation. Florian talks about  YouTube’s potential launch of AI dubbing , a feature in testing that aims to generate translated audio tracks for videos, significantly enhancing content accessibility and engagement. In Esther’s M&A corner, Cloudbreak, now rebranded as Equiti,  acquired its competitor Voyce  and brought on  a new private equity partner , Heritage Group. Meanwhile, EasyTranslate  acquired Wor...

Highlights from SlatorCon Silicon Valley 2024 Slator- Language Industry Intelligence On September 5, 2024, more than 150 language industry and technology leaders gathered at Hotel Nia in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley . The event offered a friendly and relaxed environment, encouraging networking and reconnections among participants. Attendees from over a dozen countries and four continents emphasized the importance of in-person Slator events in addition to virtual ones. The expo hall was also buzzing with activity. Esther Bond , Head of Advisory at Slator, kicked off the event with a warm welcome, outlining the day's presentations and panels, and encouraging delegates to network and engage with each other. Key Takeaways from SlatorCon Silicon Valley 2024 Florian Faes , Managing Director of Slator, opened the sessions by presenting key insights from Slator’s latest research on the language industry's current state. He discussed practical applications of large language models (LLMs)...