VietNamNet Bridge - The translation service market appears quiet, but it could generate $100 million in revenue a year.

A graduate of a foreign language college, Le Linh Duy opened Openland, a language service company in 2004. At that time, when foreign investors flocked to Vietnam to seek investment opportunities, the demand for translation of contracts and documents was so high that Openland was always busy and had to recruit new translators every week. 

The heyday of translation firms like Openland is over, but analysts believe that the market has potential. Vietnam has signed and is going to sign a series of free trade agreements, paving the way for more foreign investors to come to the country. Therefore, the high demand for translation services is expected.

According to Common Sense Advisory, the Vietnamese translation service market, with 800 operational companies, is worth $100 million a year and has stable growth of 30 percent per annum.

The translation service market appears quiet, but it could generate $100 million in revenue a year.

Also according to Common Sense Advisory, about two-thirds of internet access is from non-English speaking countries, while 72 percent of internet users only open websites in their mother tongue. 

As the number of foreign investors and Vietnamese companies doing business with foreigners has been increasing, translation demand is very high.

According to Dinh Cong Tuan, general director of Vietgate, a company which exports products to Dubai, export contracts are written in English. Therefore, translation service is a regular expense item of the company.

The founder of a translation firm said English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese are the most commonly used for translation firms. He estimates that the orders for translating of documents, import/export contracts and websites account for 60 percent of the total demand. Meanwhile, 35 percent of demand is for cabin translation and 5 percent for recording and dubbing.

There are about 10,000 professional translators globally. In principle, only those who have practicing certificates from professional associations can meet requirements for work. 

However, in Vietnam, the translation sector sets low-entry barrier. There are not many requirements about facilities and workforce quality. More than 90 percent of translation firms are small and have been operating less than three years. Only 5 percent of companies have been working for many years and employ more than 100 workers.

The translation market is described as ‘quiet’, but the competition is cutthroat. Most domestic firms compete with low prices, not with added value. 

The service fee is about VND300,000-400,000 per 1,000 words (VND90,000-120,000 words per A4 page). The fee is 15-25 percent lower than that set by foreign companies.


Kim Chi