Future Watch
Translation firms grow beyond tech
Research firm IDC expects "globalization services" to grow by 7.2 percent this year to $5.33 billion, according to analyst Alex Motsenigos. IDC defines globalization services to include software localization, content translation, interpretation, customization of computer translation applications and software internationalization. Software internationalization involves changing the underlying engineering of software code so the application can handle multiple languages.
The globalization services market should climb to $8.95 billion by 2007, IDC says. IDC's healthy growth estimates for this year and the next few years contrast with a meager 3 percent.