With the rapid development of big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, people's lives have gradually entered the era of intelligence. While products such as smartphones, smart homes, and smart machines have developed rapidly, intelligent voice has gradually entered people's world. , playing a more active and important role in people's lives and work.
With the development of science and technology, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has shown its talents in the field of translation, and real-time translation functions using AI technology have begun to be equipped on a variety of terminals. The huge scale of demand has undoubtedly brought huge dividends to the translation market. Now Google, Apple, Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are all stepping up to release their own AI translation software products. AI translation technology, as a trend-setting technology in modern technology, has attracted many Internet industry giants to join the game. In addition, various translation companies have sprouted up all over the Internet.
At present, if we want to truly achieve better application of AI translation, both in terms of technology and application, it still needs a long period of development and improvement. With the development and application of artificial intelligence technology, the market size of my country's AI translation will further grow, and is expected to grow to 5.8 billion yuan in 2026, with a compound growth rate of 16.3%.
Participants in my country's consumer translator market include technology giants such as iFlytek, Baidu, NetEase, and Sogou, as well as start-up companies such as Partition Tower Technology, Shuangmon Technology, and Banana Technology. In terms of price distribution, products focusing on the high-end market are generally positioned at 2,500 The price is above RMB 1,000, targeting customer groups such as Zhenlu, and the main manufacturers are iFlytek, Shuanghou Technology, etc.; while the price of products targeting long-tail customers is less than RMB 1,000, represented by Xiaomi. At present, thanks to its powerful product functions and user experience, iFlytek Translator has a leading position in the consumer translation market.
In 2021, there were 423,547 companies in China with language service businesses, and 9,656 companies with language services as their main business. Beijing is the region with the largest number of language service companies; the total annual output value of companies with language services as their main business is 55.448 billion yuan, an average annual growth of 11.1% compared to 2019.
With the continuous advancement of my country’s “Belt and Road” plan, trade and cultural exchanges between domestic enterprises and countries along the “Belt and Road” have become increasingly frequent, and the volume of related translation business has also increased significantly. Since 2015, the main fields involved in the translation business of Chinese language service companies have gradually transitioned from manufacturing industries such as chemical industry and machinery to technology and education industries. The top three translation fields in 2015 were legal contracts (80.6%), chemical energy (77.8%) and machinery manufacturing (75.9%), while the top three translation fields in 2021 are education and training (41.1%), information technology ( 40.8%) and intellectual property (38.8%). The areas covered by translation are fragmented and diversified, which also reflects the rapid development of my country's language service industry.
Machine translation is increasingly used in the industry, and there are 252 companies with machine translation and artificial intelligence businesses; the service model of "machine translation + post-editing" is generally recognized by the market, with more than 90% of companies saying that using this model can Improve translation efficiency, improve translation quality and reduce translation costs.
Market demand continues to expand, technology continues to iterate and update, and today's smart translation devices are getting smarter and smarter. Millisecond-level translation response speed, ultra-low latency, and more accurate translation. Nowadays, when you go abroad or talk to foreigners, you don’t have to worry about the language barrier. A small translator can easily solve various language communication problems. The translator is also called a small portable translator. Translation headphones, translation recorders, smart mice, etc. derived from translation machines can also easily solve language communication barriers and meet users' language translation needs. This series of changes and innovations have all had a major impact on the intelligent speech translation industry and promoted the development of the AI language translation industry. Today's intelligent voice translation industry has entered a stage of rapid development.
With the maturity and development of network technology since the 21st century, some Internet giants such as Sogou, NetEase, iFlytek, etc. have joined the machine translation research team and developed various artificial intelligence translation equipment, such as Yaxin, Translation Star, Kejian, and Tongyi etc., the development and use of apps such as Kingsoft PowerWord, Baidu Translation, Youdao Translation, etc. have greatly satisfied people’s needs for translation.
With the frequent cultural and economic and trade exchanges between countries, the demand for language services continues to increase. Previously, the Tokyo Olympics attracted the attention of sports fans around the world, and as a world-class sports event, professional translation is naturally indispensable. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence today, AI+ professional translation has become an inevitable trend. Many companies in the AI translation industry have developed different terminal products. The AI translation industry can use different terminals according to purposes, communication objects, and scenarios. As the accuracy of AI translation increases to the same level as human translation, the development of terminals also improves ease of use, and the future of eliminating language barriers may be getting closer and closer to people.
The global market for AI translation is expected to expand rapidly in the future. The market size of the AI translation industry is US$650 million, and the AI translation market size will reach US$3 billion in 2027.