Translation Marketplace idea, does this exist?

1 points by kmook ↗ HN
I recently had an idea for a translation service, perhaps this idea exists or something similar. If not, I may be interested to create it.

Many website owners would like their site content localized into another language but do not have the means to do it themselves and may be too cheap to pay for expensive translations services.

What if there was a translation marketplace where site owners could create an account and register their existing content and select which languages they would like their content translated to, select the amount of credits they are willing to pay, and that content would show in some kind of "Content that needs translation" area. The site owners would need to either "Buy Credits" (send money to the Marketplace site) or translate other people's content to earn credits. There could be a way for registered users to Apply to translate the other content and site owners could select, reject, or auto-approve applicants. Translators could earn credits for their work (based on number of words translated, which could be different for target languages, as some languages may be more difficult to translate), which they could apply to have their own content translated, or redeem for payment from the Marketplace site. For completed translations, there could be a rating/reputations feature.

If this Marketplace existed, it could make the translation industry more competitive and provide work for idle translation services, as there would be a constant stream of work that needs translating from the sites users.

2 comments

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Hi,

Yes there are at least a dozen services like this (prominent players : textmaster.com, gengo.com). Some specialize in translation, other offer a wider range of language services (editing, copy-writing).

There might be some space left in some very specific technical translation niches though. Also there probably are some opportunities to creatively use the APIs provided by textmaster/gengo to create/improve other type of products.

I checked textmaster, and they seem to have fixed translation pricing. 1000 translated words is about $40. gengo is even more expensive. I can get 1000 translated words on some sites like Fiverr for $5, but its kind of a pain to search, buy a gig, send the content, get it back... and do that for 20 or so different languages, but it is the cheapest way I have found.