Chinese translation agencies’ biggest challenge: not artificial intelligence

After my graduation from university, I cooperated with multiple translation agencies in China, as a full-time translator or a part-time one. These agencies are situated in large cities like Beijing, Nanjing and Shenzhen, and some of them are very famous.

My greatest feeling in such cooperation was not how good they were, but how they despise translation quality.

I was confused as these translation companies were big and many of their customers were big enterprises in China. Gradually I lost my interest in translating and later became an editor for a news website.

After working with some overseas translation agencies, I rekindled interest in translation and now established my own business. But most Chinese translation companies are still the same as they were. Read more

A recent case of price war among Chinese translation companies

Recently occurred an incident in the cycle of Chinese translation companies, the founder of one agency accused another of seizing his to-be big client with a higher price. He said this was unacceptable and the reason that his competitor managed to get the project is probably that he offered a bride to someone from the client’s company.

This is just a tip of the iceberg, as quality has always been underestimated compared to price. Both translation companies and clients usually pay little attention to quality of translations. And Chinese translation agencies are mostly fighting a price war by offering incredibly low prices. Read more