In today's context of globalization and international integration, accurate, cost-saving translation of information is becoming a service that many businesses and organizations are interested in using. According to statistics, the demand for translating documents from Vietnamese to other languages such as English, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian,... and vice versa has grown by an average of 15-20%/year in the past 5 years. last year.
In particular, in multinational enterprises and large corporations with business activities spread across many countries, annual translation costs can reach hundreds of millions of dong. For example, Samsung Vietnam, one of the largest FDI enterprises in Vietnam, spends about 2 billion VND each year on translation activities. Or Unilever Vietnam Group also spends nearly 1 billion VND/year on translation.
Therefore, cost-saving translation while still ensuring the accuracy of information is the solution chosen by many businesses. However, how to balance quality and cost is not simple.
What is cost-effective translation?
Cost-saving translation is a translation service in which translation companies will advise and offer solutions to optimize translation costs to the maximum for customers while still ensuring translation quality. Cost-saving solutions can include:
- Use translation technology (CAT tools) to increase productivity and reduce translation time.
- Take advantage of existing translation memory to reduce the amount of new translation.
- Apply discount policy for loyal customers and strategic partners.
- Preferential prices for long-term, large-volume translation projects.
According to a survey by the Vietnam Translation Association (VATA), applying the above solutions helps reduce translation costs by an average of 30-40% compared to the normal listed price.
Factors affecting translation costs
The price of translation services depends on many factors such as:
- Translation language pairs: Translation between popular languages such as English-Vietnamese is often cheaper than rare languages such as Korean-Vietnamese, Japanese-Vietnamese.
- Specialized field of documents: Documents in specialized fields such as medicine, pharmacy, engineering, finance and banking often have translation prices 20-30% higher than general documents due to professional qualifications required. of the translator.
- Completion time: Urgent translation projects that require short completion time will have prices 25-40% higher than normal.
- Translation quality requirements: If the customer requires accurate, literal translation quality that requires careful editing and review, the translation price will also be higher than a simple translation.
Currently, the average translation price on the market ranges from 80.000 - 150.000 VND/page (350 words) depending on the above factors. For businesses with large translation needs, choosing a unit that provides cheap, quality translation services will help significantly optimize costs.
Be careful when using cheap translation services
Besides benefits such as saving costs and time, cheap translation also has many potential risks such as:
- The quality of the translation is not guaranteed, the meaning is misleading, and the message cannot be conveyed.
- The translation is unprofessional, with spelling and grammar errors.
- Original document information is not kept confidential.
- Delivery schedule is not guaranteed.
Therefore, to limit risks, businesses need to consider choosing reputable translation units with many years of experience and trusted by many customers. At the same time, before deciding to use the service, carefully review the price quote, payment method, quality commitment, confidentiality agreement and related terms.
Accurate cost-saving translation of information is an inevitable trend in today's fiercely competitive context. Choosing a unit that provides low-cost but still quality translation services will help businesses and organizations optimize financial resources and improve operational efficiency.
Most frequently asked questions
1. What steps does the cost-saving translation process include?
The cost-saving translation process usually includes 5 main steps: Receive requests and original documents from customers, analyze and quote the project, conduct translation and editing by a team of experts, and check quality. translation quality, and deliver completed documents to customers. Among them, making the most of the translation support tool (CAT tools) and available translation data sources (TM) will help shorten time and save significant costs.
2. What is the percentage of customers satisfied with the quality of cheap translation?
According to a survey by the Vietnam Translation Association in 2022, up to 85% of customers are satisfied with the quality of translations performed by companies providing cheap, cost-effective translation services. This shows that price and quality can completely go hand in hand if service providers apply scientific and professional translation processes.
3. What will be the trend of using cheap, cost-saving translation in the future?
In the context of increasingly fierce competition and the explosion of artificial intelligence and automatic translation technology, the trend of finding cost-optimized translation solutions will increase. It is forecast that by 2030, the low-cost, cost-effective translation market will account for about 60% of the total value of the global translation industry, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%.
4. How to evaluate a reputable low-cost translation provider?
To choose a cheap but quality translation provider, you need to consider the following criteria:
- Experience working in the field of professional translation
- The team of translators is well-trained and has in-depth knowledge
- Scientific translation process, applying modern technology
- Strict information security policy
- Trusted and chosen by many big customers
- Competitive price compared to the market but still ensuring quality
5. Can cheap translation meet projects that require high translation quality?
It is entirely possible if you choose the right reputable and capable service provider. Even for projects that require high accuracy such as translating legal documents, commercial contracts, or patents, professional translation companies can still respond well thanks to a team of rich translators. Experience and testing procedures, strict quality assurance.
6. Is cheap translation suitable for translating specialized documents?
Depending on the field of expertise and specific requirements of the project, translation companies will have flexible pricing policies. Normally, the price of translating specialized documents such as medicine, engineering, and finance will be about 20-30% higher than normal documents. However, for large quantity, long-term projects, you can completely negotiate with the supplier for a better price.
7. Which languages usually have cheap translation prices?
Translation prices depend on many factors such as language pairs, popularity, and translator resources. According to statistics, the top 5 languages with the cheapest translation prices today include:
- English
- Chinese
- Spanish
- French
- German
In contrast, less popular languages such as Japanese, Korean, and Arabic often have translation prices 20-30% higher on average.
8. What is the average time to complete a translation?
The average translation speed ranges from 1.500 - 3.000 words/day depending on the difficulty of the document. For large projects, it may take 2-4 weeks to complete. However, if customers have urgent needs, translation companies can mobilize many translators to work together and shorten the time to 1-2 weeks, or even a few days for short documents. You should discuss with the supplier about the specific deadline so that you can arrange a reasonable time.
9. What criteria do translation companies usually calculate prices based on?
Translation prices are often calculated based on the following main criteria:
- Word count of the original document (usually calculated per 300 words)
- Translation language pair (translation of popular languages will be cheaper)
- Specialized field of documents (specialized documents cost more than regular documents)
- Deadline completed (the more urgent the project, the higher the price)
- Quality requirements (literal, highly accurate translation will take more time and effort from the translator)
In addition, some companies also apply discount policies for loyal customers and large customers with a large number of annual transactions.
10. How to maximize costs when using translation services?
To optimize costs when translating, you should:
- Prepare clear, complete original documents, avoiding spelling and formatting errors
- Provide glossary and style guide if available
- Choose a reputable, affordable service provider
- Sign a long-term contract if there is a large, regular translation need
- Take advantage of the translation company's incentives and promotions
- Plan reasonable deadlines, avoid rushing to pay high translation fees
By applying the above tips, you can completely save 10-30% of the cost compared to normal translation prices while still ensuring the quality of the output translation.
Nguyen Trung Khang - Talented interpreter and translator, passionate about translation
Nguyen Trung Khang is a talented interpreter and translator, with many years of experience in the field of translation and linguistics. He graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, majoring in Linguistics in 2015.
After graduating, Mr. Khang participated in a professional interpretation and interpretation training course at the University of Foreign Languages - Hanoi National University. He achieved a high-level certificate in interpreting and interpreting, and was also awarded a master's degree in linguistics.