Korean company now world’s biggest for machine translation

Posted on : 2014-05-28 15:39 KST Modified on : 2014-05-28 15:39 KST
CSLi going up against international giants Google and Microsoft for supremacy in expanding market for machine translations
 May 27. (provided by CSLi)
May 27. (provided by CSLi)

By Kim Jae-seob, IT correspondent

“We stuck it out for twenty years, and now we’re number one in the world,” said Park Gi-hyeon.

Park is president of CSLi, South Korea’s largest company offering solutions for multilingual machine translation. The company has helped bridge the language gap for foreign tourists by launching Interpretation Assistant, a voice-activated automatic interpretation application. CSLi is also behind S Translator, a mobile translation application that comes installed on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

With the acquisition of the company Systran, CSLi is moving into position as the world’s biggest multilingual machine translation solutions company. Systran, a French company, had been regarded as having the most advanced technology in the industry, along with more experience in the field than any other company in the world.

During a press conference held at the Plaza Hotel in central Seoul on May 27, CLSi announced it gained control of Systran. By purchasing a 38.04% share in Systran, CLSi acquired its managing rights. CSLi is changing its name to Systran International so that it can utilize Systran’s brand value for international sales. The CSLi office will become the headquarters of Systran International, with the Systran office in France serving as the company’s office in Europe.

“Systran Solutions is given the most deference in the machine translation solutions market,” CSLi said. “We decided to change the name of our company to take advantage of Systran’s brand value.”

Systran has been dedicated to developing machine translation technology since its establishment in 1968. The company is based in Paris and it is listed on the French securities exchange.

Whereas the machine translation solutions provided by Google and Microsoft support 60 and 20 languages, respectively, Systran offers support for 89 languages. The company has drawn upon its technological expertise to provide machine translation solutions for the US Defense Department and governmental organizations inside the European Union.

“With the addition of the Asian languages whose machine translation CSLi currently supports, Systran International will be able to provide machine translation for 101 languages,” Park said. “The acquisition makes us the number one mobile translation solution provider worldwide. At the very least, we are not going to surrender the machine translations solution market to Google or Microsoft.”

For the twenty years since its establishment in 1992, CSLi has concentrated on developing solutions for multilingual machine translation. It began its online translation service in 1996, providing machine translation service to Samsung Electronics, NHN, Daum Communication, and NTT Docomo.

CSLi gained more prominence in 2011 with the launch of its Interpretation Assistant application that targeted overseas tourists to South Korea. The company’s S Translator, which is one of the default applications on the Galaxy S4 and other smartphones manufactured by Samsung Electronics, is being used by more than 100 million people around the world. Significantly, CSLi’s machine translation application is gaining popularity even though it is a paid app, in contrast with a similar free app provided by Google.

Samsung Electronics encouraged CSLi to acquire Systran and reportedly assisted with the purchase. “A multilingual machine translation application is of great assistance in marketing smartphones. CSLi’s acquisition of Systran means that the S Translator application can support more languages, which helps with selling the Galaxy line of smartphones,” an industry source said on condition of anonymity.

The expansion of economic and cultural exchange has led to greater population movement, intensifying demand for communication in other languages. These trends are spurring rapid growth in the machine translation solutions market.

Furthermore, the internet of things is predicted to greatly increase demand for machine translation solutions. The reason is that machine translation solutions are essential for smart collaboration between people, between machines, and between people and machines.

“Projections by IT research organization WinterGreen Research indicate that the global market for machine translation solutions will grow from US$1.6 billion in 2012 to US$6.9 billion in 2019. We believe that the 35.3 billion won in revenue for Systran International in 2013 will grow to 239.4 billion won in 2018,” said Kim Dong-pil, vice president in charge of management for CSLi.

 

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