The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022 - 32

GEEKSPEAK By Jost Zetzche
Crowdin
Crowdin (https://crowdin.com) has undergone tremendous change over
the years. It has evolved into a company with 65 full-time employees
and the focus of its tool has completely shifted.
C
rowdin is the cloudbased
localization
management tool
that first appeared during
the heyday of translation
crowdsourcing and offered
an inexpensive way to have
files in software development
formats translated by, well,
everyone. The data owners
could either invite specific
users or open up their
projects to the public.
Once Crowdin gained
traction, Serhiy Dmytryshyn,
Crowdin's chief executive
officer, and his team realized
that it was a difficult sales
proposition to provide access
to free translation services
via crowdsourcing but then
charge for the technology
to do that. (Sometimes
the minds of translation
buyers work in strange and
mysterious ways.) They
also realized that the folks
who were drawn to their
tool were not the typical
translation managers, but
software developers who
recognized a kindred spirit
behind Crowdin and found
good support for all their
file formats in a tool that
translators liked.
Also at that time, the
idea of agile development
had already firmly taken
hold in the software
development world, calling
for a continuous localization
process rather than the
crazy localization rush after
the product development
was essentially finished. So,
Serhiy and his team moved
away from the job-based
approach (e.g., creating
" jobs " for one or several
files that would be sent out
to a specific translator) and
optimized Crowdin for those
kinds of continuous, often
micro-task-based workflows.
At that point, they also had
a number of partnerships
with service providers with
whom they could connect
their clients. Since their
clients were not the typical
translation managers who
had a pretty good handle on
what service vendors to work
with, this was a welcome
addition for their clients.
At some point it then
became clear that the
agile, " non-job " approach
to software development
32 The ATA Chronicle | March/April 2022
localization could and should
work just as well for other
kinds of content, particularly
content that sits in various
content management
systems. The 200 different
connectors developed for
that purpose, plus advanced
workflow systems, invoicing,
etc., was the idea behind the
Crowdin Enterprise offering,
which has been a well-liked
tool for large and large-ish
companies.
Now, there's one more
chapter to all of this. The
very latest development is
that Crowdin has just started
offering its own translation
and project management
services. Why? Well, Serhiy
said one reason is that their
clients were not very adept at
vendor selection and tended
to have disappointing results
with the final product. Plus,
for some, especially the
ones who had no previous
experience with translation,
vendor selection seemed
burdensome. And since we
all know there's a lot more
money in translation services
than translation technology,
it seemed like a no-brainer
to offer that. (Serhiy actually
didn't say that last part
and probably wouldn't
have because he wants to:
a) continue his ongoing
relationships with other
vendors, and b) in his mind,
Crowdin is still a software
company rather than a
service provider.)
Here's what I like about
Crowdin's story. They came
up with a good idea geared
toward its time, but then
they took their users' lead
to shape the tool according
to what was needed. And
amazingly enough, the
users weren't the typical
translation buyers and
translation technology users
but developers themselves,
who eventually also
brought documentation and
marketing teams into the
fold. So, the tool could once
again develop to satisfy those
needs as well.
By the way, all this is not
to say that the old
crowdsourcing has fallen
completely away. Certain
open-source and gaming
applications still use the
crowdsource feature.
According to Serhiy,
Minecraft, for instance,
draws on 30,000 volunteers
who typically take 20
minutes to translate
anything that comes through
the pipeline into 150
languages.
Jost
Zetzsche is
a translation
industry and
translation
technology consultant. He
is the author of Characters
with Character: 50 Ways
to Rekindle Your Love Affair
with Language. jzetzsche@
internationalwriters.com
This column has two goals:
to inform the community
about technological
advances and encourage
the use and appreciation
of technology among
translation professionals.
www.atanet.org
https://www.crowdin.com http://www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2022

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