Translation Companies as Market Makers

It’s ironic that a translation company’s main function isn’t translation. To be sure translation is the service translation company clients purchase. However, it’s translators that provide translation services and not companies.

Instead translation companies are market makers, to borrow a phrase from the financial services industry. According to Wikipedia’s definition:

“A market maker or liquidity provider is a company, or an individual, that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a financial instrument or commodity held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the bid-offer spread, or turn. A market maker aims to make money by buying a stock at a lower price than the price at which they sell it, or by selling a stock at a higher price than the price at which they buy it back. Ordinarily, they can make money in both rising or falling markets, by taking advantage of the difference between ‘bid’ and ‘offer’ prices.”

Removing the finance specific terminology the basic definition applies (more or less) to translation agencies who bring skilled linguists together with clients who have a need for translation services. Absent a market maker both translators and clients may lack the ability, or find it difficult to put together the right language skills together with the need for services and the creation of a market.

If this a primary role for translation companies then why can’t an entirely computerized exchange system replace translation companies? For many translation clients it’s because they’re reassured by having a person in the middle and not only a computer. Human interactions cannot be entirely replaced by machines. Humans being can learn and relate to the often unique requirements of each translation project and translation client. Translation companies are market makers because translators value and appreciate the human interface element as well.

Market makers. It’s one more way to classify language services providers.