Nimdzi Insights, an international market research and consulting firm, announced today the publication of its annual Nimdzi 100 report. A ranking of the biggest language service companies in the industry, the report is a major undertaking by Nimdzi researchers, serving as an economic barometer for executives and analysts alike.

The report characterizes 2022 as a cooler year, but only in the context of the dramatic growth achieved in 2021. But that’s only the beginning. To read full insights, the report is republished below.

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2022 was a particularly interesting year to analyze because the language industry was coming out of two exceptional years. In 2020 growth slowed down as the market adjusted to lockdowns and a changing environment. 2021 then was a boom year that saw growth in the industry skyrocket due to backlog demand from 2020 paired with new demand as language service providers (LSPs) were reaping the rewards of the efforts put in at the start of the pandemic.

2022 was somewhat of a mixed bag as growth was certainly stronger than in 2020 but more moderate compared to the exceptional growth in 2021. Putting the year into context, we can say that in many ways, life has returned to normal. We have adapted to life after and with the pandemic, everyone is traveling again, conferences are being held onsite once more, all the while remote services are here to stay. On the other side of the coin, the global economy is experiencing inflation and an energy crisis, there is war in Europe, and mass layoffs in the tech industry, all leading to an overall feeling of uncertainty. 

Quite fittingly, during interviews for this year’s Nimdzi 100 many businesses reported a slow first half of 2022, followed by a strong second half of the year that outperformed expectations for the very same businesses.

Looking at the results from the top 100, this is what the ranking already shows us about the state of the industry in 2023:

• Data show that annual growth among the 100 largest industry players has increased as compared to last year, though more moderately than in the previous period where growth was exceptionally high. Between 2021 and 2022, the combined revenues of the top 100 positions in our ranking increased by 17.3%, compared to 22.7% growth for the top 100 in the previous period.
• The combined revenue of the companies comprising the top 10 positions in 2022 rose 14.2% compared to those from the previous year. The segment with the strongest growth are the companies in the top 50 positions, whose combined revenues increased by 17.9% as compared to those holding the top 50 positions last year.
• Despite ongoing consolidation at the top, the industry as a whole continues to grow, producing larger LSPs every year. This trend holds true even in the lowest positions of our ranking, with the 100th largest LSP confirming revenues of USD 14.0 million this year as compared with USD 12.6 million, USD 12.0 million, USD 11.6 million, and USD 10.3 million for the 100th ranked LSPs in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
• In 2022, a number of world currencies experienced significant devaluations against a strong US dollar. This had an impact on the growth of the top 100 (and the industry as a whole). To illustrate, in this year’s ranking, companies in the top 100 grew 18.6% on average when calculated in USD, whereas growth would be at an average of 26.8% if calculated in the reporting currencies for companies on our list.

We estimate that the language services industry reached USD 64.7 billion in 2022 and should grow to USD 69.3 billion in 2023.

In 2020 we had reduced our growth estimate to reflect the impact of the pandemic, adjusting the market’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to 6.0%, down from 6.2% and 6.8% in previous years. However, after a phenomenal 2021 with record growth our estimate for 2021 reflected a one-off increase of 10% compared to 2020. Already in last year’s Nimdzi 100 we predicted that it is unrealistic to expect this exceptional level of growth to continue, but that we can expect the industry to grow at a faster pace than before March 2020, thanks to a changed market that LSPs have adapted well to at this point in time. This is why, in March 2022, we projected a CAGR of 7.0% for the coming years. Considering the results from this year’s ranking, we can now confirm this growth projection despite economic uncertainty, particularly thanks to a strong second half of 2022. This is why we continue to predict that the market will grow at a CAGR of 7.0% in the coming years, reaching USD 90.8 billion by 2027. 

The language industry: Market growth 2009-2022 and forecast 2023-2027

Chances are the information you came here for is the Nimdzi 100 Ranking, which is presented in the table below. The ranking is based on revenue and lists the top 100 largest language service providers worldwide. 

Now, let’s just jump right in, shall we?

The Nimdzi 100

Our ranking is a live document and therefore subject to change.

NOTES:

• (FY) fiscal year, figures for the latest financial year (verified with financial reports)
• (v) verified, data provided by companies
• (e) estimated revenue, based on extensive industry research
• Some companies appear to have the same revenue due to currency rounding. However, the ranking order is accurate considering the second decimal.

Close, but no cigar

The following companies would have made the ranking in previous editions, but due to the growth of other players as well as new arrivals on the Nimdzi 100, they did not make the cut this year. However, they deserve an honorary mention.

Watchlist

Language service providers without a definitive revenue estimate 

The Watchlist consists of companies that should be in the ranking but are not listed because they do not disclose, publish, or otherwise reveal their revenue. Furthermore, some organizations are units inside larger corporate groups where a small part of revenue comes from language services, and annual reports do not allow researchers to segment out the translation and interpreting revenue. We provide visibility to such companies on the Watchlist to highlight their impact on the industry. 

The reason it is important for us to track these companies is because even though they might not compete for clients, they compete for talent and resources. They also represent opportunities for technology providers and investors.

The companies are listed in alphabetical order.

How we create the Nimdzi 100

During the course of this market analysis, Nimdzi uncovered prominent LSPs that have previously been invisible in market reports because they do not participate in surveys and are reluctant to disclose their revenue. Nimdzi has employed an investigative approach and invested hundreds of hours into intense research, data collection, and analysis in order to present data that have previously been unavailable.

We are very proud to offer broad access to our data. This ranking is offered to all who are interested. No paywall. No strings attached. Localization buyers, investors, savvy job seekers, and analysts are welcome to use this document. Just don’t forget to reference Nimdzi Insights, LLC, as the source. Interested parties are free to reach out to us directly should they have any questions.

Below is a summary of the methodology used for the Nimdzi 100 ranking.

1. We concentrated on identifying LSPs with USD 10 million or more in revenue, with the assistance of in-country experts. In most countries, there are only a few providers of this size, and it is impossible for them to hide from local competitors because they hire staff, take part in requests for proposals and employ a large number of translators. Once we identified the relevant LSPs, we researched information that could help us make more accurate estimates of their size and talked to the management directly to verify our findings.
2. We’re listing full company revenue, not just language services revenue. It is impossible to separate these in external sources of information, such as annual reports, press releases, and stock listings, which provide the foundation for our work.
3. We use data from the latest fiscal year for each company. This means the numbers for some companies will not reflect 2022 calendar year revenues. 
4. Our definition of language services includes: translation, localization, transcreation, multilingual desktop publishing (DTP), language quality assurance, linguistic testing, multilingual copywriting, multilingual technical writing, language project management, interpreting, video remote interpreting, telephone interpreting, linguist verification and staffing, media localization, versioning, adaptation, subtitling, voiceover, dubbing, machine translation (MT), training machine translation engines, cultural consulting, data services, and related services.
5. Growth rates are calculated in USD. 
6. We use average annual currency conversion rates to US dollars, published by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States for each day of trading in 2022.

The ranking is out but this is not the end of this year’s Nimdzi 100. Stay tuned as we finalize our full market report that comes with an analysis of current trends and market dynamics. Out soon!