Machine Translation Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Automotive, Military & Defense, Electronics, IT, Healthcare, Others), By Technology, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030

Machine Translation Market Size & Trends

The global machine translation market size was valued at USD 978.2 million in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% from 2023 to 2030. Rising Internet penetration and the increasing need to reduce operational costs are expected to drive market growth over the next few years. Soaring smartphone penetration and improvement in communication infrastructure have also positively contributed to industry growth.

The industry is witnessing a transition from human translators to MT as it is an efficient tool to deliver similar linguistic conversion with significantly lower time and cost. Advances in MT technology and new implementation approaches, including crowdsourcing, are expected to reduce the cost of MT while improving its efficiency.

This technology finds high adoption among language service providers, who use the service to correlate and enhance output. Furthermore, using big data for social media data mining to gather information about products and companies provides growth opportunities to service providers. Such translated data is vital for marketing decision-making.

Technological advancements have resulted in the developing of translation theory with minimal errors and grammatical consistency, which has broadened the MT scope. The cost-effective and rapid conversion of documents into regional languages has spurred industry growth over the past few years. Moreover, several multinational companies use this method owing to its cost-effectiveness in developing multilingual content for their global websites. The use of professional linguists to provide post-editing of content that has been machine-translated can result in greater accuracy of translated content.

A growing number of Internet users worldwide has widened the demand for cross-cultural interaction and understanding of content over the web. The necessity for such social interaction has spurred demand for modernization in MT services. Globalization and communication technology integration have created opportunities for providing machine translation.

MT has evolved over the years due to ease of communication, linguistic diversity, hyper-globalization, and democratization of knowledge. The technology has also been enhanced with modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques that help in efficient machine learning. However, a lack of accuracy in MT tools is expected to hinder industry growth.

The COVID-19 had a positive impact on the machine translation market. The global health crisis has disrupted travel and in-person interactions, increasing reliance on digital communication and remote collaboration. This shift has driven the demand for language translation services, including machine translation, to facilitate cross-border communication and bridge language barriers.

Application Insights

The military and defense segment accounted for the largest revenue share of around 30.6% in 2022. In the U.S., Machine Foreign Language Translation System (MFLTS) assists soldiers to communicate efficiently with non-English speaking populations. MFLTS enables continuous integration of additional language components to offer language translation capability to soldiers.

The healthcare segment is estimated to register the fastest CAGR of 15.3% over the forecast period. It has widespread adoption in healthcare due to its potential to bridge language barriers and facilitate effective communication in a sector where accurate understanding and timely information exchange are critical. Companies operating in the healthcare sector rely on MT services for doctor manuals, leaflets, patient brochures, instructional content, websites, and other crucial communication materials.

The automotive segment is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. Despite continuous technological advancements, car manufacturers are considering MT as an area of differentiation. They are exploring new ways of delivering performance and implementing software that can be updated regularly to enter mainstream car usage. Technology-centric car manufacturer Tesla, Inc. is already utilizing such conveniences and to likely be followed by many more auto manufacturers.

Solution providers partner with language service providers to offer motor catalog content in multiple languages. For instance, KantanMT has partnered with Milengo GmbH to localize 300 thousand words into three languages within four weeks. This partnership has assisted the automotive industry in offering catalog content in multiple languages.

Technology Insights

The statistical machine translation (SMT) segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 72.5% in 2022 and is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 14.8% during the forecast period. The effectiveness of SMT over Rule-Based Machine Translation (RBMT) in terms of cost and time has significantly increased its demand over the past few years. SMTs are easy to build and maintain and can be adapted to multiple language pairs. SMT development reduces human resources costs; however, high computational costs are involved in the process.

Furthermore, SMT systems are replacing current RBMT systems as major players such as Lionbridge, SDL Plc, and other language service providers offer pure SMT services. Lionbridge uses IBM Corporation’s and Microsoft Corporation’s technology and has mostly shelved its old RBMT platform. Systran and PROMT Ltd. are among the leading players offering RBMT technology.

With the development of technology, automated language conversion is expected to foresee significant improvements in quality and productivity. Challenges to the commercial exploitation of MT include the cost of running the powerful Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). This issue can be addressed by combining the best MT with neural network technology.

Moreover, the industry gravitates toward using Bilingual Evaluation Understudy (BLEU) as a useful translation quality measurement. BLEU is adopted as a quality measurement standard with a fully automated way of measuring Neural Machine Translation (NMT) quality.

The rule-based machine translation segment is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. RBMT refers to a translation approach that utilizes predefined linguistic rules and dictionaries to generate translations. This segment has gained attention due to its ability to provide structured and controlled translations in specialized domains and languages with extensive linguistic resources.

Regional Insights

North America dominated the market and accounted for the largest revenue share of 41.6% in 2022. The presence of many service providers and favorable government initiatives characterizes the growth. SMT services offered by Microsoft Corporation and Google, Inc., along with their free online engines, have gained increased popularity in the U.S.

Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 16.8% during the forecast period. China and India have witnessed tremendous growth in recent years. The linguistically diverse culture of the Asia Pacific region has witnessed greater demand for translated content. Solution providers have significantly catered to regional demand.

Key Companies & Market Share Insights

The market is highly competitive, and the players are undertaking strategies such as product launches, acquisitions, and collaborations to increase their global reach. For instance, Meta launched an AI-driven translation model called NLLB-200 in July 2022. This innovative solution enables translation across an impressive 200 languages and significantly enhances the quality of translations by an average of 44% compared to existing technologies. With the advent of NLLB-200, a broader spectrum of languages can now benefit from current technologies, paving the way for increased accessibility in virtual experiences.

Recent Developments

• In July 2023, Custom.MT, a machine translation platform, and Smartling, a translation company, joined forces through a technology integration partnership. This collaboration enables mutual customers to expand their options for high-quality machine translation engines and enhance the overall quality of their translations. Smartling clients gain access to a wider range of machine translation engines and increased language coverage through this integration.

• In June 2023, Tolgee s.r.o., a provider of software localization solutions, launched Tolgee AI Translator. This advanced machine translation (MT) software utilizes the capabilities of ChatGPT to offer highly accurate translations. It enables users to enjoy the advantages of AI-powered translation while maintaining essential human translator involvement.

• In March 2023, SyncWords, LLC, a cloud-based software solution, partnered with DeepL, a neural machine translation service, to enhance its translation capabilities for video content. This integration enables users to include precise foreign subtitles in over 50 languages effortlessly. The introduction of this feature allows for increased accessibility, expanded audience reach, and improved engagement rates during live, hybrid events, and pre-recorded media.

• In November 2022, Phrase, a software localization platform, launched Phrase NextMT. This internally developed neural machine translation (MT) engine is now a fundamental feature of the recently launched Phrase Localization Suite. By incorporating Phrase NextMT into Phrase Translate, the platform offers a comprehensive set of MT capabilities catering to various market demands. These features include AI-driven engine selection, instant quality estimation, effortless customization, and the integration of glossaries. 

Machine Translation Market Report Scope

Global Machine Translation Market Report Segmentation

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2017 to 2030. For this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global machine translation market based on technology, application, and region:

• Technology Outlook (Revenue in USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • RBMT

  • SMT

  • Others

• Application Outlook (Revenue in USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • Automotive

  • Military & Defense

  • Electronics

  • IT

  • Healthcare

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue in USD Million, 2017 - 2030)

  • North America

    • The U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • U.K.

    • Germany

    • France

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • Japan

    • India

    • Australia

    • South Korea

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

    • Mexico

  • Middle East and Africa

    • Saudi Arabia

    • South Africa

    • UAE