Translation services seem to be something of a common thread in recent days when it comes to real time communications, as just recently we got a look at how Skype was bringing such services to the fore. But we knew even then that Skype wasn’t alone in the field, and that point got illustrated nicely with a new agreement signed between Yappn and VerbalizeIt that looks to bring human translation to real time communications.
The agreement in question brings VerbalizeIt’s translation services to the Yappn platform, while also allowing both sides to provide services to each other’s clients, new and existing, thus opening up the pool of operations for both firms. With such a combination in place, the floor opens up for a variety of firms, ranging from retailers to content providers and beyond, to open up global markets and get rapid feedback about products and services offered, without having to spend a lot of time on translating the dialogue back and forth.
Reports suggest that this early operation may expand rather quickly, as Yappn has several tools available in its real time communications purview. For instance, there’s the FotoYapp system, which focuses on image and video sharing in real time, as well as a social and chat-driven platform that allows for commenting opportunities that can turn into a platform for direct engagement with customers, suppliers, and similar parties.
Better yet, the partnership actually calls for each side to work directly to benefit product development. For instance, Yappn is set to provide real time language services to help updated VerbalizeIt operations, while VerbalizeIt will provide some editing services in both accuracy and language verification for Yappn. Officials from both Yappn and VerbalizeIt, meanwhile, offered up commentary around the new agreement, and both expressed positive views. VerbalizeIt CEO Ryan Frankel noted that the new move would allow VerbalizeIt to get its translation services out in front of more business users, whether said users be small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) or full enterprise users, while Yappn founder and CEO David Lucatch pointed out that adding VerbalizeIt services to Yappn tools allowed for a “…broad sphere of new business opportunities,” and the ability to better serve its client base.
The idea of translation services as part of real time communications is, again, nothing new. Back in October we were seeing the growing advancement of Translate Your World‘s TYWI-Live systems, and most recently we got a look at Skype Translator, which managed to offer translation services so seamless and easy to use that elementary school students in two different countries were easily able to communicate back and forth. But this is a more business-oriented approach, and will likely require some pretty potent translation capabilities, Yappn’s work with VerbalizeIt will likely provide that level of fluency required to make the translations happen, and given that some reports suggest that the agreement is set to cover up to 150 languages, that’s going to be a lot more juice than Skype Translator was putting into the field, particularly in the short term.
Language has always been one of the primary hurdles when it comes to globalization, but with the rise of real-time communications, we could be looking at an era in which everyone speaks everyone else’s language thanks to a particular piece of software. Only time will tell if this proves to be the case, or just how far it can go, but the language barrier these days is starting to look somewhat porous.
