How big can we (the industry) go?

A prominent industry analyst pinged me recently asking about Canadian examples of user generated content (UGC for those of you who can’t live without an acronym). I couldn’t think of any – despite my unique location at the nexus between dozens of content system vendors, translation firms and clients. Sure, UGC is all the rage – and I don’t say that flippantly either – I use if daily to influence my quest for the latest hi-fi piece of kit or upgrade to my sports car. But Canadians in particular and enterprises in general aren’t picking up on the benefits of translating this content for other markets. And they should.

But this segues nicely into another hot topic in localization industry these days – market size. While most estimates put the localization industry around $10B annually, there’s strong contention that this is too darn small. Not that the number is wrong – just that the number SHOULD be much larger. Heck, the US-only popcorn industry is about $10B a year. It’s my contention that the localization industry is a sleeping giant. And as technology unlocks content and makes it easy to get that content translated, I predict we’ll see the infamous “hockey stick” growth that start-up firms love to project. But this time it’s not for a single company – but for a whole industry. It’s going to be a wild ride!