From developing mobile phone applications and creating virtual reality goggles to pioneering self-driving cars, it really seems like Google does a little bit of everything. While the company had originally started as an internet search engine provider back in the day, they have moved into a variety of other different things. Seriously, where would we be without Google? Most of their products and services are extremely beneficial, and they are things that we use everyday. Now it seems that Google is ready to commit even more to one particular service: translation.
Google Translate has been around for awhile, and it certainly has helped many people out. It’s a free-to-use application that allows us to, well obviously translate different languages. A large number of us have probably used Google Translate before, and it works pretty well. Google is really great at aggregating data, examining that data, and then coming up with complex software algorithms that make their products work. Most of this data is collected through their search engine, and when they combined that with the dictionaries of the world, they were able to create a stable translation application. The internet has connected us in ways like never before, and Google is now working on taking down language barriers. While Google Translate is still free-to-use for the general public, that has since changed for businesses, organizations, and companies leaving many to wonder if Google Translate will be the next big money maker for the company.
With the change to the Google Translate application program interface (API), Google is now introducing a paid model for the translation services. Essentially businesses and companies will now have to register a billing account with Google, and it will cost them money to translate things. According to the Translate API page, it costs $20 United States dollars to translate one million characters worth of text. For the average user, that’s really not a lot considering a 500,000 word document would only cost just $10 dollars to translate. However there are many companies and organizations that translate hundreds of millions of words and texts, and given the sheer amount of organizations that use this service, Google generates a considerable amount of revenue from their translation service.
Pretty much any company, business, or organization that conducts their activities at an international level use this service. While plenty of people across the world speak English, not many people outside China or India speak Bengali or Mandarin, for example. So Google Translate is extremely useful for people to conduct business in the modern age. And Google has worked very hard to perfect their translation platform. They have teamed up with many linguists and computer scientists to deliver arguably the best translation program that is currently available, it’s really that great.
The prospects that Google Translate brings to not only Google themselves, but individuals and companies that use the service are huge. However, while Google Translate is very promising and the paid model will generate them money, I don’t think it will be the next big money maker for the company. Google makes the vast majority of their money from advertisements, not translating languages. And this isn’t going to change any time soon. Google, and all of their combined services, have generated vast amounts of data over the years. Companies will approach Google and say “I want to target 18 to 24 year old surfers in Southern California”, and then Google will be able to deliver ads to that specific demographic, for example. The old saying “If something is free, then you are the product being sold” is very applicable to how Google makes their money. So while Google Translate will generate revenue for the tech giant, it’s not going to be the next big money maker.
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