The US-based international market research firm Common Sense Advisory published a report on business environment potential for multilingual services in European countries compared. The research was presented by Nataly Kelly, lead researcher for the report, on Friday, November 27, 2009 in Brussels, Belgium, at “Study on the Size of the Language Industry in the EU” conference, sponsored by the European Commission Directorate-General for Translation.
The report produced data on estimated amount of
language services business in 46 European nations: the list of which is topped by France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
“Businesses in Europe are increasingly using language services to achieve global success with their services and products,” points out Tahar Bouhafs, Chief Executive Officer of Common Sense Advisory. “Expansion into new markets is a critical piece of any business’s growth plan –
translation, localization, and
interpreting services are the tools that make it possible.”
To compute the amount of translation,
localization, and interpreting business in each market, the firm developed an algorithm that takes into account multiple market drivers, such as gross domestic product (GDP), export volumes, and levels of immigration.
“Europe is already home to some of the most progressive attitudes toward multilingualism in the world, and the European Union has gone to great lengths to promote the development of language services technologies, such as translation memory and
machine translation,” commented Nataly Kelly, lead researcher for the report. “The next developments on the horizon in Europe include community-based translation and translation into diverse output formats – essentials in the age of Web 3.0.”
You will find further information on еhe research into the European market for language services at: http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com or http://www.twitter.com/CSA_Research
Which European countries offer the largest opportunities for multilingual services? 
