High number of dud sites - why? Trådens avsändare: Paul Dixon
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Paul Dixon 
Brasilien
Local time: 08:20
Portugisiska till Engelska
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In memoriam |
I find that a number of sites for agencies are duds because they have gone out of business but are still listed on the BlueBoard. Aside from some minimal historical value, I don't see the reason for maintaining these on the BlueBoard.
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brasilien
Local time: 08:20
Portugisiska till Engelska
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | Something funny happened | Apr 17, 2021 |
Actually I had posted this with a comment, but for some strange reason it was posted without the comments. I have contacted ProZ support and am waiting for a reply. The version with comments disappeared, don't know why.
It does not involve the BB. I selected some agencies from the agency directory and tried to contact them to send my CV. One didn't have contact information, and most of the others had either domain for sale, non-existent domain, Error 404, Critical error in site, or ... See more Actually I had posted this with a comment, but for some strange reason it was posted without the comments. I have contacted ProZ support and am waiting for a reply. The version with comments disappeared, don't know why.
It does not involve the BB. I selected some agencies from the agency directory and tried to contact them to send my CV. One didn't have contact information, and most of the others had either domain for sale, non-existent domain, Error 404, Critical error in site, or 'Index of /', whatever that is. So I really think ProZ should vet the agencies, those who do not exist or whose contact information does not allow contact with the company should be penalised in some way. ProZ, any comments on this? Sometimes the connection does exist, but when I click to access the site of the agency it comes out as Error 404 or something. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not terribly surprising | Apr 19, 2021 |
It would not be terribly surprising to learn that a significant number of agencies have closed up shop within the past year. This is mainly a matter of intense market competition, accelerated by the COVID crisis.
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| Agency failure rate | Apr 19, 2021 |
Robert Forstag wrote:
It would not be terribly surprising to learn that a significant number of agencies have closed up shop within the past year. This is mainly a matter of intense market competition, accelerated by the COVID crisis.
I often wonder how long it takes an agency founder to realize that running a successful agency is much harder work than being a translator and eventually revert to doing translation only. How much income do they receive from agency operations compared to the amount of translation they have to undertake themselves? My own suspicion is that a lot of these "language services providers" are really single-shingle enterprises that occasionally outsource work.
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Kevin Fulton wrote:
Robert Forstag wrote:
It would not be terribly surprising to learn that a significant number of agencies have closed up shop within the past year. This is mainly a matter of intense market competition, accelerated by the COVID crisis.
I often wonder how long it takes an agency founder to realize that running a successful agency is much harder work than being a translator and eventually revert to doing translation only. How much income do they receive from agency operations compared to the amount of translation they have to undertake themselves? My own suspicion is that a lot of these "language services providers" are really single-shingle enterprises that occasionally outsource work.
This is something that was implicit in my previous post. A very high percentage of these "agencies" do not involve more than 4 or 5 people (who may not even be full-time employees of the outfit in question). They are more like: "Me, my friends Bill and Joe, and then the ATA and State Rosters." Give it a fancy title and a cheesy tag line, spend a few dollars for a web designer, and you have your LSP or agency.
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brasilien
Local time: 08:20
Portugisiska till Engelska
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
Another worrying trend, in Brazil at least, is the high number of mergers. This means less competition, lower rates, and less work.
| | | | | Not only that, but... | Apr 19, 2021 |
Paul Dixon wrote:
Another worrying trend, in Brazil at least, is the high number of mergers. This means less competition, lower rates, and less work.
...when the biguns take over the littl'uns, they may also impose their questionable ethical and quality standards, which in practice could include simply casting aside long-established relationships with freelancers in the interest of finding the very cheapest providers possible.
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Baran Keki
Turkiet
Local time: 14:20
Medlem
Engelska till Turkiska
| Dodgy Eastern European agencies | Apr 19, 2021 |
I've always wondered why the agencies that fit the description here (low paying outsourcers with little regard to ethics) always try to pass themselves off as UK (specifically London based) agencies. Almost all of them are owned by Eastern European individuals with their PMs located in former Soviet countries, offering only a few cents more than Asian agencies, yet they all have London addresses and UK phone numbers (who's manning those phones?). What is the pull, allure, appeal of London as opp... See more I've always wondered why the agencies that fit the description here (low paying outsourcers with little regard to ethics) always try to pass themselves off as UK (specifically London based) agencies. Almost all of them are owned by Eastern European individuals with their PMs located in former Soviet countries, offering only a few cents more than Asian agencies, yet they all have London addresses and UK phone numbers (who's manning those phones?). What is the pull, allure, appeal of London as opposed to Madrid, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New Orleans? Why London? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | London calling... | Apr 20, 2021 |
Baran Keki wrote:
I've always wondered why the agencies that fit the description here (low paying outsourcers with little regard to ethics) always try to pass themselves off as UK (specifically London based) agencies. Almost all of them are owned by Eastern European individuals with their PMs located in former Soviet countries, offering only a few cents more than Asian agencies, yet they all have London addresses and UK phone numbers (who's manning those phones?). What is the pull, allure, appeal of London as opposed to Madrid, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New Orleans? Why London?
I've noticed this too. On Friday, I received an email from an agency like this, with a request to "post-edit" (rewrite) a 10k-word Russian-English "translation". It is a registered UK company with a London address, but the website was of amateurish design and the English on it wasn't great. The manager used the first name "John"; I happened to know that his surname is Romanian as I had seen it before, but to the uninitiated, it could probably pass for any nationality. I checked out the company on the Companies House website and, surprise surprise, the second half of his double-barrelled real first name is the Romanian equivalent of "Johnny". The company's London address is shared with numerous other companies - probably a rented PO box or an accountant's address. Oh, and the rate he offered was in USD, not pounds ($0.02/word). I replied in Romanian, addressing him by his real first name, and told him that if he wants people to believe he's in the UK, he should fix the mistakes on his website, use a real business address instead of a PO box, not publish his real name and nationality in a public register, be at least vaguely realistic about rates, and find out what currency we use in the UK. I never got a reply, strangely enough...
To answer your question, I think there could be more than one reason. In my case, "John" probably chose to base his company in the UK because he reckoned his English was good enough for him to pass himself off as a Brit. The pre-eminence of English as an international language looms large. Then there is the question of red tape. By comparison with the UK, where setting up a company is very easy and can be done online in a matter of minutes, Spain (to take one of your other examples) has a reputation for complex bureaucracy, especially where VAT is concerned, and the rates that translation agencies there pay tend to be lower from what I can gather, so freelance translators like me might be less willing to do business with an agency supposedly based in Spain versus the UK. If you want to take a large bite out of a translator's income, it's best to target countries where they earn more and pretend to be either local, or based in a country that they couldn't find offputting for any reason. And although I know nothing about how to incorporate an American company, I've a feeling it might not be easy to do from Europe (if I'm wrong, please correct me!) So those would be some practical reasons as to why the UK might make an attractive business base for these people.
Also, looking at it from the point of view of image, London is a city of extreme wealth. If you want to target translators at the higher end of the income scale, you would want them to believe that you're not short of a few quid yourself, otherwise they might be put off. A central London address certainly lends an image of affluence. The city's courts are a very popular forum for international litigation due to the perception that they are particularly fair and impartial. That isn't really relevant to translation, I grant you, but I think it's another factor that helps to improve the city's respectability, and respectability is precisely the kind of image that these people want to convey.
[Edited at 2021-04-21 12:37 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Turkiet
Local time: 14:20
Medlem
Engelska till Turkiska
| That probably explains it | Apr 21, 2021 |
Peter Shortall wrote:
By comparison with the UK, where setting up a company is very easy and can be done online in a matter of minutes, Spain (to take one of your other examples) has a reputation for complex bureaucracy
Thanks Peter for your detailed reply. I remember getting contacted by a 'UK' translation office once, after a few email exchanges I found out that the guy (owner, sole LSP) was an Arab located in the Ukraine. When I asked him why he was marketing himself as a London based translation agency, he said that he set the company up there and then moved to Ukraine to live 'more comfortably'. Apparently he hired a virtual assistant in England taking care of phones and whatnot.
I see a similar pattern with Asians in the USA. Nowadays I'm wary of UK and US translation agencies. Thankfully not all of them choose to anglicize their full names.
| | | | Tom in London
Storbritannien
Local time: 11:20
Medlem (2008)
Italienska till Engelska
Baran Keki wrote:
I've always wondered why the agencies that fit the description here (low paying outsourcers with little regard to ethics) always try to pass themselves off as UK (specifically London based) agencies. Almost all of them are owned by Eastern European individuals with their PMs located in former Soviet countries, offering only a few cents more than Asian agencies, yet they all have London addresses and UK phone numbers (who's manning those phones?). What is the pull, allure, appeal of London as opposed to Madrid, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New Orleans? Why London?
Because London is the money laundering capital of the world.
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/economics-and-finance/london-the-money-laundering-capital-of-the-world
https://tinyurl.com/yghkel7d
https://tinyurl.com/ybbrhw9d
Etc.
[Edited at 2021-04-21 15:46 GMT]
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