German Internet competition

Handakte WebLAWg also reports on a recent competition for German Internet projects. One of the three winners was a translation company, www.24translate.de. At the time this was first announced, there was some discussion of it on the pt Yahoo list. Carob (Not a Blog) reported it too (scroll down to the heading ‘German Internet Award’ (date is not given). But I didn’t get round to it. I do agree with his last point too, that the market is like that.

Translators were mystified as to what was new or exciting about the website. Probably the award was given for the services themselves, which also don’t appear to be unique. I’ll quote a chunk of Robin’s Carob report – it was some time ago. Mind you, I don’t know what approach these non-blogs take to attributed copying…

bq. There is talk about this award being an insult to freelance translators, as 24translate appear to focus on rapid turnaround, low prices and, patently most egregious of all, ‘for information only’ quality.

bq. For example, they are cited as having prices that suggest their translators earn a pittance, and as having a clause in their standard terms excluding any warranty that their translations will permit of or be suited to their intended purpose (daß die jeweilige Übersetzung für den Verwendungszweck des Auftraggebers zulässig und geeignet ist).

bq. Personally, I don’t see a problem here, or at least, not a new one. There is a market for cheap, fast translations, and if translation users wish to buy from someone in that market, fine — as long as they know what they are getting. In other words, it comes down to us: to educate our customers, and to sell on quality rather than price.

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