Every industry that goes through a major change ends up with a small group of companies that help decide what it becomes. They are not always the largest at the start. They are the ones that were already building when the change began.
Translation is going through that change now. This article looks at the size of the field, where it is moving, and why Ravira is building to be one of the companies at the table where its future is shaped.
A large field, in the middle of a shift
Language is one of the largest services markets most people never think about. Nimdzi, the research firm whose annual report is the industry's main reference, estimates the global language services industry at about 72.6 billion dollars in 2025.
The interesting part is where the movement is. According to the same research, traditional services are now growing slowly, while language technology, meaning translation engines, management platforms and AI tools, is estimated at 20 to 26 billion dollars and growing faster than the services around it. Value is moving from the work done by hand toward the technology that does it.
The field is also unusually open. The 100 largest providers together hold only about a fifth of the market, so there is no small group that owns it yet. A field that is large, changing and still open is exactly the kind where new companies can find a lasting place.
Where Ravira fits
Ravira sits in the part of the field that is growing: the technology layer. It is built around three things that matter more as translation becomes automated:
- Precision in every field. 5.3 million terms across 20 domains, applied automatically, so legal, medical and technical texts keep the right terminology.
- Breadth of languages. 108 languages today, with the same tools for smaller languages as for the largest ones.
- Its own foundations. A tokenizer trained by Ravira for close to 100 languages, and a translation model of its own in development, so the core of the product is built rather than rented.
Ravira also meets people where they already work: on the website, through its API, through public API marketplaces, and inside Claude through the Ravira connector. Each channel is a new door into the same engine.
The long tail of languages
There are around 7,000 languages in use today, and UNESCO considers roughly 40 per cent of them endangered. Most translation technology is built first for a few dozen languages with the most data, and the rest wait their turn.
Ravira was started with the opposite instinct. In Glasgow, where Gaelic still names the city as Glaschu, it is easy to see that a language with fewer speakers carries as much meaning as any other. Serving these languages well is part of what Ravira is, not an afterthought.
It is also a practical strength. Organisations, publishers and public bodies that work in smaller languages need tools that take them seriously, and the companies that build those tools early will be the ones they rely on.
What being there early makes possible
A seat at the table is not about size on day one. It comes from three things that only build up with time:
- Foundations that compound. Every language added, every term refined and every model trained makes the next step easier. Starting early means more of these layers are in place when the field settles.
- A voice in how things are done. New ways of working, such as AI assistants that call dedicated tools, are being defined right now. Companies present at this stage help shape the patterns others later follow.
- Trust that takes time. Translators, publishers and businesses choose tools they have watched grow. Being visible and useful from the beginning is how that trust is earned.
None of this happens at once. It happens step by step, and it starts with being in the room while the field is still taking shape.
Building toward the table
Ravira's ambition is simple to state: to be one of the companies that shape how AI understands and works with language, starting with translation, with precision where it matters and room for every language, large or small.
We will keep sharing the steps here, in the Building Ravira section. If you work in language technology, translation, publishing or AI and want to talk about what we are building, write to us at humans@ravira.dev.
Market figures come from Nimdzi's research on the language industry and from UNESCO. This article describes Ravira's direction and work in progress. It is not an offer of shares or any other investment.