Translation software DeepL now supports traditional Chinese, the written form of the language prevalent in the key markets of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Along with Korean and Japanese, it is the third Asian language (or in this case, writing form) to receive support from the German company.
The CEO of DeepL, Jaroslaw Kutylowski, said in an interview with U.S. news channel CNBC that Taiwan and Hong Kong are “strong technological markets” with a focus on exports. In the case of Taiwan, he is referring specifically to TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker. “Looking especially at Taiwan, there is a lot of similarities in that market to other successful Asian markets we have seen in Japan and Korea,” he said.
By offering traditional Chinese, DeepL aims to enable translation software users to communicate more effectively with their customers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The company also wants to attract companies from these areas that are looking to expand internationally.
Focus on Asia
DeepL currently offers support primarily for European languages, including Turkish and Russian. Arabic is also in its portfolio. However, Kutylowski said the focus for DeepL in the near future will be on Asia. “So you will most probably see other Asian languages coming up in the next few months,” he told CNBC.
DeepL currently offers only written translations but is working on a voice translation tool. It is unknown when the company will enter the market with that, Kutylowski would only say that such voice translations “are going to be an important part of our strategy in Asia”.
DeepL has offices in several European countries, one in the U.S. and one in Tokyo, Japan. From the latter location, the company will further serve the Asian market. It does not plan to open offices in Hong Kong or Taiwan, for now.
New version of proprietary LLM
Last week, DeepL released the latest version of the proprietary LLM that underlies the company’s translation product. It is said to be better than Google Translate, ChatGPT-4 and Microsoft’s services. According to the company, the model hallucinates less and requires fewer edits. In particular, translations from Japanese, German, and simplified Chinese to English have been greatly improved.
Traditional Chinese is not a language but a style of writing. It is applicable to both Mandarin, spoken in Taiwan and most of mainland China, and Cantonese, common in Hong Kong and China’s Guangdong province, among others. There is currently no way to specify in DeepL whether a translation to traditional Chinese should correctly reflect Mandarin or Cantonese. For now, translations to this notation appear to only translate into Mandarin.
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