Market concentration and professional practice in the language services industry: a quantitative analysis

In an increasingly globalized economy, the language services industry plays a key role in enabling multilingual communication. In recent years, it has undergone major transformations driven by artificial intelligence, e-commerce expansion, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting renewed questions about market structure, consolidation, and competition. This study examines market concentration from a Translation Studies perspective among the 301 highest-revenue Language Service Providers (LSPs) between 2020 and 2025, assessing whether consolidation among leading firms translates into effective market power. Using standard quantitative indicators – the C4 and C8 concentration ratios and the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) – the analysis explores revenue distribution within the upper segment of the industry. The results show that the concentration indicators do not suggest high formal concentration among the leading LSPs included in the dataset. However, this does not rule out other forms of structural or relational power within the industry. These findings contribute to Translation Studies debates on industry governance, competition, and professional precarity by showing that market fragmentation does not necessarily eliminate structural power asymmetries. While the present study does not directly examine professional working conditions, it provides empirical evidence on market structure that helps contextualize existing discussions of professional precarity and bargaining power.