TECHNOLOGY & RESOURCES – We speak the same language!

Microsoft defies the linguistic barriers between China and the West and launches its first simultaneous conference call translator.

Enabling Chinese, English, Italian and Spanish speakers to converse with their business partners in their own mother tongue: this is the aim of Skype Translator. According to Cristina Corrada of Microsoft, the famous software giant that bought out Skype in 2011, “A preview version (of this first real-time audio and video translation service) will be integrated into the Skype for Windows Desktop app by the end of the summer 2015”.

Overcoming language barriers between East and West has become essential given that in 2014 Chinese investment in the European Union has reached the equivalent of $18 billion (€16.2) according to figures from the multinational law firm Baker & McKenzie.

Chinese companies have been buying out many famous European brands or have acquired significant shareholdings in their businesses. Examples include Swedish car manufacturer Volvo, French fashion house Sonia Rykiel, the Port of Piraeus in Greece, the Pizza Express restaurant chain, British luxury-clothing brand Aquascutum and Italian tyre company Pirelli. 

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