I didn’t even need to read the actual article to know what the message would be. The tell here was the term ‘veteran forecaster’.
In finance-speak, veteran forecaster can be translated to mean someone who is supremely confident in their predictions but almost always wrong.
It has to be this way because forecasters are so unreliable. Yet the financial media loves certainty so they keep bringing them back on again and again. Certainty sells better than nuance.
That’s the game.
There are plenty of other Wall Street terms that have their own translations.
Here are some of my favorites (as translated by the team at A Wealth of Common Sense):
I’m cautiously optimistic.
Translation: I have no idea what’s going to happen.
We’re constructive on the stock market.
Translation: I wanted to say bullish but this is a way to both sound smart and hedge at the same time just in case I’m wrong.
It’s trading at fair value.
Translation: I have no idea what this thing is worth so hopefully the market does.
We’re a boutique investment firm.
Translation: We’re small and don’t manage very much money but we’d like to be bigger. Please give us money.
It’s a proprietary trading system.
Translation: Everyone else on Wall Street uses this same model but calls it something different.
This is a bubble.
Translation: I’m not invested in that asset that went up a lot.
We’re the smart money.
Translation: We pay ridiculously high fees for “sophisticated” investment products.
You’re being paid to wait in this stock.
Translation: The dividend yield is high for a reason. The stock stinks.
This asset has an asymmetric risk payoff.
Translation: I’ve read The Big Short two-and-a-half times…okay I watched the movie once.
The easy money has been made.
Translation: I didn’t make any of it.
We’ll give you all of the upside without any of the downside.
Translation: This strategy is either going to blow up in spectacular fashion or get smoked during the next bull market.
Sell in May and go away.
Translation: My research process relies exclusively on rhyming. I also buy when prices are high.
Wall Street guru.
Translation: This guy wears a bow tie.
We prefer to gauge performance over a full market cycle.
Translation: We are massively underperforming.
I’m not wrong, just early.
Translation: I’m wrong but don’t think I won’t move the goalposts if I stay wrong.
It’s a Ponzi scheme.
Translation: I disagree with that thing but don’t actually know what a Ponzi scheme really is.
They predicted the 2008 financial crisis. Here’s why they say the next one will be even bigger!
Translation: They also predicted a crisis in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, etc. They got lucky, were “right” once, and have lived off that call ever since.
I’m a contrarian.
Translation: Just like everyone else in finance.
We’re waiting for the dust to settle.
Translation: We get fearful when others are fearful.
Michael and I spoke about Wall Street translations and much more on this week’s Animal Spirits video:
Subscribe to The Compound so you never miss an episode.
Further Reading:
Unfortunate Realities of the Investment Business
I didn’t even need to read the actual article to know what the message would be. The tell here was the term ‘veteran forecaster’.
In finance-speak, veteran forecaster can be translated to mean someone who is supremely confident in their predictions but almost always wrong.
It has to be this way because forecasters are so unreliable. Yet the financial media loves certainty so they keep bringing them back on again and again. Certainty sells better than nuance.
That’s the game.
There are plenty of other Wall Street terms that have their own translations.
Here are some of my favorites (as translated by the team at A Wealth of Common Sense):
I’m cautiously optimistic.
Translation: I have no idea what’s going to happen.
We’re constructive on the stock market.
Translation: I wanted to say bullish but this is a way to both sound smart and hedge at the same time just in case I’m wrong.
It’s trading at fair value.
Translation: I have no idea what this thing is worth so hopefully the market does.
We’re a boutique investment firm.
Translation: We’re small and don’t manage very much money but we’d like to be bigger. Please give us money.
It’s a proprietary trading system.
Translation: Everyone else on Wall Street uses this same model but calls it something different.
This is a bubble.
Translation: I’m not invested in that asset that went up a lot.
We’re the smart money.
Translation: We pay ridiculously high fees for “sophisticated” investment products.
You’re being paid to wait in this stock.
Translation: The dividend yield is high for a reason. The stock stinks.
This asset has an asymmetric risk payoff.
Translation: I’ve read The Big Short two-and-a-half times…okay I watched the movie once.
The easy money has been made.
Translation: I didn’t make any of it.
We’ll give you all of the upside without any of the downside.
Translation: This strategy is either going to blow up in spectacular fashion or get smoked during the next bull market.
Sell in May and go away.
Translation: My research process relies exclusively on rhyming. I also buy when prices are high.
Wall Street guru.
Translation: This guy wears a bow tie.
We prefer to gauge performance over a full market cycle.
Translation: We are massively underperforming.
I’m not wrong, just early.
Translation: I’m wrong but don’t think I won’t move the goalposts if I stay wrong.
It’s a Ponzi scheme.
Translation: I disagree with that thing but don’t actually know what a Ponzi scheme really is.
They predicted the 2008 financial crisis. Here’s why they say the next one will be even bigger!
Translation: They also predicted a crisis in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, etc. They got lucky, were “right” once, and have lived off that call ever since.
I’m a contrarian.
Translation: Just like everyone else in finance.
We’re waiting for the dust to settle.
Translation: We get fearful when others are fearful.
Michael and I spoke about Wall Street translations and much more on this week’s Animal Spirits video:
Subscribe to The Compound so you never miss an episode.
Further Reading:
Unfortunate Realities of the Investment Business
Orange Inc., developers of a Japanese-to-English language manga localization tool, announced earlier this week that it secured 2.92 billion yen (approximately $19.4 million USD, based on the current 1 USD = 150 yen exchange rate) in pre-Series A round funding.
This round of funding for this US/Japan-based start-up include investments from Japanese publisher Shogakukan (publisher of Shonen Sunday manga magazine, and part owner of VIZ Media), and investment funds Globis Capital Partners, ANRI, SBI Investment, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Miyako Capital, Chiba Dojo Fund, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and GFR Fund.
According to Orange’s press release, “The resources will go to increasing the pace of manga localization currently done in Japan roughly fivefold, to 500 titles per month,” and to ultimately, “deliver entertainment through the Japanese manga art form and its rich history to generations to come.”
So what will this cash infusion do for this start-up? According to their announcement, Orange will further develop Factory, their manga localization tool, and launch Emaqi, their website/ebook app for manga in English in Summer 2024.
These funds are also presumably being applied toward the establishment of their US offices, and hiring employees, freelancers, consultants, plus what looks to be an ambitious online marketing plan involving paid ads, manga trailers, onboarding social media influencers, and more.
The centerpiece of Orange’s service offerings is Factory, a “dedicated manga localization tool.” According to Orange, their “world-class machine learning engineers are leveraging deep learning models centered on computer vision and natural language processing to automate much of the time-consuming localization processes required to release foreign language versions.”
You can see a demo of how manga creators and publishers can use Factory in this YouTube demo video, featuring Mr. Orange (turn on closed captions to read the English subtitles)
The other part of Orange’s entry into the English language manga publishing scene is Emaqi, their e-bookstore that will “make it easier (for readers) find favorites while also offering recommendations.” Promising to “allow fans to enjoy manga on the go,” Emaqi is scheduled to launch in Summer 2024 in the US, and “will feature works translated using Orange’s technology, recommendations, curations by manga influencers, and manga trailers.” Emaqi promises to offer “unique titles of all genres,” with the lofty goal to “unite readers with titles that will impact their lives regardless of nationality, age, or gender.”
Orange’s earlier AI-assisted manga translation projects
This isn’t the first time that Orange has announced its intentions to use AI-assisted technologies for Japanese-to-English manga localization.
Earlier this year, the company’s technologies were used to translate for the English lettering on Rugby Rumble by Daisuke Miyata, a sports manga series on Shueisha’s Manga Plus website/app, but was swiftly met with criticism from readers as well as freelance translators and lettering professionals.
UPDATE: The English translation for Rugby Rumble on Manga Plus was not done with Orange’s AI translation tools, but it did make use of its lettering capabilities. Mei Amaki is the translator for Rugby Rumble, and a few other series on Manga Plus.
But even after the outcry from their first releases on Manga Plus, Orange’s AI-assisted manga translation technologies have been in use on a smaller scale: to offer simulpubbed chapters of Neko Oji ni Tensei Shita no Ojian (The Guy Who Got Reincarnated as a Cat), a quirky comic strip about a middle-aged office worker who gets reincarnated as a cute kitten.
Yajima, the Japanese manga creator of Neko Oji has been using Orange’s AI manga translation services to simulpub Japanese and English versions of their online comic via their X/Twitter feed at @neko_oji_en for several months now:
Neko Oji is a quirky, cat-centric twist on the “reincarnation” trope — in this case, the older man/kitten adopted by the president of the company where he once worked. The company president is a stern, no-nonsense executive at the office, but once he’s home, he’s a total softie who absolutely dotes on his new pet, Mr. Pun, never realizing that this curious kitten has an old man’s soul.
Neko Oji turned its online popularity into a book deal, and there are currently two volumes of the series published in Japanese by Kadokawa. However, as of press time, no English language manga publishers, print or digital, have picked up this series for distribution.
Neko Oji is not the only Japanese manga series that has been serialized to readers worldwide via Twitter/X and Instagram, but it is one of the few that is regularly posting official English and Japanese versions online.
Yajima is also the artist behind the manga featuring Mr. Orange, a large talking citrus(?) that explains what Orange Inc’s technology can do. Yajima proudly announced this collaboration with Orange Inc. on their Twitter/X feed, noting that it’s quite rare to see a press release done in manga format like this.
You can read the entire 12-page “Let’s Go Mr. Orange” manga in English too.
From the presentation deck sent to the media as part of this announcement, Orange describes their company mission: “to create a world where everyone enjoys manga.” The presentation compares Orange’s goal is to be to manga, what Spotify is to music, and Netflix is to movies: to make a lot of content available online to a lot of readers, worldwide, and make it affordable too.
The problem statement put forth by the company puts numbers to what many in the manga publishing world have known for a long time: that what gets published in English is just a tiny fraction of the manga published in Japanese.
According to their presentation, “As of 2023, only approximately 10,000 volumes of manga have been published in English, representing only 2% of the total volumes published in Japan.”
What keeps more manga from being published in English? According to Orange, one major barrier is the cost of localization, and the time and numerous steps, and people involved (both employees and freelancers) to produce English versions of Japanese manga. The cost quoted in Orange’s presentation? $7,000 per volume of manga.
In the “Let’s Go Mr. Orange” manga, we meet Mr. Orange, a passionate manga fan, finding out from Mr. Bean that it would take “10 billion yen and 10 years” to publish 10,000 manga series in English. Mr. Bean continues, “Translating manga is a massive undertaking that requires a ton of steps,” involving editors, logo designers, translators, translation agencies, proofreaders and “artists for phototypesetting” (a.k.a. lettering)”
Of course, online piracy is another issue identified by Orange as both a reason for its existence, and a major concern of both manga creators and publishers. Their press release / presentation deck mentions that the “damages caused by online piracy, “exceeds $10 billion USD, annually.”
Meanwhile, Orange predicts that the global manga market will continue to grow, with a total addressable market (TAM) of $15 billion USD. But they also added that at best, the percentage of digital manga sales in the US is ~20% of the total manga sales, which lags far behind Japan, where digital manga sales currently make up 66% of the market.
One reason why the percentage of digital manga sales in the US is way lower than Japan is because of another issue identified in Orange’s presentation: compared to Japan, there aren’t as many dedicated apps to provide “cross-publisher manga sales” in English.
They’re not wrong there. In Japan, there are several manga apps/ebook stores and services that publish manga by many publishers, including Line Manga (a division of Naver, owner of WEBTOON), Comic C’moA (owned by NTT Solmare, which runs the Manga Plaza English manga service), Piccoma (a division of Kakao Entertainment, parent company of webtoon app/site Tapas), Manga Bang, Papyless, which has a Japanese Renta ebook site and an English Renta site, and ebook stores like BookWalker, a division of Kadokawa that has both a global site (selling English manga and light novels) and their Japanese site, which has a much larger selection of titles from more publishers.
For the companies mentioned that have English versions of their manga/ebook sites, the selection of titles they offer in English are very different, and offer a limited selection compared to what’s offered on their Japanese counterpart sites/apps. On these Japanese eBook/manga sites/services, the latest ebook volumes and even some single chapters of manga from almost every publisher, big or small, as well as a deep catalog of backlist and mid-list titles that include classic, popular, obscure, and indie manga series of all kinds can be found and purchased instantly. What about the English versions of these company’s ebook sites? Uhmm. Not so much.
In N. America, there’s no single ebook site/platform/app that will allow you to purchase and read the latest manga chapters or graphic novel releases in English from any publisher. For example, I buy a LOT of manga and webtoons, as ebooks and single chapters, in print and digital format. My digital library of manga and webtoons are contained in at least 10 different digital apps/subscription services, which may or may not disappear if any of these companies go under (pours out a 40 oz. for J-Manga).
However, this isn’t a problem that Orange’s technology or Emaqi e-bookstore is likely to solve. This is mostly because it’s up to the individual manga publishers, both US and Japan to decide where the digital versions of their stories will be available. THIS is the main reason why US/Canada manga readers can’t buy all of their digital manga on one site/platform/app. It’s not because there isn’t a unified platform for publishing and distribution for manga in English, and it’s not for lack of trying from various manga ebook apps/platforms to try to get a bigger selection of top titles from more manga publishers on their apps/ebook storefronts. It’s just how it is now, and all the whiz-bang AI technology in the world won’t change that, or at least it won’t fix it quickly.
Given the current state of affairs, it is highly unlikely that Orange’s Emaqi ebook service for manga will magically convince all English manga publishers, big and small, to start offering their titles on their app, when so many other manga websites, ebook platforms and apps (even Amazon Kindle!) have failed to do this before.
We’ll just have to wait and see what Emaqi will have to offer to manga readers, when it’s launched later this summer.
Reactions from readers, translators and lettering pros
After Orange’s announcement, manga translators, readers, and lettering professionals weighed in, with many disputing Orange’s claims of saving time and money for publishers, given that this would come at the expense of readability and would likely result in double work for less pay for translators, localization editors, lettering professionals.
“For everyone commenting that they’re gonna have humans “proofread and check” the translations — just know that these translations always end up having to be redone from scratch because of how much of a mess they are. This is used as a justification to pay translators less because they’re “just checking” and the translation “is basically done” when it’s actually wayyy more work for less pay. It takes more time and effort to fix it than to just have a translator do it from scratch. I’ve been there, and most translators know what it’s like. Both the consumer and those in the industry deserve better. May they crash and burnand they will eventually. And frankly, this generally comes out to be more costly and less efficient. It’s not sustainable. This kind of thing is cannibalizing the industry. You could just pay people and it would be cheaper and more quality in the long run.”
Jan Mitsuko Cash (@jmitsu) – translator and editor
“Market rate is $5~$6/page for translation, let’s say $6/page for basic lettering $19.5 million in USD could pay for the translation and lettering of 1,625,000 pages That’s about 10,000 books they could have paid a fair rate for”
Sara Linsley (@salinsley) – software engineer, font designer, and comic book letterera
“Reminder that all AI relies on underpaid workers. Do not work with this company. This is directly from their website“
So what do you think of Orange’s announcement, their AI-assisted manga translation service, and the upcoming release of their ebook service? Add your comments below.
I've been living in Spain for 12 years. I've stopped dating locals because too much gets lost in translation.
Essay byNicola Prentis
Nicola Prentis moved to Spain in 2012 but isn't fully fluent in Spanish.
Prentis is single and finds that when she dates in Spanish, she never feels like herself.
Now, she prefers to date English speakers.
"Say something to me in Spanish," said my date in the small Catalan city where I've lived since 2016. But despite his great English and being interesting and attractive, his question immediately made me both self-conscious and irritated at what I knew was coming next. It's an inevitable part of the first date scenario I've come to hate while dating in Spain.
Unlike in bigger cities like Madrid or Barcelona, most of my local dating pool only speaks Spanish or Catalan, so I'm always grateful when I find someone who speaks English. Navigating the apps with my level of Spanish is easy, and I can even manage whole dates. But it's not just the language barrier that's the challenge
"No tengo nada para que decir," I replied, hoping to get his judgment on my Spanish over with as soon as possible. Plus, it's kind of true. I really don't have much to say in Spanish because I'm not yet (ever?) going to be at the level where my real personality comes through.
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"Terrible," he said.
Whether he meant my accent or the grammar error I'd made, I didn't know. But it wasn't the first time I've been mocked for speaking Spanish in a supposedly romantic context. I still remember the belittling way a Mexican boyfriend laughed at how I pronounced the restaurant name "100 Montaditos" in 2012. All this has very much shaped my attitude toward the language and how I feel speaking it.
I'm overly compliant and naive in Spanish
It's not just unpleasant memories that are to blame for my unwillingness to date in Spanish. There's also research that suggests personalities can change when you're speaking another language. "Environmental cues, such as language use, can lead to adjustments in mood and demeanor. Multilinguals often use different languages for distinct purposes, and those purposes will influence your emotional states," Nate Young, a former Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Oslo who worked on the study, told Business Insider. Young holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Queen Mary, University of London.
So, as much of my experience in Spain involves frustration with my own language limits, it's shaped how I feel when speaking the language.
The result of this is what some refer to as "nodding dog syndrome." If I'm tired or if the social situation means multiple people are in the conversation, I end up nodding along, "sí, sí" to everything. Debating something complex in Spanish is beyond my language level, but I also know I'll sound rude if I disagree using the blunt language tools I do have.
Added to that is the naivete that comes with dating outside your own cultural context. I can't tell if that guy who said "joder" in front of an 80-year-old priest is crass and disrespectful or not. The swear word is much milder in Spanish than in English (it translates directly as "f**k) but is it mild enough to use in front of a priest? I also couldn't tell if the guy who paid me a million compliments and texted me all the time was enthusiastically open or love bombing, something I'd be fully tuned into in my own culture.
I'm a terrible listener in Spanish
Listening intently in order to understand is tiring to do for a whole date, let alone a relationship. But sometimes I'm not paying attention at all whereas, in English, I have really good active listening skills.
In Spanish, I'll find myself using the break where the other person is speaking to go over whether I made a mistake in what I just said. Then I'll ask them about the related grammar query instead of what they were just telling me. Even worse, because I'm either not truly listening or I'm focusing so hard on how to express myself, my memory of the actual content of these conversations is scant at best. Being more concerned about verb endings than how the date might end isn't exactly conducive to a great date.
I've come to much prefer people who speak English, and who don't make fun of my Spanish, just so they get to know the real me and not this version of me who's sometimes bolshy, sometimes overly agreeable, and often inattentive. After all, I wouldn't date me in Spanish.
Got a personal essay about dating abroad that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor:akarplus@businessinsider.com.
DeepL, the AI-fuelled language translation company based in Germany, is keen to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and is making efforts at improving its Arabic translation services while courting potential clients in the region, its chief executive has said.
The company's AI neural translation technology has set the pace for much of the language-translation sector in recent years, chief executive Jaroslaw “Jarek” Kutylowski, 41, told The National in an interview in Dubai.
The technology translation unicorn's efforts to increase its presence in the region come amid a global race from various companies like Google, Microsoft and Grammarly, who are vying for a slice of the lucrative language translation sector.
Mr Kutylowski said DeepL offers plenty of VC funding and hundreds of millions of users and is trying to stay ahead of the competition.
Its translation offering for business customers, DeepL Pro, is used by more than 20,000 businesses, according to DeepL.
“We are starting to talk to customers to see what their requirements are. We are looking in the UAE and we’ll see what develops in the future,” he said.
Mr Kutylowski said he’s speaking with various companies in the UAE, particularly in the real estate sector to better see how DeepL could potentially assist with their international clients.
He’s also seeking to better understand the nuances of Arabic in the business world.
“One of the reasons I’m here [in Dubai], I’m intrigued by the language and I’m keen to learn more by my time spent here,” he said.
DeepL, headquartered in Cologne, currently has offices in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tokyo and the US, and while it doesn’t have immediate plans to open offices in the UAE, that could change.
“It depends on the success of the market and how the reception from the customers are and how much on the ground support our potential customers might need over here,” he said.
The company, founded in 2017, reached a $1 billion valuation last year and also launched its Arabic language translation capabilities in January of 2024.
Despite advancements in machine learning, because of its complexity and diversity in terms of dialects, Arabic has proven challenging for various online-based translation services.
Mr Kutylowski said Arabic was the first language translation implementation launched by DeepL that is written and read from right to left.
“The grammar is a bit different and a few things in the AI translation training need to be done in a slightly different way,” he said.
“The beauty of AI is that you don't have to teach it the grammar rules, it's able to pick it up already, but there are some preparation steps that require additional work to get it done,” he said, noting that Japanese also required more time to perfect.
Mr Kutylowski said introducing Arabic translations is also a matter of prioritisation and staffing, something he said DeepL has tried to put front and centre.
“It's work,” he said. “It's not so complicated when you look at it from an engineering perspective, but it just needs to get done.”
He said DeepL is fast approaching having about 1,000 employees.
“60 per cent of that is research and development because this is a complicated topic [translation] and we also have this large platform to engineer, we’re among the top 100 domains in the world in terms of traffic, and you want to keep that stable and running,” he said.
“There’s also the research that goes into the neural networks,” he said, noting that the DeepL has about 50 people working on the mathematical and technical aspects of such networks.
Mr Kutylowski also said the company employs editors and others providing input for the 32 languages supported by DeepL.
According to its website, the company has 100,000 business customers currently using DeepL to communicate both with customers and internally.
Japanese news agency, Nikkei, is among those mentioned by Mr Kutylowski as a DeepL client.
“They’re publishing some of their articles written in Japanese and translating them to English and Chinese,” he said.
DeepL’s translations are made possible through artificial neural networks, a vital component that makes artificial intelligence possible. In short, these networks, used by most modern translation apps and services, train in ways that are similar to the human brain.
According to Mr Kutylowski, DeepL was among the first to use this approach, and while other translation services have also used neural machine translation in recent years, DeepL has improved its approach through an increased focus on training data and methodology.
“When you’re able to design the best neural network architecture, when you’re able to train those networks properly and find the best training data, then you can achieve the best quality and that’s what we’ve been doing for six years,” he said.
Along with its free and basic translation offering, DeepL provides various iterations of its translation services, apps, services and APIs through tiered pricing.
The company also recently launched what it describes as an AI-powered writing companion called DeepL Write, which will go toe-to-toe with Grammarly, a similar product widely considered to be a dominant player in the writing assistance space.
Mr Kutylowski said most of DeepL’s clients are using desktop and laptop PCs and DeepL’s browser extensions, although a mobile app is available.
“In business and enterprise, this is still what it is,” he said, talking about users preferring to use DeepL’s services on PCs rather than mobile devices.
“If you’re working with sophisticated applications … most of what you’re doing during the day is at the desktop.”
Although he declined to give specifics over revenue, Mr Kutylowski described DeepL's business model and financial outlook as “good”, and said that the company's web traffic routinely puts it among the 100 biggest web domains in the world.
DeepL is certainly not alone in terms of offering online translation services, with competitors such as Google Translate or Microsoft Bing's translator service, which also have an Arabic translation offering, although not the personalised client model offered by DeepL.
Google and Microsoft also have the deep pockets to improve their searches over time, along with installed user bases that could potentially be a significant advantage.
The translation market also shows no sign of slowing down. According to Straits Research, it could reach a market size of $48 billion by 2031.
DeepL has continued to attract investors and clients, while also expanding its language portfolio.
“We're really good at focusing at what we're doing,” Mr Kutylowski said, referring to DeepL's research into neural networks as well as its emphasis on staffing language and engineering experts.
Jarek also made sure to point out that DeepL is his first company, and he doesn't have any plans to go anywhere else anytime soon.
“Keeping track of all this growth is challenging enough, so I'm not getting sidetracked,” he said.
Reddit — now a publicly-traded company with more scrutiny on revenue growth — is putting a big focus on boosting its international audience, starting with francophones. In their first-ever earnings call, CEO Steve Huffman confirmed the company is now working on automatic translations of the site’s content, in real-time, into French, thanks to advances in large language models.
He also touched on ecosystem expansion by way of a couple of u-turns. It wants to court developers with new tools — a surprise given the company’s history on this front; and it is planning a reintroduction of Reddit Gold — another surprise considering the company canned its virtual currency efforts less than a year ago.
Moves like these are anticipating what the future, rather than the present, might look like for Reddit. Today, its news is relatively encouraging, with Reddit’s revenue in the last quarter jumping 48% year-over-year to $243 million, and unique users growing 37% to 82.7 million. (That figure includes both logged-in and logged-out users, similar to how Twitter — now called X — used to count its audience when it was public.)
User growth and translation
Huffman, speaking on the earnings call, said that half of Reddit’s audience is U.S.-based, which points to the company putting more focus on how to increase the international proportion.
“We’re still 50/50 U.S. versus non-U.S., but our peers are more than 80% to 90% non-U.S.,” he said. “I think there’s a huge opportunity there.” He went on to describe automatic, AI-powered translation as “one of the big unlocks for us in the near to medium term.”
“So we’re translating our entire corpus today that is mostly in English into the other languages and hope that will help accelerate international growth,” he said.
The site-wide translation effort is still a test, in his words, although there is a lot of resource being put into it. Huffman noted that this content is also being indexed on Google results for the French language, driving more traffic to the site, and the company next wants to tackle Spanish.
Reddit been offering post-based translation since last year with support for eight languages.
Developer tools
It was surreal to hear Huffman talk about developer tools on the call. It was only in July 2023 that the company found itself embroiled in a massive feud with third-party client developers over API changes — resulting in the blackout of hundreds of subreddits in protest of API changes.
Now the social network is in play-nice mode. Huffman said there are plans for tools that could “push the boundaries of what a subreddit can be.” He gave examples of some ongoing experiments like live scores on some sports subreddits and a live stock ticker on r/wallstreetbets, the subreddit known for the Gamestop stock saga.
A few hundred developers are already testing these new experiences, he said. Reddit aims to include more developers from the waitlist this summer and enable monetization features later in the year.
Other announcements
Earlier this year, Reddit signed a deal with Google to let the search engine company use the social network’s data. In answering a question from the Reddit community, Huffman said that the company plans to license data to other companies as well. This has been a big issue, and in many cases controversial in light of the fact that users may not want their data being used for, say, AI training or some of the other common purposes these days. For what it’s worth, Huffman, you might have guessed, insisted that the company is being “considerate and selective” in how it selects partners.
The name of the game for the company right now is building more infrastructure for revenue generation. So while Gold and another currency effort, blockchain-based community points, were both canned last year, virtual currency is going to getting another airing on the platform because it represents an opportunity for Reddit to diversify its business model. During the earnings call, the company noted that it plans to launch a “revamped” Gold product, with programs for users to spend and earn money on the platform.
Last month, Reddit CPO Pali Bhat mentioned some of these new initiatives in an interview with TechCrunch, and now the company is making moves to leverage those growth instruments.
It’s always interesting when a coach’s press conference sees the deployment of an infrequently-spoken word. That’s what happened with Indiana Pacers’ head coach Rick Carlisle and “soiree” Wednesday:
Rick Carlisle just dropped a “soirée” during his press conference, referencing Josh Hart’s “soirées to the rim.”
Has to be a first for a coach press conference
— Yaron Weitzman (@YaronWeitzman) May 8, 2024
That even got notice from the official Merriam-Webster account:
noun | party or reception held in the evening
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) May 8, 2024
There are, of course, many other potential ways Hart’s appointments at the rim could be described, from cotillons to galas to shindigs to fêtes to carousals. But “soirées to the rim” is certainly amusing. And it’s a funny description of what Hart has pulled off in these playoffs so far.
This postseason, Hart is averaging 46.6 minutes per game, and has posted 17.9 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. Those are significant boosts over his regular-season numbers (33.4 MPG, 9.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG) this year, and over his regular-season career marks (29.2 MPG, 9.8 PPG, 6.6 RPG).
So Hart definitely has managed to make some notable appointments at the rim. Whether those rise to the level of “soirées” is a question, but it’s a funny way for Carlisle to describe that. And we’ll see how that works out for Hart in Wednesday’s Game 2 (the Knicks won Game 1 Monday) and beyond.