arrow_right

Google, or more precisely its’ parent company Alphabet, makes the majority of its revenue from ads and search. That business brings in about 95-percent of its revenue, but the company has been looking at other ways to bring in money. And while it does have other avenues for revenue, that include Google Drive and YouTube, Google Translate is one that is definitely overlooked. On its conference call yesterday after reporting earnings, its CEO, Sundar Pichai said a rather astounding number about Google Translate. Which is the fact that it translates 143 billion words per day. That is pretty astounding and just shows how many people are using the product, and it could become Google’s next cash cow.

Google Translate can be used to translate individual words, sentences or entire documents and web pages. It was used quite a bit during the World Cup, Pichai noted that the company saw a big uptick in use during that month. Which is not surprising, given that there were a number of people in Russia for the World Cup that likely didn’t speak Russian at all. But Google Translate was there to help. Google Translate has evolved over the years, and now you can even use your phone’s camera to translate a sign that is in front of you, or a menu. Google Translate already understands over 100 languages and there will be more coming in the future.

While Google Translate is a pretty popular product for Google, one must wonder, how could the search giant make money from Google Translate? Well, seeing as many people use Google Translate when they are traveling, Google could sell ads for hotels, popular tourist attractions and so forth for within the Google Translate app. And if Google doesn’t fill the app or website with ads, advertisers will be paying more, because there’s more competition. Which is a good problem to have, if you’re Google.