Stepes

Stepes was developed in conjunction with CSOFT International, a localization company with headquarters in Beijing and San Francisco.{{Cite press release |title=Stepes Presents Mobile Translation at TAUS Executive Forum |date=April 27, 2016 |location=San Francisco & Beijing |url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160427005701/en/Stepes-Presents-Mobile-Translation-TAUS-Executive-Forum |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160531104300/http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160427005701/en/Stepes-Presents-Mobile-Translation-TAUS-Executive-Forum |archive-date=May 31, 2016 |author=CSOFT International, Inc. |work=Businesswire |accessdate=May 6, 2016}} Stepes founder, Carl Yao, is also the creator of TermWiki, a social knowledge network for industry and domain terminology in 100 languages.

The name "Stepes" is a reference to the Eurasian steppes, from which the majority of the world's current spoken languages originated.

The software was launched online in early December 2015 with iOS and Android apps launched later.{{Cite press release |title=Stepes, world's first chat-based translation app, now available on iTunes and Google Play |date=January 7, 2016 |publisher=BusinessWire |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160107006089/en/Stepes-world’s-first-chat-based-translation-app-now-available-on-iTunes-and-Google-Play |accessdate=October 14, 2021 |author=Stepes}} In May 2016, Stepes launched Stepes Translate, an online human translation interface that resembles Google Translate but is powered by human translators.{{Cite web |last=Reback |first=Gedalyah |date=May 2, 2016 |title=Stepes has a 50,000-strong translator army to give Google Translate a run for its money |url=http://www.geektime.com/2016/05/02/stepes-has-a-50000-strong-translator-army-to-give-google-translate-a-run-for-its-money/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503120218/http://www.geektime.com/2016/05/02/stepes-has-a-50000-strong-translator-army-to-give-google-translate-a-run-for-its-money/ |archive-date=May 3, 2016 |website=GeekTime |accessdate=May 6, 2016}}

Chat-based translation describes the way Stepes feeds content to be translated to its translators on a smaller mobile screen.{{Cite web |title=AI Powered Translation Management System |url=https://www.stepes.com/ai-powered-translation-managment-system/ |access-date=April 1, 2022 |language=en-US}} The Stepes mobile app breaks down longer documents into smaller chunks and sends them to the translator in the form of a text.{{Cite web |last=DePalma |first=Donald A. |date=December 21, 2015 |title=CSOFT Swipes Left for Translation, Right for the Source to Mobilize Translation |url=http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Default.aspx?Contenttype=ArticleDetAD&tabID=63&Aid=36417&moduleId=390 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609175852/http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Default.aspx?Contenttype=ArticleDetAD&tabID=63&Aid=36417&moduleId=390 |archive-date=June 9, 2016 |website=Common Sense Advisory |accessdate=May 6, 2016}} Translators respond back with their translation, resulting in a back-and-forth "chat" which the Stepes app automatically compiles into a full translated document. Translators can also swipe left or right to view the full translated text or the full original text.{{Cite web |last=Hendricks |first=Drew |date=December 30, 2015 |title=Top Five Apps for On the Go Entrepreneurs |url=http://www.inc.com/drew-hendricks/top-five-apps-for-on-the-go-entrepreneurs.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527104427/http://www.inc.com/drew-hendricks/top-five-apps-for-on-the-go-entrepreneurs.html |archive-date=May 27, 2016 |website=Inc.com |accessdate=May 6, 2016}}

Stepes holds multiple patents in the US and in China for its chat-based translation interface, swipe left and right for context review and software.{{Cite press release |title=Stepes Files Patents for Its Chat-Based Translation Software |date=December 17, 2015 |publisher=BusinessWire |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151217006343/en/Stepes-Files-Patents-for-Its-Chat-Based-Translation-Software |author=Stepes |accessdate=October 14, 2021}}

Stepes Live uses a traditional side by side interface of machine translation platforms like Google Translate. Users enter text into the source field which is translated by a human translator through the Stepes mobile app. Requesting users can see their translation progress live. For most requests, the translation is completed within minutes and appears in the target field for the requesting user to see.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Eileen |date=June 14, 2016 |title=Stepes uses human translation around the clock to translate Tweets |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/stepes-uses-human-translation-around-the-clock-to-translate-tweets/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160703120241/http://www.zdnet.com/article/stepes-uses-human-translation-around-the-clock-to-translate-tweets/ |archive-date=July 3, 2016 |website=ZDNet |access-date=June 29, 2016}}

Mobile translation is the process for human translators to translate content directly on their mobile devices. Stepes uses only human translators (rather than machine translation) to translate content. In this modality, translations are done through a mobile phone using the Stepes mobile translation app or through Stepes' browser-based application.{{Cite news |last=Zen Soo |date=February 19, 2016 |title='The Uber of translation services': China's Stepes wants to corner U$38 mln language services industry with app for freelancers |work=South China Morning Post |url=http://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/1914079/uber-translation-services-chinas-stepes-wants-corner-u38-mln-language |url-status=live |access-date=May 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424204215/http://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/1914079/uber-translation-services-chinas-stepes-wants-corner-u38-mln-language |archive-date=April 24, 2016}} The result is that translators can work from both desktop and mobile devices. As of 2014, there were only around 250,000 professional translators but 3.65 billion bilingual people in the world.{{Cite web |date=April 1, 2014 |title=The Future Needs Translation |url=http://www.futurist.com/2014/04/01/future-translation/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610191010/http://www.futurist.com/2014/04/01/future-translation/ |archive-date=June 10, 2016 |website=The Futurist |accessdate=May 6, 2016}} Stepes currently has a network of 60,000 translators.{{Cite web |last=Fischer |first=Marc |date=January 7, 2016 |title=Stepes Applies Mobile Messaging Interface to Translation |url=https://www.dogtownmedia.com/stepes-applies-mobile-messaging-interface-to-translation/ |website=Dogtown Media |accessdate=October 14, 2021}}

Language industry experts have called mobile translation the beginning of "Big Translation, large-scale translation efforts by people speaking two or more languages."{{Cite web |last=Yao |first=Carl |date=January 26, 2016 |title=Welcome To The Era Of Big Translation |url=http://www.fastcoexist.com/3055666/welcome-to-the-era-of-big-translation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503183458/http://www.fastcoexist.com/3055666/welcome-to-the-era-of-big-translation |archive-date=May 3, 2016 |website=Fast Company |accessdate=May 6, 2016}} Big Translation requires leveraging existing technological tools to scale up translation capabilities to a global level that matches current communication and information generation needs.

• Mobile translation
• Language localisation

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.stepes.com}}

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