One on One: instant human interpretation from your smartphone

In business meetings, going to a hospital in a foreign country, working with legal witnesses in different languages…the often dire circumstances in which live interpretation is needed are many. Live interpretation is one of the fastest growing segments of the language industry right now, which is why Stepes is gearing up to launch its One-on-One service.

One-on-One is Stepes’ P2P application, through which anyone can hire a personal language expert for up to an hour through the Stepes mobile app. Translate text, audio, or even images — everything can be done through the Stepes app in an intuitive chat-based interface. Users simply send or record what they need translated to a human translator working through the Stepes app, and within seconds, your translated audio arrives almost immediately.

The flexible design of the Stepes app make it a versatile solution for any of your interpretation needs. Use it for international, multilingual meetings. Use it to travel and get around a new city. Use it to talk to a client or a patient in a foreign language.

The language industry is already generating revenues of $40 billion annually — and that’s without capturing the growing demand for on-site interpretation. Excitingly, Stepes is well-poised to capture both the existing translation market but also tap into the currently underserved live interpretation needs of the global market.

Previous to Stepes, those needing interpretation had to physically hire a translator for the apportioned period of time or employ a full time interpreter, a more expensive option. However, using the old-fashioned way of hiring or training in-house interpreters introduced a whole host of problems.

As we have previously written about in the Big Translation blog, local and state courts (who are mandated by law to provide free interpreters for non-English speakers) struggled to find enough qualified interpreters. A combination of a lack of resources to hire, train, and certify quality interpreters resulted in serious miscommunications in legal proceedings. The same consequences due to a lack of qualified interpreters can be found in other industries. For example, global clients in the areas of healthcare, law, and finance need highly technical interpretations, which Stepes can now provide at an unbeatable speed and price.

Stepes make it incredibly easy to hire a personal interpreter. Use Stepes One-on-One for your next multinational event or simply call up an interpreter to check the meaning of something in a pinch. Even better, take us on your next trip, and never get lost again!

Another problem facing traditional interpretation services is that many organizations and businesses often find themselves geographically limited by the number of interpreters physically located near them. This is particularly problematic when you are looking for fluent speakers of a more obscure language/dialect or a non-local language.

Stepes solves this problem by moving translation into the digital sharing economy. Our One-on-One platform allows you to tap into a growing pool of 60,000 in-country translators (and rapidly growing) who can provide immediate language assistance regardless of where you or the translator is located. With One-on-One, you can hire an interpreter living in Yangon to provide English to Burmese translation (time zones permitting or with a prior appointment) even if you yourself are located in, say, New York City.

Our contemporary digital connectivity is astonishing – Stepes harnesses just a bit of this digital power to make the world’s linguistic talent available from your smartphone. The world’s languages are now at the tips of your fingers, just one tap away in the Stepes app.

Maintaining accessibility to translation is very important to the Stepes team, which is why we are also introducing a way for those who do not want to or cannot pay for language translation to use the Stepes app. One-on-One users can translate within the app and earn Stepes points, equivalent to dollars, which they can then use to obtain their own translations help in the future. This sharing economy of language — in which both those who provide and receive translations can exchange language skills seamlessly — will not only help businesses go global but also expand the scope of translation.

That’s the Big Translation effect we believe One-on-One will have — a world in which no significant communication barriers exist anymore and everyone is just a bit more multilingual.