About us

Balázs Benedek, Co-Founder of Easyling summarised the company first 10 years and his vision about the future technologies in an interview with Scott Bass on 11 February 2021

Scott:  In 2010, what drove you to launch Easyling? There are lots of technical problems in the world. Why TPS technology?

Balázs: We just wanted to solve our own problem. We had a product website that we wanted to translate to English, powered by a rare CMS. Our local LSP wanted us to copy/paste the content. At that time, we weren't aware that Translation Proxy technology even existed. Instead, we developed a dual approach, server-side proxy & client-side JavaScript translation, together.

Scott: So, you didn't even start the company with a vision toward Translation Proxy. What's your background in technology? What brought you to the Geek Side?

Balázs:  I've been developing & researching innovative technologies, since the age of 8! The early days of personal computers grabbed my attention in 1983, then the DOS/Windows/PC/Internet…. Exciting times! Then I participated in several programming contests, the International Science and Engineering Fair, ACM's International Computer Programming Contest,  etc. Later we started to organize Challenge24 for others.

Scott: I remember when we first met at a conference eight or nine years ago, you said that Hungary, being a small country, requires that everyone be good at math and science. It is no surprise that language and technology play a crucial role in the tech sector in Hungary given that Hungarian is not a language many outsiders are able to learn. That means you all must be able to engage your customers in their preferred language. I guess that's why Budapest has been a hotbed for language tech for many years. In that environment, what has made Easyling a success?

Balázs: Timing has been in our favour with the dawn of Google's public cloud offering coinciding with the development of Easyling. Since its founding, Easyling has been bootstrapped, and Google's public cloud offering provided us with scalable, robust infrastructure and a global presence.

Scott: So, when you say “public cloud offering” you mean Easyling's ability to host the service in the cloud with costs based on usage. I can imagine that it has levelled the playing field quite a bit between competitors in the space. What's the Translation Proxy competitive space like now and how did it evolve over the last decade? Easyling was one of the first, right?

Balázs: Easyling was amongst what's called the “2nd generation of proxies”, built around public cloud, amongst Reverbeo and Smartling. The first to offer (this type of service) were MotionPoint and TransPerfect. And even before them, there was a solution, the 0th generation proxy, running as an Apache proxy module. 

Scott: What makes Easyling a logical choice for most LSPs doing work in website localization?

Balázs: Currently, Easyling is the only independent translation proxy offering available for LSPs.  To be able to offer a translation proxy solution they would have to partner with a direct competitor or build the solution themselves. Since we do not offer language services, we are a reliable partner that helps them add value to their language services.

Scott: What's next for Easyling and Translation Proxy in general?

Balázs: I believe a hybrid solution that utilizes both proxy and Javascript will be next–a proxy for SEO; JavaScript for cost efficiency and increased privacy. I believe our solution's ability to provide context for translation is a big advantage. It can also be used just for content connector extraction. All these features are highly valuable.