Today Google released the rather sad news that it plans to shut down the Google Translate API by the end of 2011, ”due to the substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse”.
iTranslate of course relies for a large part on the Google Translate API, so this is a rather sad day for us too. I give you a short overview of how massive the problem really is:
- iTranslate has over 20 million (!!!) downloads so far
- Every day over 10.000 new users download iTranslate
- We have apps for iPhone, iPad and Android
- Over 150.000 unique users are opening iTranslate on every given day
- More than 1 million translations are done every day
- iTranslate has been listed as an iPhone all time top 100 app this year
All those users are more or less affected by Google’s decision to shut down the Translate API.
When we released iTranslate we never anticipated it to be such a success. We just wanted to try out this new “App Store thing” and looked for something useful to build. In that process we discovered the Google Translate API and decided to build a simple app around it. The first version of iTranslate took us about 1 week to develop and we released it as a free app with no real plans for monetization. On the first day iTranslate had 2000 downloads and it constantly grew from there.
Immediately after the launch users started to bombard us with feedback for all sorts of features. We received (and still receive) so many Emails per day, that we needed to employ people to handle all that. From the very beginning we tried to make sense of all the feedback and pick out features that (in our opinion) add value to a translator app. The app evolved along that process, users were happy and we started to introduce monetization models.
In the beginning we didn’t put much thought that being dependent on a sole vendor for a key part of your app isn’t such a good thing. After some time we started to realize that the more time we invest in the app and the more successful it gets, this is going to turn into an issue. A potentially big issue. That’s when we decided to start talking to Google. We have written several Email back and fourth with Google API managers around the Translate API. Before Google’s news of the shutdown today, my latest status was that they plan to implement a billing system for the Translate API (like they do with other APIs).
In our Emails we always suggested them to find a solution where developers can legally license the API (with some kind of billing system) for a reasonable price. We would happily pay for API usage (and we know of others as well). The problem though is that in such a situation they would need to make sure that no one is abusing the API. The situation today is that tons of apps use the Google Translate API (and even the not official TTS API). Most of them are distributing those apps for free or for very low prices. Those models are of course unsustainable in a world where Google starts charging for translation requests. In iTranslate we have a model that would allow us to build a sustainable model even when Google charges for API usage. We started building this model since quite some time, because we knew they need to change it at some point.
That Google now plans to completely shut down the API instead of implementing a pricing model is a sad move on Google side. Not only does it destroy Google’s image in front of developers, but they also miss a real opportunity to make money. It may not be billions, but at least some millions which should be enough to pay an API team that keeps everything up and running.
In general we would very much welcome a pricing model for the Translate API, because it would separate ”crappy developers” from those with serious ambitions in that space.
What does all this mean for iTranslate?
Since some time we are investing time and money in becoming less dependent on Google. For a certain amount of translations we are already independent of any 3rd party service. Unfortunately we cannot get to 100% by the end of this year, when Google plans to shut down the API. We don’t know exactly what we’ll do, but Microsoft is obviously an alternative. The problem is that Microsoft will soon start to realize the same issues, so this is not a sustainable model.
We’ll keep you updated…