vidby
AG (stylized in lower-case) is a
start-up based in
Rotkreuz
Risch is a municipality in the canton of Zug in Switzerland. It is also promoted as Risch-Rotkreuz. Four villages (Rotkreuz, Risch, Buonas and Holzhäusern) belong to the municipality ''Risch''. On 24 November 2007 it was decided to promote the ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
specializing in
AI language translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
for videos. Founded by Alexander Konolov (
:uk:Олександр Коновалов) and Eugen von Rubinberg in September 2021, the company has especially garnered attention for its use in translating speeches given by President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...
during the
ongoing military conflict in Ukraine.
History
vidby AG was founded by Alexander Konovalov and Eugen von Rubinberg. Konovalov is a native of Gornyak in the
Donetsk region
The Donetsk Oblast ( ukr, Донецька область, Donetska oblast, ), also referred to as Donechchyna ( ukr, Донеччина, links=no), is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 mill ...
of
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and retains
Ukrainian citizenship
Ukrainian nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of Ukraine. The primary law governing these requirements is the law "On Citizenship of Ukraine", which came into force on 1 March 2001.
Any person born to a Uk ...
; Rubinberg came to Germany from
Kirgistan at the age of five and holds
German citizenship
German nationality law details the conditions by which an individual holds German nationality. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 1 January 1914.
Germany is a member state of the Europ ...
. Both are residents of Switzerland. The latter founded his first business, a
trading company Trading companies are businesses working with different kinds of products which are sold for consumer, business, or government purposes. Trading companies buy a specialized range of products, maintain a stock or a shop, and deliver products to custo ...
, at age 16.
In 2013, the business partners launched a consumer-oriented
video-call translation service called DROTR (Droid Translator) AG, utilizing a Konovalov-created AI-powered language translation technology enabling simultaneous translation of messages, voice and video calls in 104 languages (written), with 44 available in spoken form. This was the world’s first video calling app with translation. The technology was pronounced a competitor of
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
and
Viber
Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS a ...
by ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' and claimed first prize at the "Innovative Breakthrough 2013" Competition.
In 2021, with a new business-oriented focus, DROTR became vidby, with the former
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
technology partners Konovalov and Rubinberg remaining at the helm, each with the title
Co-CEO. While
headquartered
Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...
in Switzerland, vidby’s
development team is, according to the company’s
founders
Founder or Founders may refer to:
Places
*Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium
* Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...
, based in Ukraine. The technology behind vidby has an accuracy level variously reported as up to 99 percent or 99 to 100 percent, equalling the highest level of human translation. Additionally, the technology is capable of removing the original language while maintaining ambient sounds. Currently, some 70 languages plus 60
dialects
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
are possible with the
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
-based technology.
Notable use
In addition to its use with
speeches
This list of speeches includes those that have gained notability in English or in English translation. The earliest listings may be approximate dates.
Before the 1st century
*c.570 BC : Gautama Buddha gives his first sermon at Sarnath
*431 ...
delivered by
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
, the technology has been provided to Ukrainian authorities and embassies during the ongoing military conflict with Russia
free of remuneration. By July, 2022, some 70 speeches given by President Zelenskyy totalling 650 minutes had been translated into 30 languages, for a total of over 10,000 minutes of video material. Of its use in translating Zelenskyy’s wartime speeches, Konovalov has said, “Like any citizen, I want to help defend my country.”
Notable corporate clients of vidby include
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
,
Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
,
Kärcher
Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG is a German family-owned company that operates worldwide and is known for its high-pressure cleaners, floor care equipment, parts cleaning systems, wash water treatment, military decontamination equipment and window ...
,
Generali and
McDonald’s Corporation
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger ...
; an academic client is
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
Accolades
vidby headed a list of the five best video translation services as named by ''
TechRadar Deutschland'' in September, 2022. In the same month, ''Tech Times'' named vidby #1 in their list of the five best such services. It similarly topped a list of the five best content translation technologies as judged by ''European Business Review'' in October, 2022. Prior to these lead-postion rankings (August, 2022), it was featured as ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
''’s special start-up recommendation (German: "Unser Lesetipp auf Gründerszene").
''Business Insider'', "Lage beim Berliner Fintech Nuri spitzt sich zu" (German text), Barbara Barkhausen, August 09, 2022
/ref>
See also
*Machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates t ...
*Speech recognition
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the m ...
*Pavlo Naumenko
, image= Pavel Naumenko PHOTO 2017.jpeg
, imagesize = 240 px
, caption =
, birth_name=Pavlo Naumenko
, birth_date=
, birth_place = Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR
, nationality = Ukraine
, alma mater = National Aerospace University – Kharkiv Aviation Inst ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:vidby
Companies of Switzerland
Canton of Zug
Technology companies of Switzerland
Applications of artificial intelligence
Language software
Translation software