High volume localization at scale

Context

A media company localizes and dubs a growing catalog at tens of millions of inferences a month. The reflex at this scale is to self host a fine tuned model, but localization is largely a commodity capability.

The decision

At commodity volume with low differentiation, the flat COTS license actually wins, cheaper than usage based API and than the self host most teams assume. Self host is only the flip once quality becomes a differentiator.

What most miss

The reflex at scale is 'build.' For a commodity capability a fixed price license often beats it; self host wins only once control or quality becomes your edge.

Stakes

Building what you could license burns a team and a year on undifferentiated plumbing.