2018年经济学人 抖音腾讯之争(1)

 

A public spat¹ between two warring and wildly popular Chinese apps has had the feel of a teenage dance-off.

两个中国热门app之间的公开口水战有一种小朋友之间斗舞的感觉。

"Sorry, Douyin Fans", ran an article from the short video app on its WeChat account,

抖音在其微信公众号中发布以了一篇名为《抖音的朋友们，对不起》的文章，

in which it accused the mobile-messaging service of disabling links to Douyin's most popular videos.

指责该移动信息服务应用屏蔽抖音最火爆视频链接。

"All hail Douyin the drama queen," retorted Tencent, WeChat's parent, which said it had acted because the content was "inappropriate".

微信母公司腾讯反击称“抖音是戏精”，腾讯表示屏蔽抖音视频是因为其视频内容“不宜”。

On June 1st Tencent sued Douyin's parent company, Bytedance, for 1 yuan (15 cents)

6月1日，腾讯起诉抖音母公司—字节跳动，索赔人民币1元（15美分）

and demanded it apologise for its accusations²-on its own platforms (and presumably without the snark).

并要求公司在自家媒体平台上道歉（推测不会强制要求）。

Tencent also alleged³ unfair competition. Within hours Douyin counter-sued for 90m yuan.

腾讯还宣称对方有不正当竞争行为。几小时内，抖音反诉腾讯索赔9000万元人民币。

Bytedance and Tencent later swapped⁴ accusations of tolerating smear⁵ campaigns against the other on their apps,

随后，字节跳动公司和腾讯相互控诉自己受够了对方的恶意营销，

and filed police reports about defamatory posts.

并向警方上报了相关的诽谤帖子。

Rarely has an upstart so piqued⁶ Tencent, a Chinese gaming and social-media titan

很少有哪些突然爆红的公司会惹得腾讯如此愤怒，腾讯是一家中国游戏兼社交媒体巨头

which in November became Asia's first company worth over half-a-trillion dollars.

在11月，该公司成为了首个市值超过5亿美元的亚洲公司。

At first blush WeChat and Douyin (which translates as "trill") appear to inhabit distinct worlds.

乍看之下，微信和抖音（译为“trill”）两家定位市场并不相同。

The former is a super-app in which more than 1bn users not only chat but also order food, give to charity and pay utility bills.

前者是坐拥10亿用户的超级app，不仅能够聊天，还能订餐、向慈善机构捐款、支付水电费账单。

Douyin is a bottomless, eclectic feed of looped 15-second videos, a cross between Snap chat,

抖音是一个15秒短视频平台，集Snap chat

Vine (now defunct) and Musical.ly, which Bytedance bought in November.

Vine（现已下线）以及Musical.ly功能于一体，Musical.ly已于11月被字节跳动公司收购。

The clips, shot by users, range from a dexterous⁷ noodle-maker in Chongqing to a shimmying peacock in a bamboo grove⁸, all set to music.

用户拍摄的视频有重庆心灵手巧的面条师傅，也有竹林中摇摆的孔雀，视频都被配上了音乐。

Different though the services are, Bytedance's use of artificial intelligence to create tailored offerings for each viewer on Douyin-and on Toutiao,

尽管提供的服务不同，字节跳动公司利用人工智能为抖音用户提供量身定制的内容，

a newsfeed-is winning attention. According to QuestMobile, a data vendor⁹,

而头条则靠新闻供应获取关注。数据供应商QuestMobile称，

in early 2017 users began to spend more time on Toutiao, Douyin and two other Bytedance video apps,

在2017年年初，用户开始花更多的时间在头条、抖音以及字节跳动公司的其他两个视频app—

Xigua and Huoshan, than they did on Tencent's news and video offerings.

西瓜和火山上，在腾讯新闻和视频上的时间要更少。

1 spat   

n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声

参考例句：

• Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
• There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。

2 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

3 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

4 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

5 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

6 piqued   

v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心）

参考例句：

• Their curiosity piqued, they stopped writing. 他们的好奇心被挑起，停下了手中的笔。 来自辞典例句
• This phenomenon piqued Dr Morris' interest. 这一现象激起了莫里斯医生的兴趣。 来自辞典例句

7 dexterous   

adj.灵敏的；灵巧的

参考例句：

• As people grow older they generally become less dexterous.随着年龄的增长，人通常会变得不再那么手巧。
• The manager was dexterous in handling his staff.那位经理善于运用他属下的职员。

8 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

9 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。