2019年经济学人 如何打破大型科技公司的垄断(2)

 

The second prong requires more explanation. The tech titans are mostly two-headed beasts. They not only operate a market but compete in it too. Amazon owns the world’s biggest e-commerce marketplace and also sells products on it under its private labels. Apple hosts the app store on the iPhone but also offers its own apps. This creates incentives¹ for these firms to promote their wares² unfairly, for instance by showing them at the top of the result pages of their search engines.

第二个方面需要更多的解释。科技巨头大多是双头兽。他们不仅经营一个市场，而且也参与竞争。亚马逊拥有世界上最大的电子商务市场，并在上面销售自有品牌的产品。苹果在iPhone上有应用程序商店，但也提供自己的应用程序。这就为这些公司提供了不公平的促销手段，比如在搜索引擎的结果页面顶部显示他们的产品。

Ms Warren wants operators of any online marketplace which generates annual global revenues of more than $25bn to be declared “platform utilities” and prohibited from both owning a platform and doing business on it. At a minimum this would mean, for instance, that Amazon would have to spin off its private brands, in particular Amazon Basics. Apple would have to shed such apps as Mail and Maps.

沃伦希望，任何每年全球营收超过250亿美元的在线市场的运营商，都应被宣布为“平台公用事业公司”，不得同时拥有一个平台，并在其上开展业务。至少，这意味着，例如，亚马逊将不得不剥离其私有品牌，特别是Amazon Basics。苹果将不得不放弃邮件和地图等应用。

Determining the effect of break-ups is tricky³, though an analysis of the revenues of various parts of the tech titans’ businesses gives a sense of their worth. Equity⁴ analysts⁵ who engage in “sum-of-the parts” (SOTP) analysis also try to estimate the value of bits of a business using similar firms as a yardstick⁶. Their over-excited assessments⁷ of how much these might be worth sometimes look like flights of fancy. But the approach may work reasonably well for business units that have closely comparable peers, such as Instagram. In June Bloomberg Intelligence reckoned that Instagram would fetch $100bn (although some in Silicon⁸ Valley put the number much higher, at around $200bn, because of its fast growth). Brent Thill of Jefferies, a bank, values Amazon’s online retail⁹ business (including Amazon Basics, but without its marketplace) at nearly $200bn and the firm’s physical stores (mostly Whole Foods) at up to $6bn.

确定拆分的影响是棘手的，尽管对这些科技巨头各个业务部门的收入进行分析，可以得出它们的价值。从事“部分总和”分析的股票分析师也试图以类似的公司作为衡量标准来评估企业的部分价值。他们对这些资产价值的过度兴奋的评估有时看起来就像是异想天开。不过，对于Instagram 等业务部门来说，这种方法可能会相当有效，因为它们的同类产品差不多。今年6月，据彭博资讯估计，Instagram 的售价将达到1000亿美元(尽管硅谷的一些人认为这个数字要高得多，大约2000亿美元，因为增长迅速)。Jefferies 银行的布伦特?蒂尔估计，亚马逊的在线零售业务(包括亚马逊基础业务，但不包括其市场)价值近2000亿美元，实体店(主要是Whole Foods)价值高达60亿美元。

1 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

2 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

3 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

4 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

5 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

6 yardstick   

n.计算标准，尺度；评价标准

参考例句：

• This is a yardstick for measuring whether a person is really progressive.这是衡量一个人是否真正进步的标准。
• She was a yardstick against which I could measure my achievements.她是一个我可以用来衡量我的成就的准绳。

7 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

8 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

9 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。