2019年经济学人 如何打破大型科技公司的垄断(3)

如何打破大型科技公司的垄断(3)

If good comparisons and financial data are absent, such estimates are more art than science, says Brian Wieser of Group m, the world’s largest advertising¹ buyer. That makes it even harder to put a number on Google’s advertising business as a whole (Jefferies’ estimate is $539bn). Ms Warren wants to split it into an ad marketplace and services that operate in it. But valuing its constituent² parts is guesswork. The firm is not forthcoming with numbers.

世界上最大的广告采购商m集团的 Brian Wieser 说，如果没有良好的比较和财务数据，这样的估计就更像是艺术而不是科学。这使得谷歌的广告业务整体数字更难确定(杰富瑞(Jefferies)估计为5390亿美元)。沃伦希望将其拆分为一个广告市场和在其中运营的服务。但对其组成部分的估值只是猜测。该公司不愿透露具体数字。

These are not the only problems. WhatsApp, despite the whopping price Facebook paid for it, does not make much money, which makes assessing its worth hard. Trying to estimate a price for Apple’s and Google’s apps would be hopeless.

这些还不是唯一的问题。尽管 Facebook 为 WhatsApp 支付了高昂的价格，但它并没有赚到多少钱，这使得评估它的价值变得很困难。试图估算苹果和谷歌应用程序的价格是没有希望的。

The fuzziness of Ms Warren’s plan also makes estimating a total break-up value difficult. If Facebook has to part with WhatsApp, why should it keep Messenger, its other instant-messaging service? Or why should Apple keep iMessage? Both may be regarded as services on top of a platform utility. It is similarly unclear what would happen to the app stores of Apple and Google or the cloud-computing arms of Amazon and Google (and Microsoft’s, for that matter, a rival to Amazon). A spin-off of Amazon Web Services, for example, would create the world’s second-mostvaluable corporate³ IT firm. It would be worth $438bn, says Morgan Stanley, a bank—about four times more than IBM.

沃伦计划的模糊性也使得估算拆分总额变得困难。如果Facebook不得不与WhatsApp 拆分，它为什么还要保留另一款即时通讯服务Messenger呢？或者苹果为什么要保留iMessage？两者都可以看作是平台实用程序之上的服务。同样不清楚的是，苹果和谷歌的应用商店、亚马逊和谷歌的云计算部门(就此而言，微软是亚马逊的竞争对手)会发生什么。例如，亚马逊网络服务的分拆将创造出世界上第二大最有价值的企业IT公司。摩根斯坦利表示，这个数字将达到4380亿美元，大约是IBM的四倍。

1 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

2 constituent   

n.选民；成分，组分；adj.组成的，构成的

参考例句：

• Sugar is the main constituent of candy.食糖是糖果的主要成分。
• Fibre is a natural constituent of a healthy diet.纤维是健康饮食的天然组成部分。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。