【雅思课外精读】中国的互联网世界，还是BAT的天下吗？（上）

　　【雅思课外精读】中国的互联网世界，还是BAT的天下吗？（上）*注：本文摘自7月11日《经济学人》

　　E-shopping frenzy网上购物狂潮

　　Meituan-Dianping and Pinduoduo embody the excitement over digital China在美团和拼多多身上，看到了人们对数字中国的狂热

　　Investors cannot get enough of two booming internet companies投资者对这两家蓬勃发展的互联网公司爱不释手

　　1. CHINA’S BUSTLING digital economy has spawned thousands of startups. Yet in the eyes of many it remains “BAT or bust”, to cite a saying among jobseekers from the country’s elite universities. The BAT in question refers to the original trio of Chinese internet stars: Baidu, a search engine; Alibaba, an online emporium; and Tencent, a mobile-payments and video-game titan. The acronym is overdue an update.

　　在中国蓬勃发展的数字经济之下，数以千计的初创公司也发展起来。但是，引用中国一流大学求职者的一句话，在许多人眼中，情况仍然是“要么BAT（百度，腾讯，阿里），要么什么也不是。” “BAT”指的是中国互联网三大巨头：搜索引擎百度，在线商城阿里巴巴和支付和视频游戏巨头腾讯。“BAT”这个称呼需要更新一下了。

　　2. Alibaba and Tencent continue to lord it over digital China. With market capitalisations of nearly $700bn apiece, they are the world’s seventh- and eighth-biggest listed companies, respectively. Having struggled to adapt as consumers moved from desktops to smartphones, Baidu languishes in 319th place; its erstwhile equals can gain or lose the equivalent of its entire market value of $45bn in a day or two.

　　阿里巴巴和腾讯继续主宰中国科技行业。这两家公司市值均接近7000亿美元，分别是全球第七和第八大上市公司。近年来，智能手机慢慢取代台式电脑，百度一直没能适应这样的大潮，全球排名下降到第319位，而其昔日的对手在未来不久，也可能会遭遇市值450亿美元的波动。

　　3. The BAT label also belies another development. Newer arrivals have been busily remodelling the upper reaches of China’s cyberscape. They include firms like JD.com, a $100bn e-merchant listed in New York, Didi Chuxing, a privately held ride-hailing giant valued at $60bn or so, and the $100bn-plus ByteDance, the world’s biggest unlisted startup (which owns, among other things, TikTok, a short-video app popular with Western teenagers).

　　BAT标签也使得另一发展潮流不为人们所注意。后来创立的公司在不断重塑中国互联网世界，这些公司包括京东，滴滴，字节跳动等。京东是一家已经在纽约上市，市值1000亿美元的电子商务公司，而滴滴是一家市值600亿美元的私有化出行服务公司，字节跳动是全球最大的未上市初创公司，现在在西方很受欢迎的短视频应用TikTok就是字节跳动开发的。

　　4. None has set investors’ pulses racing of late more than Meituan Dianping and Pinduoduo. The duo have much in common. Both began by matching shoppers with discounts (on spa and cinema tickets in Meituan’s case and products from apples to Apple iPads in Pinduoduo’s). Both went public in 2018—Meituan in Hong Kong and Pinduoduo in New York. And both have seen their share prices soar since the start of the year (see chart). They are now worth more than $100bn each. But their routes to these highs look quite different.

　　对投资者最具吸引力的莫过于美团点评和拼多多了，它们有很多共同点。两者都是通过打折拼团来吸引用户，美团主要靠SPA和电影票拼团起家，而拼多多一开始做的是苹果及其相关产品拼团。两家公司都在2018年上市——美团在香港，拼多多在纽约。从今年年初开始，两家公司的股价都在上涨，两家公司现今市值超过1000亿美元。但它们成功的路和BAT却大不相同。

　　5. Start with the bigger of the two, Meituan. It was founded in 2010 by Wang Xing, an engineering graduate from Beijing’s Tsinghua University, selling those discount vouchers. Like Tencent and Alibaba, it has expanded into other areas. In 2013 it launched a meal-delivery business and a travel arm that lets users book hotels and flights. Two years later it merged with Dianping, a restaurant-review and booking platform similar to Yelp. In 2018 it paid $2.7bn for Mobike, a bike-sharing service, and entered ride-hailing, which it expanded last year to dozens of Chinese cities. Today Meituan can be thought of as “a search engine for services”, says Elinor Leung of CLSA, a broker.

　　从这两家公司中比较大的美团开始说起吧。美团创立于2010年，创始人是清华大学工程系毕业生王兴，其主要业务是销售各种优惠券。和腾讯还有阿里一样，美团也在向其他领域扩张。2013年，美团推出了送餐服务，同时也推出酒店和机票预定的旅游业务。两年后，美团与大众点评合并。大众点评是一家类似于Yelp的餐厅点评和预定平台。2018年，美团斥资27亿美元收购了共享单车服务公司摩拜单车，并进入叫车服务领域。去年，美团还将打车服务扩展到中国几十个城市。里昂证券(CLSA)的经纪人Elinor Leung表示，美团如今可以被视为“服务搜索引擎”。

　　6. Some of these, like food delivery or bike-sharing, are low-margin, high-volume businesses. In 2019 the firm earned a profit of less than three cents per delivery (chiefly from commissions it charges restaurants). But it makes an awful lot of them. The platform has 700,000-800,000 drivers at its disposal. Two in every three yuan that the Chinese spend on having grub dropped off at their doorstep goes through Meituan

　　美团的一些业务，比如送餐和共享单车利润低但产量高。2019年，美团每次送餐的利润不到3美分（利润主要来自向餐馆收取的佣金）。但是,美团送餐业务太多了。美团有70-80万的外卖送餐员。在中国，每花三元钱就有两元是在美团上花的。

　　7. Like Mobike (which is capital-intensive and still unprofitable), the food business lures users who can then be directed to more lucrative offerings such as travel. Meituan’s operating margins on hotel reservations hover between 20% and 35%. The pandemic briefly halteddomestic bookings but by late May they had recovered to 70% of pre-coronavirus levels.

　　和摩拜一样（摩拜是资本密集型企业，目前仍未盈利），美团的餐饮业务把用户吸引到了旅游等其他利润更高的业务。美团酒店预订业务毛利为20%到35%。疫情一度导致国内酒店预订中断，但是到五月底，美团的预定量已经恢复到疫情前的70%。

　　精读解析

　　篇章结构P1：BAT已经不再。P2：阿里腾讯继续发力，而百度排名下降。P3：互联网发展新趋势：京东，字节，滴滴等发展起来。P4：美团和拼多多的发展。P5—P7：美团的发展故事。

　　重点单词frenzy/'frenz ɪ / n. 狂怒；狂暴；暴怒vt. 使发狂；使狂怒【例句】In a frenzy of hate he killed his enemy.他在一阵痛恨之下杀死了他的敌人。

　　embody / ɪ m'b ɒ d ɪ / vt. 表现, 象征, 具体表现；包括; 包含【短语】embodied cognition 体验认知embody in 在…体现; 使具体化;【例句】The latest locomotives embody many new features.这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。

　　spawn /sp ɔ ː n/ n. 菌丝；卵；产物vt. 产卵；酿成，造成；大量生产【短语】spawning ground 发祥地；产卵场所；酝酿或发展之处【例句】The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies.由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

　　elite university名牌大学【例句】The test results are used to decide which kind of university a student can attend. Those with the highest scores have the best chance for getting into an elite university.考试结果将被用来决定学生可以上哪种大学，最高分数者可以有机会进入名牌大学。

　　emporium /em'p ɔ ː r ɪə m/ n. 商场，大百货商店；商业中心【短语】gastronomic emporium 公寓Emporium Suites 皇家套房酒店; 曼谷皇家套房酒店; 恩博利豪华酒店; 购物城套房酒店;Magic Emporium 魔法用品店【例句】First, the superincumbent improvement of serving system in Wasin emporium can guarantee the best services effectively.第一，华成商场自上而下整体服务体系的改进，有效保障提供给顾客最完美的服务。

　　mobile-payment移动支付【例句】China has made really amazing progress on mobile payments.中国在移动支付方面取得了惊人的成就。

　　video-game 电子游戏；视频游戏；电动游戏【例句】Most people use video games for entertainment.大多数人使用电子游戏作为娱乐。

　　titan /'tait ə n/ n. 〈希神〉提坦,太阳神,巨人【例句】Back when the universe was new, there were only Titans.宇宙初创之时，只有泰坦巨神存在。

　　acronym /'ækr ə n ɪ m/ n. 首字母缩略词【例句】Acronyms, committees and minor players come thick and fast.另一层面，作品中频繁穿插出现了大量的缩略词，委员会和不重要的人物的名字。

　　overdue / əʊ v ə 'dju ː / adj. 迟到的；过期的；未兑的【短语】overdue payment 逾期未支付款；过期付款overdue fine 滞纳金；过期罚金【例句】The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了, 被坏天气耽搁了。

　　lord it over 对…称王称霸【例句】It extorts protection money from the people it lords over.这个恐怖组织对控制地区的人们收取保护费。

　　capitalisation / ˌ k æ pit ə lai'zei ʃə n,-li'z-/ n. 资本化,股本,资本总额,大写【同根】capitalistic adj. 资本主义的,资本家的capitalize vt. 用大写字母写或印刷；将(某事物)转作资本、用作资本或资本化；充分利用某事物,从某事物中获利【例句】It has lost 28% of its market capitalisation, or around $3bn, since March.自今年3月以来，该公司市值缩水28%，约30亿美元。

　　apiece / ə 'pi ː s/ adv. 每个;每件;每人;各【例句】The tickets are one pound apiece.这些票是每张一英镑。

　　languish /'læ ŋ gw ɪʃ / vi. 长期受苦,受折磨；变得(越来越)衰弱；因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐【同根】languisher n. 衰弱、憔悴的人languishing adj. 渴望的；含情脉脉的；渐渐衰弱的【短语】languish for 因渴望而苦恼languish in 在某方面受煎熬; 在某地方受煎熬;languishing shame 刻骨的羞愧languishing impaired 蔽障Languish Lads 倦怠少年interest languished 意兴阑珊【例句】The flowers languished from lack of water.花因缺水而凋萎。

　　erstwhile /' ɜ ː stwa ɪ l/ adj. 过去的, 从前的【例句】So have Mr Osborne's many erstwhile Tory critics.托尼布莱尔执政时期很多批评奥斯本的人也是这样。

　　equivalent / ɪ 'kw ɪ v( ə )l( ə )nt/ adj. 相等的, 相当的【例句】The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year’s earnings.歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。

　　belie /b ɪ 'la ɪ / vt. 掩饰；与…不符；使失望；证明…虚假错误【例句】He stole again, and so belied our hopes.他又偷东西了, 实在辜负了我们对他的期望。remodel /ri ː 'm ɒ d( ə )l/  vt. 改变…的结构〔形状〕【例句】The building was remodeled into a department store.那楝建筑物被改建成百货公司。

　　cyberscape网络景观

　　ride-hailing打车服务【例句】The ride hailing company Uber has said plans to give out millions of face masks to its drivers around the world as part of efforts to stop the spread of the virus.打车公司优步表示自己计划分发上百万只口罩给世界各地的旗下司机，以此举作为阻止疫情传播的部分努力。

　　unlisted / ʌ n'l ɪ st ɪ d/ adj. 未上市的；未编入册的【例句】Hungry brokers and banks are rolling out the red carpet and pitching deals with unlisted firms that are not available to ordinary investors.饥肠辘辘的券商和银行正铺上红地毯，等待与普通投资者无法接触的非上市公司进行交易。

　　go public 上市；公开宣布；把秘密公开【例句】That's how businesses that start private go public.这就是私营企业上市的方式。

　　duo /'dju ː əʊ / n. 成对的表演者【例句】When we get to duos it becomes hellishly complicated.对二重奏来说，这就更是复杂得恐怖了。

　　discount /'d ɪ ska ʊ nt/ n. 数目, 折扣vt. & vi. 打折扣, 减价出售；不考虑; 不全信【短语】at a discount 打折扣；不受欢迎，没销路special discount 特别折扣discount price 折扣价格quantity discount 数量折扣，大批量折扣discount for cash [经]贴现cash discount 现金折扣【例句】I was discounting anything I heard second-hand.凡是间接听来的东西，我都要掂量掂量。

　　voucher /'va ʊ t ʃə / n. 证人；保证人；证明者；收据【例句】The government should run a voucher system.政府应该施行凭证制度。

　　meal-delivery 送餐服务【例句】That is the term used for internet-based businesses such as ride-sharing, meal delivery and online shopping which connect purchasers immediately and directly with goods and services.它是一个专业词汇，应用于以互联网为基础的商业形式，例如拼车、送餐服务和网购，它们直接或者间接将买方和商品或者服务连接起来。

　　at its disposal可自行支配；任其使用【例句】The functions of the brain awake at its disposal.而大脑可以支配它自己的功能。

　　food delivery食品配送；外卖

　　bike-sharing共享单车

　　low-margin低利润的【例句】Northrop Grumman is considering a sale of its low-margin shipbuilding unit.  诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司正考虑出售其低利润的造船业务。

　　high-volume 高容量【拓展】high volume product 大量生产制品【例句】The holder is likely to have reached the island from here in Bodrum, one of the over 500,000 who have travelled from Turkey to the Greek islands this year, Leros among those receiving the highest volume.持有者很有可能是通过博德鲁姆前往希腊，今年，有超过50万名难民从土耳其前往希腊，而莱罗斯岛的难民数量最多。

　　grub /gr ʌ b/ vt. 挖掘寻找；将某物挖出；根除n. 蛆，幼虫；[俚]食物【短语】grub up v. 掘出grub out 连根挖【例句】Thousands of miles of hedgerows have been grubbed up.几千英里的树篱被挖了出来。

　　doorstep /'d ɔ ː step/ n. 门阶【例句】Newspapermen camped at his doorstep all day.新闻记者整天在他门口纠缠着不走。

　　operating margin营业毛利【例句】VFS probably enjoys operating margins of 20%, reckons Kathleen Gailliot, an analyst at Natixis, a French bank.法国外贸银行的分析师凯特琳·加耶里奥估算，VFS很可能享有20%的毛利率。

　　lucrative /'lu ː kr ə t ɪ v/ adj. 获利多的, 赚钱的【短语】lucrative business 有利可图的生意; 赚钱的买卖;lucrative export market 出口市场【例句】She has a lucrative business selling leather goods.她做皮货生意, 利润丰厚。

　　hover /'h ɒ v ə / vi. (鸟等)盘旋；(人)徘徊, 走来走去；犹豫, 摇摆不定【短语】hover over 在…盘旋【例句】Two hawks were hover ing overhead.两只鹰在头顶盘旋。

　　halt /h ɔ ː lt/ n. 停止；立定；休息vt. 使停止；使立定【短语】come to a halt 停止前进；停下来halt on 出错暂停system halt 系统中止；系统停止；系统挂起；死机grind to a halt 慢慢停止call a halt 命令停止【例句】He halted before the door in indecision.他在门前犹豫不决地停了下来。