【雅思课外精读】中国的互联网世界，还是BAT的天下吗？（下）

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

　　1. Pinduoduo has taken the opposite tack to Meituan. Rather than spread its bets, it hasdoubled down on e-commerce. Online retail is growing fast enough in China to justify not being “a jack of all trades”, says David Liu, in charge of strategy at the firm.

　　拼多多采取了与美团相反的策略。它没有采用分散策略，而是在电子商务上加大投入。该公司负责战略的David Liu说，在线零售在中国的发展速度之快足以证明自己不是“博而不精”。

　　2. He has a point. Chinese e-commerce sales could expand by 16% this year, to 14.4trn yuan ($2trn), according to eMarketer, a research firm, even as total retail sales may dip by 4% to 35trn yuan as a consequence of lockdowns’ toll on bricks-and-mortar shops. Alibaba will capture perhaps half of this growth. Pinduoduo will slug it out with JD.com for the rest. Shoppers hit by the coronavirus slowdown may lean towards Pinduoduo’s bargains.

　　他说得有道理。根据研究公司eMarketer的数据，中国今年的电子商务销售额可能会增长16%，达到14.4万亿元(合2万亿美元)，尽管由于实体店的关闭，零售总额可能会下降4%，达到35万亿元。阿里巴巴占有一般的增长利润。受新冠疫情影响，很多消费者会更青睐货物更加便宜的拼多多。

　　3. Central to the firm’s ascent is the concept of social shopping, which it describes as a fusion of Costco and Disneyland. Products are cheaper if you buy in bulk with fellow bargain-hunters. Users can join existing groups or invite pals using WeChat, a social-messaging app owned by Tencent (which holds a 16% stake in Pinduoduo). Merchants sacrifice margins in exchange for higher volumes.

　　拼多多崛起的秘诀是“社交购物”，该公司将这一概念定义为好市多和迪士尼的融合。用户可以加入现有的团购或者邀请微信好友发起拼团。（微信是腾讯开发的一款社交通讯应用，而腾讯持有拼多多16%的股份）。在拼多多，商家牺牲利润来提高销量。

　　4. Colin Huang, Pinduoduo’s founder, who once worked as an engineer at Google in America, did not invent group shopping; Groupon has been doing a version of it since 2008. But he did develop the idea, for instance introducing games which reward players with credits on future purchases.

　　拼多多的创始人是黄峥，他曾在美国谷歌任工程师，并不是他发明的团购。2008年以来，Groupon就一直在做团购。但黄峥确实发展了团购，他引入了游戏玩法，玩家通过参与游戏可以在购买中获得一些优惠。

　　5. Chinese shoppers love it. At the end of March 628m of them had made at least one purchase on the app in the preceding 12 months, 42% more than the year before and 60% more than shopped on JD.com; only Alibaba has more active users (726m). Their average annual spending also rose, from 1,250 yuan to over 1,800 yuan. So has Pinduoduo’s share of Chinese e-commerce—from 2% in 2017 to 10% last year. Bernstein, a research firm, expects it to be 18% by 2024, in line with JD.com.

　　中国消费者都很喜欢这一做法。截至三月底，有6.28亿人在过去12个月里至少在拼多多买过一件商品，比去年增加42%，也比在京东上的购物多出60%，只有阿里巴巴的活跃用户比拼多多多，为7.26亿。消费者的平均年消费额也从1250元上升到1800元。拼多读在中国电子商务市场的份额也从2017年的2%上升到去年的10%。研究公司伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)预计，到2024年，这一比例将达到18%，与京东持平。

　　6. The shopping frenzy has boosted Pinduoduo’s revenues by 44% year on year in the first quarter, to 6.5bn yuan. The money comes from transaction fees and adverts bought by merchants to have their offers promoted in the app. Similarly to eBay but not many e-commerce giants, Pinduoduo does not hold inventory or operate its own logistics network, relying on merchants to ferry products to buyers. Instead, it burns a spectacular, and growing, amount of cash on sales and marketing: 112% of revenues in the first quarter.

　　中国消费者喜欢它。截至3月底，其中6.28亿人在过去12个月里至少在app上购买过一件商品，比去年增加42%，比在京东上购物多出60%;只有阿里巴巴拥有比它更活跃的用户(7.26亿)。他们的平均年消费额也从1250元增加到1800元。拼多多在中国电子商务市场的份额也从2017年的2%上升到去年的10%。研究公司伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)预计，到2024年，这一比例将达到18%，与京东持平。

　　7. Mr Liu insists these costs can easily be dialled back. Experience of other marketplaces suggests otherwise. Uber, which also matches sellers (drivers) with buyers (riders), has been perpetually loss-making. Like Uber, Pinduoduo enjoys some “network effects”—the more buyers use its app, the more sellers it draws, who in turn attract new buyers, and so on. But, again as in ride-hailing, buyers and sellers face few costs in switching to another app that offers a better deal. JD.com and Alibaba have already launched Pinduoduo clones to their vast user base.

　　刘坚称，这些成本可以轻松收回。其他市场的经验表明情况并非如此。优步还把卖家(司机)和买家(乘客)联系起来，它一直在亏损。像优步一样，拼多多享受着一些“网络效应”——更多的买家使用它的应用，它吸引更多的卖家，这些卖家反过来又吸引新的买家，如此类推。但是，和叫车服务一样，买家和卖家在转向提供更优惠价格的另一款应用时几乎没有什么成本。京东和阿里巴巴已经向其庞大的用户群推出了拼多多克隆产品。

　　8. The market is giving Pinduoduo the benefit of the doubt. The pandemic appears to have done it no harm; cooped-up Chinese consumers have turned to the firm for necessities and, sometimes, a dose of retail therapy. With negligible business outside China, it is, like Meituan, shielded from the Sino-American tech war making life difficult for TikTok, with its mostly non-Chinese users, or Huawei, China’s telecoms champion. White House threats to expel Chinese firms from American exchanges have not dampened investors’ enthusiasm. Nor has the sudden departure of Mr Huang, who stepped down as its chief executive on July 1st and cut his stake in the company from 43% to 29% (he remains chairman and holds 81% of voting rights).

　　疫情似乎没有对拼多多造成多大的伤害。被门在家里的中国消费者去拼多多购买生活必需品，有时候这甚至被当作一种购物疗法。和美团一样，拼多多并没有多少海外业务，没有受到中美科技战的影响，而中美科技战让拥有大量海外用户的Tiktok和华为很不好过。白宫威胁要将中国公司驱逐出美国交易所，但这并没有挫伤投资者的热情。黄峥的突然离职也没有对拼多多造成什么影响，他在7月1日辞去了公司首席执行官的职务，并将自己在公司的股份从43%削减到29%(他仍然是董事长，拥有81%的投票权)。

　　9. Meituan’s path to riches is clearer. It ended last year in the black for the first time. Its profitable food and travel arms have been gaining market share from rivals (such as Ele.me, Alibaba’s food-delivery app, and Ctrip, China’s biggest travel agency). That gives its loss-making divisions financial breathing room.

　　美团的前景更加明晰一些。去年美团首次出现盈利，其利润丰厚的餐饮和旅游业务从竞争对手那里获得了市场份额，其主要竞争对手是阿里巴巴的饿了么和中国最大旅行社携程。餐饮和旅游业务的盈利给了美团亏损的部门财务喘息的空间。

　　10. Ultimately, both firms embody the excitement over digital China’s bright prospects. But TAMP will only become the new BAT if both firms can match Tencent’s and Alibaba’s consistently fat profits.

　　最终，两家公司都体现了人们对中国数字光明前景的兴奋。但只有当两家公司都能像腾讯和阿里巴巴一样获得持续丰厚的利润，TAMP才能成为新的BAT。

　　精读解析

　　篇章结构

　　P1—P7：拼多多的发展之路

　　P9：美团的发展前景比拼多多更加明晰。

　　P10：新的互联网公司能否取代BAT，主宰中国互联网行业还是未知，但是人们对中国互联网光明前景很是期待。

　　重点单词

　　spread its bet分散赌注

　　double down on在……加倍下注；加把劲做某事

　　【例句】

　　Unsatisfied with our own performance, we double down on losing trades in the hopes a small pop will put us' back to even.

　　我们对自己的表现感到不满意，把赔钱交易上的投入增加了一倍，希望一次小幅上涨会使我们回到不赔不赚的状态。

　　a jack of all trades万事通；博而不精

　　【例句】

　　The saying, “A jack of all trades is master of none, ” is for them.

　　“样样通，样样松。”这句俗语指的就是他们。

　　bricks-and-mortar shop实体店

　　【例句】

　　When she was 18, Ling Ling started a bricks-and-mortar clothing shop in Shanghai, but she soon realised that her online fame would bring more business.

　　在玲玲18岁的时候，她开始在上海创立自己服装实体店，但是很快她便意识到自己的网络人气能够带来更多生意。

　　slug it out 决一雌雄; 比出个上下;

　　【例句】

　　They decided to slug it out fact for fact.

　　他们决定把事实辩一个水落石出。

　　bargain-hunter四处觅购便宜货的人；杀价购买股票的投机商【拓展】bargain hunting 逢低买进；趁低吸纳；买便宜货compulsive bargain hunters 购便宜货上瘾的人【例句】Who would not like to be a bargain hunter?谁不想做个搜罗便宜货的人呢？

　　frenzy /'frenzɪ/ n. 狂怒；狂暴；暴怒vt. 使发狂；使狂怒

　　【短语】

　　feeding frenzy 通过新闻媒介无情攻击或利用某人

　　shopping  frenzy购物狂

　　【例句】

　　The front line of a festive shopping frenzy.

　　节日购物热潮的前线。

　　logistic /lə'dʒɪstɪk/ adj. 后勤学的；符号逻辑的

　　【例句】

　　And logistics support and auxiliary function as a candidate for the natural become exteriorization business.

　　而物流作为一个支持与辅助功能自然成为外部化业务的候选。

　　spectacular/spek'tækjʊlə/ adj. 壮观的, 雄伟的, 引人入胜的

　　【例句】

　　I had done two shows with spectacular unsuccess.

　　我两次演出都徒劳无功。

　　dial back回拨；回到

　　【例句】

　　Economists have been looking for signs of whether China would maintain a 7.5% growth target for next year, unchanged from this year, or dial back the target to 7%.

　　对于中国是将明年经济增长目标与今年7.5%的水平保持一致，还是会下调至7%，经济学家一直在寻找相关迹象。

　　the benefit of the doubt质疑的好处; 疑点利益; 疑犯从宽; 的疑点利益;

　　cooped up 被禁锢的; 被拘禁的;

　　【拓展】

　　coop up 把…关起来；禁闭

　　【例句】

　　I've been cooped up in here too long.

　　我在这里闷太久了。

　　retail therapy购物疗法

　　【例句】

　　Retail therapy is a humorous expression which means going shopping to make yourself feel better.

　　购物疗法是一种很幽默的表达，是指通过购物让自己开心。

　　negligible/'neglɪdʒɪb(ə)l/ adj. 可忽略的, 无足轻重的

　　【例句】

　　He is a negligible person in the government.

　　在政府中他是个微不足道的人。

　　dampen/'dæmp(ə)n/ vt. 抑制；使…沮丧；使…潮湿

　　【短语】

　　dampen down 阻止; 抑制;

　　【例句】

　　And not even the subzero temperature manages to dampen the party atmosphere.

　　即使是零下的气温也无法降低聚会的气氛。

　　step down走下；辞职；逐步减低

　　【例句】

　　Slovenia's Prime Minister Miro Cerar has stepped down.

　　斯洛文尼亚总理米罗·采拉尔(Miro Cerar)已卸任。

　　embody/ɪm'bɒdɪ/ 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】

　　She embodies her principles in her behavior.

　　她在她的举止中具体表现出其节操。

　　fat profit巨额利润

　　【例句】

　　Investors, meanwhile, no longer enjoy abnormally fat profits, but those who backed the right firms have done well.

　　与此同时，投资者不再享有异常丰厚的利润，但那些支持正确公司的人做得很好。