Mr. Kalanick deserves credit for creating a world-changing company, one that scaled vertiginously from a modest black car service in San Francisco to a global brand in hundreds of cities. Those who invested first saw staggering returns. One frequent customer, Oren Michels, cut Mr. Kalanick a check for $5,000 early on. By the end of 2017, the stake had multiplied in value some 3,300 times, worth more than $15 million.
卡蘭尼克創(chuàng)造了一家改變世界的公司，這值得稱贊。這家公司令人目眩神迷，從舊金山一家不起眼的高級(jí)轎車服務(wù)公司發(fā)展成為在數(shù)百個(gè)城市擁有業(yè)務(wù)的全球品牌。最先投資的人獲得了驚人的回報(bào)。在早期，一位名叫奧倫·米歇爾(Oren Michels)的常客給卡蘭尼克開了一張5000美元的支票。到2017年底，這些股份的價(jià)值已經(jīng)增長了3300倍，價(jià)值超過1500萬美元。
As a private start-up, Uber represented pure possibility — at its peak, a $69 billion wrecking ball threatening entities as vast as the taxi industry, mass transit networks and automotive giants, all at the same time. It was a start-up that not only booked Beyoncé to play a staff party — it paid her with $6 million in restricted stock that quickly surged in value.
作為一家私營初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，優(yōu)步呈現(xiàn)了絕對(duì)的潛能——在鼎盛時(shí)期，它像是一個(gè)價(jià)值690億美元的落錘，同時(shí)威脅著出租車行業(yè)、公共交通網(wǎng)絡(luò)和汽車巨頭等龐大的實(shí)體。這家初創(chuàng)公司不僅邀請(qǐng)碧昂絲(Beyoncé)來員工派對(duì)演出，還以600萬美元限制性股票的形式支付報(bào)酬給她，股票價(jià)值也很快暴漲。
The public Uber displays little of this braggadocio, and competitors and critics are moving in. Labor activists are pushing back against the lack of worker protections for drivers, and legislation could push up the driver minimum wage in cities like New York. The hype around Uber’s autonomous cars has died down, and until they arrive — if they ever do — the company will have a hard time reducing the costs it incurs paying drivers.
上市后的優(yōu)步很少表現(xiàn)出這種浮夸，而競(jìng)爭對(duì)手和批評(píng)人士也在步步進(jìn)逼。勞工維權(quán)人士正在反對(duì)司機(jī)缺乏工人保護(hù)，立法可能會(huì)提高紐約等城市司機(jī)的最低工資。對(duì)優(yōu)步無人駕駛汽車的熱炒已經(jīng)冷卻，在這種車成為現(xiàn)實(shí)之前——假設(shè)真的能實(shí)現(xiàn)——公司需要費(fèi)很大力氣降低付錢給司機(jī)帶來的成本。

In August, Uber posted its largest-ever quarterly loss, about $5.2 billion, as its revenue growth hit a record low. In cities around the world, Uber faces well-financed competitors offering a substantially similar product. And its food delivery business — a bright spot that executives point to for growth prospects — is in danger of becoming another cash-suck. Uber and most of its basically indistinguishable competitors (it names 10 of them in a recent filing) are subsidizing customers’ meals in a bid for market share, with profitability a secondary concern.
今年8月，優(yōu)步營收增長創(chuàng)下歷史新低，季度虧損約52億美元，是該公司創(chuàng)立以來最大的季度虧損。在世界各地的城市，優(yōu)步面臨著資金充足的競(jìng)爭對(duì)手，它們提供的產(chǎn)品基本類似。而其送餐業(yè)務(wù)——公司高管以此為增長前景的一個(gè)亮點(diǎn)——可能會(huì)成為又一個(gè)燒錢的無底洞。優(yōu)步及其大多數(shù)基本上沒什么區(qū)別的競(jìng)爭對(duì)手（在最近的一份文件中，優(yōu)步列出了10家競(jìng)爭對(duì)手）都在貼錢給訂餐的顧客，以爭奪市場(chǎng)份額，盈利能力是次要的。
Investors are internalizing these challenges. Interest in shorting Uber stock has only grown since the I.P.O., according to share borrowing data from IHS Markit, with pessimists betting some $2 billion that the price of shares will continue to fall.
這些挑戰(zhàn)投資者都看在眼里。自優(yōu)步上市以來，做空其股票的興趣只增不減，根據(jù)IHS Markit的股票借貸數(shù)據(jù)，悲觀人士押了20億美元賭它的股票繼續(xù)下跌。
In combing through documents, interviewing opponents and talking to more than 200 current and former employees while researching my book, what came up again and again was this sense of a public-private divide — that Mr. Kalanick had built a start-up that thrived on venture investment, blitzkrieg expansion tactics, but that the playbook made little sense for a publicly traded entity.
在為本書做研究期間，我梳理文檔，采訪競(jìng)爭對(duì)手，與200多名現(xiàn)任和前任員工交談，這種上市與私人公司的區(qū)別一次又一次地浮現(xiàn)出來——卡蘭尼克建立了一個(gè)初創(chuàng)公司，靠著風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資、閃電戰(zhàn)擴(kuò)張策略發(fā)展起來，但是這套攻略對(duì)上市的實(shí)體毫無意義。