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來源于《社論》版塊
The technology industry
技術(shù)行業(yè)
Don’t waste a good crisis
不要在危機中浪費好機會
Big tech firms are thriving. They should seize the moment and detoxify their relations with society
大型科技公司正在蓬勃發(fā)展。應抓住時機，消除與社會的關(guān)系
The pandemic will have many losers, but it already has one clear winner: big tech. The large digital platforms, including Alphabet and Facebook, will come out of the crisis even stronger. They should use this good fortune to reset their sometimes testy relations with their users. Otherwise big government, the other beneficiary of the covid calamity, is likely to do it for them.
這場流行病將導致許多輸家，但已經(jīng)有了一個明顯的贏家：大型科技公司。包括Alphabet和Facebook在內(nèi)的大型數(shù)字平臺在渡過危機后將更加強大。他們應該充分發(fā)揮這種上升運勢來重新調(diào)整與用戶之間有時會出現(xiàn)的緊張關(guān)系。否則，“大政府”——冠狀病毒災難的另一個受益者——可能會代他們做這件事。
Demand for online services has exploded and the infrastructure behind the internet has proved to be admirably reliable. Newcomers such as Slack and Zoom, which help businesses operate remotely, have become household names. And although some tech supply chains are creaking and online advertising spending has dipped, overall the big five firms are seeing surging demand.
對在線服務的需求呈爆炸式增長，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)背后的基礎(chǔ)設施也被證明是非常可靠的。幫助企業(yè)遠程操作的Slack和Zoom等新公司已經(jīng)成為家喻戶曉的名字。盡管一些技術(shù)供應鏈正在崩潰，在線廣告支出有所下降，但總體而言，五大公司的需求正在飆升。
Facebook has said that messaging activity has increased by 50% in those countries hit hard by the virus. Amazon is planning to hire 100,000 new staff to keep up with higher e-commerce orders. The big tech firms are also a bastion of financial stability: together Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft have $570bn of gross cash on their balance-sheets. Shares in these firms have outperformed the market since late January.
Facebook表示，在那些遭受病毒重創(chuàng)的國家，消息傳遞活動增加了50%。亞馬遜計劃招聘10萬名新員工，以滿足更多的電子商務訂單需求。大型科技公司也是金融穩(wěn)定的堡壘：Alphabet、亞馬遜、蘋果、Facebook和微軟的資產(chǎn)負債表上總共有5700億美元現(xiàn)金。自1月底以來，這些公司的股票表現(xiàn)一直優(yōu)于市場均值。
Just as the big firms are standing even taller, many of the tech industry’s younger, smaller firms are being crushed in the worst slump since the dotcom crash 20 years ago. Even before the coronavirus hit, trouble was brewing in the land of unicorns, as tech startups worth more than $1bn are called. Among many firms catering to consumers, the strategy of growing at all costs, known as “blitzscaling”, had turned out to be flawed. Some firms, particularly those stuffed with capital by SoftBank’s $100bn Vision Fund, had already started laying off people. All this will make it easier for the big firms to hire the best talent. Collapsing firms could be snapped up by the tech giants.
就在大公司站得更高的時候，許多資歷更短、規(guī)模更小的科技公司卻在這場自20年前互聯(lián)網(wǎng)泡沫破裂以來最嚴重的經(jīng)濟衰退中被壓垮了。早在冠狀病毒爆發(fā)之前，這個“獨角獸之地”就已經(jīng)在醞釀著麻煩。“獨角獸之地”指的是市值超過10億美元的科技初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。在許多迎合消費者的公司中，不惜一切代價發(fā)展的策略，即所謂的“閃電式擴張”，被證明是有缺陷的。一些公司，尤其是軟銀1000億美元愿景基金注資的那些公司，已經(jīng)開始裁員。所有這些都將使大公司更容易雇傭到最優(yōu)秀的人才。瀕臨倒閉的公司可能會被科技巨頭爭相收購。
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