評論
打印
Germany's digital future
德國的數字化未來
Googlephobia
谷歌恐懼癥
Germany's opposition to American technology firms is short-sighted and self-defeating
德國對美國技術公司的排斥，顯得它目光短線，最后弄巧成拙。
VERBOTEN! This seems to be Germany's default reaction to digital disrupters. A court in Frankfurt has just imposed a temporary injunction on Uber, the popular ride-sharing service founded in Silicon Valley. The case was brought by the German taxi industry, which argues that the service poses safety risks and flouts the country's passenger-transport laws.
絕對禁止！這似乎是德國對數字化破壞的默認態度。法蘭克福法院剛剛在有關UBER方面強加的臨時禁令，這是一款由硅谷開發的受歡迎的打車軟件。此案是由德國出租車行業挑起，認為該服務帶來的安全風險并蔑視國家的旅客運輸法。
By itself, the ban of Uber would be no big deal. The company is enraging incumbent taxi drivers in plenty of other countries. But it is another sign of Germany's growing hostility to American technology firms. Google (whose executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, is a member of the board of The Economist's parent company) has been a particular focus for increasingly hysterical criticism. Mathias D?pfner, the head of Axel Springer, Germany's biggest newspaper publisher, has compared Google to the giant Fafner in Wagner's “Ring of the Nibelungen”. Newspaper articles refer to it as an “octopus” that keeps adding tentacles. When it emerged late last year that Google was operating a fleet of barges mounted with containers, speculation abounded over whether it was building a floating empire beyond the control of national states.
就其本身而言，Uber的禁令也沒什么大不了的。該公司的行為引起了其他國家大量出租車司機的憤怒。但這也是德國日益增長的對美國技術公司敵意的另一個跡象。谷歌（其執行董事長，埃里克·施密特是經濟學家母公司董事會的成員）特別關注越來越歇斯底里的批評。馬蒂亞斯·勞瑞森，施普林格總裁，德國最大的報紙出版商，把谷歌比作在瓦格納的“尼伯龍根的指環”中的巨人法夫納。報紙上的文章稱它為不斷增加其觸角的“章魚”。去年年底，當它出現的時候，谷歌正在經營一個裝載集裝箱駁船的艦隊。許多人猜測是否它正建設一個超越國家控制的懸浮帝國。
German fears may have political consequences. Sigmar Gabriel, the economy minister, has suggested the company should be broken up. And Germany is putting pressure on Joaquín Almunia, Europe's outgoing competition commissioner, to reopen an agreement his team negotiated with the online giant in February that is supposed to make Google's competitors more visible in its search service.
德國的恐懼可能會帶來政治方面的影響。經濟部長西格瑪爾·加布里爾，建議應該讓這家公司解散。德國不停對歐洲即將離任的競爭委員會專員joaquín Almunia施加壓力，要求二月份重擬與網絡巨頭谷歌的協議，這可能使其競爭對手在其搜索服務中更可見。
It is perfectly reasonable to worry about the abuse of monopoly power by digital giants that rule their markets in the way Amazon, Facebook and Google do. Powerful network effects make it hard for competitors to keep up. If Google abuses that power, it should be punished. Mr Almunia has found it guilty of some specific abuses and reached a settlement. But there is no reason to believe that the more dramatic remedies that German politicians want—that Google should be treated as an “essential facility” like gas and electricity networks, or that it should be broken up—would benefit consumers.
德國有足夠的理由擔心數字化巨頭濫用壟斷權以亞馬遜，，facebook和谷歌的方式統占他們的市場。強大的網絡效應使其競爭對手難以跟進。如果谷歌濫用權力，它應該被懲罰。阿爾穆尼亞發現其某些特有的濫用罪但達成和解。但沒有理由認為，德國政治家希望把谷歌當做像天然氣和電力網絡一樣的“基本設施”，或者說它應該被解散，這些更戲劇性的補救措施會讓消費者受益。
Silicon Valley to Silicon villain
硅谷與電子惡棍的斗爭
Similarly it is legitimate to worry about privacy—this paper has criticised both Facebook and Google on that score. It is understandable that a society scarred by state surveillance under the Nazis and the Stasi should be particularly wary, but it should also accept that consumers hand over their data freely and get something back. And Germany's digital phobia is driven not just by cultural memory, but also by firms that want the state to protect their business models and keep competitors out. Springer has more political clout in Berlin than any American mogul enjoys in Washington, and it has lobbied for Mr Almunia's settlement with Google to be renegotiated.
類似的是，擔心隱私是合法的，本文批評了facebook和谷歌在這一點上的行為。我們可以理解在由納粹黨和秘密警察組成的國家監管下的社會應該格外謹慎，但它也應該接受消費者有交出他們數據的自由并得到某種回報。德國的數字恐懼不僅僅是文化記憶導致的，也是因為企業希望國家保護他們的商業模式，并趕出競爭對手。斯普林格在柏林比任何美國大亨在華盛頓更具有政治影響力，并幫助游說阿爾穆尼亞與谷歌重新談判達成協議。
Instead of trying to put Google in a straitjacket, German politicians would do better to raze the barriers that make it so hard for startups on the old continent to grow as fast as they do in America. Rather than lobby the European Commission to clamp down on Google, they should push Jean-Claude Juncker, the new president of the commission, to make good on his promise to create, at last, a single market for digital services. Cutting regulations at home would be a better way of securing Germany's digital future than decrying innovators from abroad, just because they are big and American.
不要試圖給谷歌穿上緊身衣，在這塊古老的土地上新創立的公司會很艱難運營，但是德國的政治家們將會做的越來越好，掃除障礙，讓他們如在美國一樣發展迅速。相較于游說歐盟委員會打擊谷歌，他們應該不斷推進該委員會的新主席讓－克洛德·容克兌現自己的承諾——最后，創造數字服務的單一市場。相比譴責大型的，美國的改革公司而言，削減國內法規將會是一個更好的保護德國數字化未來的方式。
