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Briefing: Uber: From zero to seventy (billion)
簡報：優步：從0到70（十億）
The accelerated life and times of the world's most valuable startup.
加快的生活步伐以及全球最具價值創業公司。
Several of America's great industrialists built empires in Pittsburgh, including Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate.
美國一些偉大的實業家在匹茲堡建立了產業帝國，包括鋼鐵大王安德魯·卡內基。
Now the city is attracting the attention of a new, aspiring robber baron.
如今該城市又吸引了另一位有抱負的強盜資本家（特拉維斯·卡拉尼克）的注意力。
Last year the ride-hailing firm Uber swooped down on a robotics research centre run by Carnegie Mellon University in search of autonomous-vehicle expertise.
去年，叫車服務公司優步一頭扎進卡內基·梅隆大學的機器人技術研發中心，尋求自動駕駛汽車的專業技術。
It has been testing self-driving cars on Pittsburgh's roads for months, and will soon begin offering customers the chance to request rides in one.
優步已在匹茲堡道路上對自動駕駛車輛進行了為期數月的測試，乘客很快就能召喚到自動駕駛車輛。
Since the launch of its first smartphone app, UberCab, in 2010, the startup has attracted $18 billion in equity and debt.
優步公司自2010年開發了首款手機應用優步出租車（UberCab）后，便以股權和債權方式融資到180億美元。
Today it carries a valuation of close to $70 billion, making it by far the largest of the startup “unicorns” worth over $1 billion.
如今優步市值接近700億美元，成為 “獨角獸”型企業（指估值超過10億美元的創業公司）中市值最大的一家公司。
No technology firm in history has raised more money from private investors before going public.
歷史上還沒有哪家公司在上市之前便獲得如此多的私人投資。
Its deep-pocketed backers include Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund, mutual funds, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and a crowd of other firms.
優步的大財主有沙特阿拉伯主權財富基金、共同基金、硅谷資本家和其他眾多的公司。
They are stalking the next big win in the technology business at a time when returns from other assets are widely disappointing.
眼下其他資產投資回報普遍讓人失望，他們紛紛將資金賭注到下一場技術熱潮的到來。因此這些大財主都盯著技術行業，準備大贏一場。
Uber operates in more than 425 cities in 72 countries and has around 30m monthly users.
優步已在全球72個國家中的多于425個城市開展業務，每月用戶達到3000萬左右。
In 2016 it will probably have around $4 billion in net revenues, more than double the previous year’s.
優步2016年的凈收入預計將達到40億美元左右，是去年的兩倍多。
Originally dedicated to connecting customers with limos and other ritzy rides, since 2012 it has offered a peer-to-peer service called UberX that lets drivers of all sorts of cars offer rides to passengers using its app.
優步最初致力于讓顧客享受到高級、豪華轎車的服務，但自2012年起，優步推出了點對點的服務，即UberX，借此所有類型的汽車的司機都能搭載使用該應用的乘客。
This service now accounts for the bulk of the firm’s revenues.
優步的收入有很大一部分來自該項服務。
The company also offers an UberPool service that allows several passengers travelling in the same direction to share a ride.
優步還提供拼車（Uberpool）服務，前往同一方向的乘客可以共享一輛車。
It does not own its car fleet, but takes a cut of the fare in return for providing the platform that allows the drivers to work—typically 25%, with the rest going to the driver.
優步并沒有自己的車隊，但它從使用優步平臺的車主中抽成，通常抽成25%，剩下的歸車主。
The company combines great name recognition with huge potential for growth.
優步因其巨大的增長潛力不斷獲得品牌知名度。
Like Facebook and Google before it, it has its own verb ( “Let's Uber there” ) .
與此前的臉書和谷歌相同，優步已然可以當成動詞使用(我們優步過去吧)。
Speaking to The Economist, Travis Kalanick, the company's co-founder and boss, says his goal is not simply to disrupt the taxi market but to make ride-sharing so cheap and convenient that using Uber becomes an alternative to owning a car.
優步的聯合創始人及老板，特拉維斯·卡拉尼克（Travis Kalanick）在接受經濟學人的采訪時表示，優步的目標不僅僅是改變現有的出租車市場，而是降低租車價格，提高服務便利性，推動優步最終可以成為自有車輛的替代之選。
Meanwhile, he is pushing into new areas, such as delivering food and packages.
與此同時，他還在積極拓展新領域，例如外賣和快遞行業。
Last month Uber acquired Otto, a newborn autonomous-lorry company, for around $600m and 20% of Uber's future profits from trucking.
上個月，優步以大約6億美元的價格收購了奧拓，一家成立不久的公司主營無人駕駛型貨車，收購奧拓的資金占到優步未來貨車行業利潤的20%。
If Uber can pull all this off, it could be one of the biggest companies in the world—one which plays a critical role in the lives of consumers and the fabric of cities.
如果優步能夠實現所有的雄心壯志，便可以成為世界級的企業巨頭，對消費者的生活以及城市面貌產生重要影響。
The potential for profit is enormous.
（由此可見）優步在盈利能力上有巨大的潛力。
Worldwide spending on internet advertising, the business that sustains internet giants like Google and Facebook, will be $175 billion this year—larger than the taxi market, which is estimated at roughly $100 billion.
互聯網廣告業務是網絡巨頭谷歌及臉書持續盈利的主要來源，今年廣告業投放在互聯網的資金預計達到1750億美元，超過投放于出租車市場的金額（粗略估計為1000億美元）。
But the global market for personal mobility is worth as much as $10 trillion, according to Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, a bank.
但是摩根士丹利銀行的亞當·喬納斯推測，為人員流動提供便利的全球市場價值高達10萬億美元。
These prospects go some way to explaining a valuation higher than the market value of 87% of firms in the S&P 500 and more than a third higher than that of General Motors, which had a gargantuan $152 billion in sales last year.
盡管去年通用汽車的銷售額達到驚人的1520億美元，優步的市值依然比通用汽車高出三分之一。優步的市值擊敗了標準普爾指數500中87%的公司，究其原因，正是上述所提到的優步的（發展）前景。
Unsurprisingly, a valuation of around 17 times the loss-making company's 2016 revenues spurs a certain amount of scepticism.
這就是為什么人們懷疑優步何以能在持續虧損的情況下市值能達到2016年營收的17倍。
Such a figure can be justified only by lots of future growth, which will cost yet more money.
只有在未來實現巨幅增長才能證明這個數字不是無稽之談，而增長需要大量資金。
But when Uber goes public, perhaps as soon as next year, in order to provide an exit for current investors, will its new shareholders be willing to tolerate continuing losses in the name of growth?
但是如果優步成為上市公司（時間最早可能在明年），為現有的投資者提供撤資渠道，新的股東是否會愿意為了未來的增長持續忍受虧損呢？
There are other questions, too.
問題不僅限于此。
Are the barriers to entry in Uber's business high enough to defend it against rivals such as Lyft in America, Ola in India and Grab in South-East Asia, and from future competition from the likes of Alphabet's Google?
進入打車行業的門檻是否足夠高，能夠將優步的競爭對手，譬如美國的Lyft，印度的Ola及東南亞的Grab公司拒之門外。Uber在未來是否又能抵御Alphabet旗下的谷歌以及其他同類公司的競爭呢？
Will regulation hamstring its growth?
(市場)監管是否會挫傷優步的增長呢？
And perhaps most crucially, how will it manage the transition to driverlessness?
最重要的是，優步將如何向無人駕駛轉型呢？
The firm's long-term success lies in changing the way people and goods get moved around—exactly the area that autonomous vehicles will disrupt.
優步要想保持成功就需要改變人員及貨物運輸方式，而無人駕駛車輛勢必在這一領域帶來顛覆性的影響。
The company feels a pressing need to navigate this technological change before the carmakers and rival technology companies provide competitive visions of the future of transport, and of who will profit from it.
優步公司在科技領域推動變革可謂迫在眉睫，必須先于汽車制造商以及同業競爭者，預見未來交通領域發展趨勢，以及從這一趨勢中獲利的實體。
