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A makeover at Facebook? -- About-face
Facebook的改頭換面？——徹底改變
A rumoured name-change reflects ambition -- and weakness
傳聞中的更名展現了雄心——和弱點
Worth nearly $1trn, Facebook is the world’s sixth-most-valuable company.
Facebook市值近1萬億美元，是世界第六大最有價值的公司。
Its revenues have grown by 56% in the past year, and its share price by more than a quarter.
在過去的一年里，它的營收增長了56%，其股價上漲了四分之一以上。
Nearly 3bn people use its products every month.
每月有近30億用戶使用其產品。
Why would such a glittering success change its name, as the Verge, a news site, reports it plans to within days?
一家如此輝煌如此成功的公司，為什么要像新聞網站The Verge報道的那樣，計劃在幾天內更名呢？
The likely official reason for the rebranding, which Facebook has not confirmed, is that the firm has outgrown the social network that Mark Zuckerberg started 17 years ago in a Harvard dorm.
Facebook更名的官方原因可能是，該公司已經發展得過于龐大，不再是馬克·扎克伯格17年前在哈佛大學宿舍創立的社交網絡了。Facebook尚未證實這一點。
Today it encompasses other social apps (Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger) and video hardware (Oculus, Portal).
如今，它涵蓋了其他社交應用(Instagram、WhatsApp、Messenger)和視頻硬件(Oculus、Portal)。
It has launched a digital wallet (Novi) and may yet offer a currency (Diem).
它已經推出了數字錢包(Novi)，并且還可能發行貨幣(Diem)。
Mr Zuckerberg expects people eventually to associate his firm more with the “metaverse”, a virtual space for work, play and more, than with social media.
扎克伯格期望人們最終更多地將他的公司與“元宇宙”（一個用于工作、娛樂和其他活動的虛擬空間）聯系在一起，而不是與社交媒體聯系在一起。
This week Facebook said it would hire 10,000 people to work on the metaverse.
本周，Facebook表示將雇傭1萬人來從事元宇宙相關工作。
If the Facebook network is to take a back seat, there may be a case for regrouping under a new name.
如果說Facebook社交網絡要退居次位，或許就有理由用一個新名稱進行重組了。
Facebook wouldn’t be the first tech titan to do so.
Facebook并不是第一家這樣做的科技巨頭。
In 2015 Google set up Alphabet, a holding company for the search engine and its many side projects.
2015年，谷歌成立了Alphabet，這是一家負責搜索引擎及其許多輔助項目的控股公司。
Under this model, Facebook would become just another app within a wider family, albeit by far its biggest earner.
在這種模式下，Facebook將成為一個龐大家族中的又一個應用軟件，盡管它是到目前為止最賺錢的一個。
There is another, less flattering possible motive for a makeover.
改名還有另一個可能的動機，聽起來不那么討人喜歡。
For all its pecuniary success, the Facebook brand has become tarnished.
盡管Facebook在金錢上取得了巨大成功，但它的品牌形象已蒙上污點。
The social network is blamed for stoking everything from teenage anorexia to insurrection at the US Capitol.
這個社交網絡被指責煽動了所有事件，從青少年厭食癥到美國國會大廈的暴動。
This month Frances Haugen, a former employee, told Congress that Facebook was failing to moderate content on its platform and covering up a drop in young American users (it denies this).
這個月，前雇員弗朗西斯·豪根告訴國會，Facebook未能管控其平臺上的內容，并且掩蓋了美國年輕用戶減少的事實（Facebook否認了這一點）。
Public trust in it is lower than in most tech giants, and falling.
公眾對Facebook的信任度低于大多數科技巨頭，而且還在持續下降。
Although two years ago the firm started branding its apps as being “from Facebook”, its new “smart glasses”, which can record video and take phone calls, feature only the logo of its partner, Ray-Ban.
盡管該公司在兩年前就開始給其應用程序打上“來自Facebook”的標簽，但其可以錄視頻和打電話的新型“智能眼鏡”上只有其合作伙伴Ray-Ban的標志。
Facebook investors seem untroubled.
Facebook的投資者似乎并未受到困擾。
But its social apps’ growing toxicity threaten to poison its other projects.
但其社交應用程序日益增長的差評可能會毒害它的其他項目。
On October 19th Democratic senators signed a letter arguing that Novi and Diem should be scrapped, since “Facebook cannot be trusted to manage a payment system or digital currency when its existing ability to manage risks and keep consumers safe has proven wholly insufficient.”
10月19日，民主黨參議員簽署了一封信，主張應該廢除Novi和Diem，因為“當事實證明Facebook現有的風險管理和保障消費者安全的能力完全不足時，不能信由它來管理支付系統或數字貨幣。”
Mr Zuckerberg himself has been a lightning rod for much of the criticism of Facebook, and of bossy tech firms more generally.
扎克伯格本人一直承受著許多對Facebook的批評，大多批評Facebook是個專橫霸道的科技公司。
As the all-powerful founder, he has a higher profile than his opposite numbers at TikTok, YouTube and other social networks.
作為擁有最多權力的創始人，他的知名度比TikTok、YouTube和其他社交網絡同行更高。
Normally, a brand facing a reputational crisis might dump its unpopular CEO.
通常情況下，一個面臨聲譽危機的品牌可能會拋棄其不受歡迎的首席執行官。
But Mr Zuckerberg’s position is unassailable, which may explain why he would want to dump the brand instead.
但扎克伯格的地位是無法撼動的，這或許可以解釋他為什么轉而想要拋棄這個品牌的名字。
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