評論
打印
Business
商業
The tech crunch (1) - Pop!
科技危機（1）——砰！
Tech bubbles are bursting, some more loudly than others
科技泡沫正在破裂，有些泡沫破裂的聲音更大一些
A favourite pastime in Silicon Valley, second only to inventing the next new thing, is bubble-spotting.
在硅谷，大家最喜愛的一種消遣方式就是發現泡沫，僅次于發明下一個新事物。
Even industry insiders tend to get these things spectacularly wrong.
即使是業內人士也常常會在這些事情上大錯特錯。
“You’ll see some dead unicorns this year,” Bill Gurley, a noted venture capitalist, predicted in 2015, the year that incubation of these startups worth more than $1bn really got going.
著名風險投資家比爾·格利曾在2015年預測：“今年有一些獨角獸企業會倒閉。”而這些價值超過10億美元的初創企業的孵化就在那一年真正開始。
The game has just become much easier: the sound of bubbles popping can be heard all over the place.
這場游戲已變得簡單得多：到處都能聽到泡沫破裂的聲音。
Tech shares, initial public offerings (IPOs), blank-cheque companies (known as SPACs), startup valuations and even cryptocurrencies: all the assets that climbed to dizzying heights over the past few years are now coming down to earth.
科技股、首次公開募股、空白支票公司(又稱特殊目的并購公司)、初創公司估值，甚至加密貨幣：所有在過去幾年攀升至令人目眩的高度的資產，現在都在回歸現實。
It is harder to say how loudly they will burst - and which might still reflate.
很難說它們會以多大的聲音破裂——以及哪些仍有可能再度膨脹。
The decline of tech shares is the most spectacular.
科技股的下跌最為壯觀。
The NDXT, the index of the 100 largest tech firms on the Nasdaq exchange, is down by a third since its peak in early November.
由納斯達克交易所100家最大科技公司組成的NDXT指數，自11月初達到峰值以來，已下跌了三分之一。
Firms in this index have lost a combined $2.8trn in market value.
該指數中的公司市值總共損失了2.8萬億美元。
High-flying startups that went public in recent years have been hit hard, too.
近年來成功上市的高歌猛進的初創公司也受到了重創。
The shares of Robinhood are 80% below the level at which the retail-trading app went public in July 2021.
零售交易應用Robinhood的股價比該公司于2021年7月上市時的水平低80%。
Those of Peloton, which makes internet-connected exercise bikes, have lost over 90% of their value from their peak.
Peloton是一家生產聯網健身自行車的公司，其市值相比巔峰期已下跌超過90%。
As a group, the largest newly listed firms are worth 38% less than at the start of the year.
總體來說，大型新上市公司的市值相比今年年初縮水了38%。
Small wonder that IPOs have dried up.
難怪IPO市場已經枯竭。
From January to April 2021 some 150 companies went public in America, most of them techie.
2021年1月到4月期間，大約有150家公司在美國上市，其中大多數是科技公司。
This year only 30 have done so.
今年只有30家公司上市。
The boom in SPACs, which go public and then find a startup with which to merge, has imploded.
特殊目的并購公司的繁榮破滅，這類公司會先上市，然后找一家初創公司進行合并。
Of the more than 1,000 such firms that have floated in America since 2018, only a third have merged with a target.
自2018年以來，在美國上市的1000多家此類公司中，只有三分之一與目標公司進行了合并。
Many of those that have done deals have lost their shine.
許多曾經達成交易的公司也已失去了往日的光彩。
According to an index that tracks the 25 largest de-SPACed vehicles, they have lost 56% of their value since the beginning of the year.
根據一項追蹤了25家最大的已完成合并的公司的指數，這些公司的市值自今年年初以來已經下跌了56%。
As tech shares crash, they are pulling valuations of private firms down with them.
隨著科技股崩盤，私營企業的估值也隨之下降。
CB Insights, a research firm, reckons that tech startups raised $628bn globally in 2021 in more than 34,000 deals.
研究公司CB Insights估計，2021年，全球科技初創企業通過逾3.4萬筆交易籌集了6280億美元。
Between January and March this year the number of transactions fell by 5% compared with the previous quarter.
今年1月到3月之間，交易數量相比前一季度下降了5%。
The amount of capital invested dropped by 19%, the biggest quarterly decline since 2012.
資本投資額下降了19%，為2012年以來的最大季度降幅。
The unicorn boom’s superstar investors have been walloped.
獨角獸熱潮中的超級明星投資者被擊潰。
On May 12th SoftBank, a Japanese tech investor with a penchant for risky bets, most of which are private, reported that its flagship funds lost an eye-watering $33bn in the past 12 months.
5月12日，日本科技投資者軟銀（該公司熱衷于高風險投資，其中大部分是私人投資）報告稱，其旗艦基金在過去12個月里損失了330億美元，慘不忍睹。
Although they were meant to reach the Moon no matter what, cryptocurrencies are also coming a cropper.
盡管加密貨幣無論怎樣都注定是要登上月球的，但它們也在走下坡路。
Even some hardened “hodlers” have been getting cold feet.
即時是一些堅定的“持幣者”也開始膽怯退縮。
On May 12th bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, was trading below $26,000, less than half its peak in early November.
5月12日，規模最大的加密貨幣比特幣的交易價格低于26000美元，不及11月初峰值的一半。
Other digital monies have shed even more value.
其他數字貨幣的價值縮水更厲害。
The next four biggest coins have lost more than 70% since their peak.
緊隨其后的四種最大的加密貨幣相比最高點下跌超過70%。
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), even more speculative titles to digital assets such as art that can be traded, have been hammered, too.
非同質化代幣(NFTs)，甚至更多的風險性數字資產，比如可以進行交易的藝術品，也受到了打擊。
Sales of NFTs in ether, another big cryptocurrency, have dropped by more than half in recent weeks on OpenSea, a big nft marketplace.
最近幾周，在大型NFT市場OpenSea上，另一種大型加密貨幣以太的NFT銷售額下降了一半以上。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
