【经济学人】字节跳动引美国关注(1)

ByteDance 字节跳动

Unabashed China's first global software company is going from strength to strength. America doesn't like it one bit As covid-19 has forced the world's teenagers out of school and into their rooms, they have turned to a familiar digital companion, TikTok（抖音）. The short-video app was downloaded 115m times in March. 

unabashed adj.不害臊的；不怕羞的；满不在乎的

abashed adj.不安的（=discomposed）；窘迫的；尴尬地

Its nearly 1bn regular users enjoy silly clips of dog antics alongside pandemic advice from the World Health Organisation. Collectively, TikTok videos tagged with #coronavirus have been watched 53bn times. 

antic adj.古怪的；滑稽可笑的  vi.扮小丑；做滑稽动作  n.滑稽动作；丑角

hashtag  # 标签；话题

TikTok's popularity over the past two years has shone the spotlight on ByteDance, its Beijing-based developer. Founded by a Chinese computer scientist, Zhang Yiming, in 2011, it is now the world's biggest unlisted technology "unicorn", recently valued at between $90bn and $100bn. 

shone v. shine的过去式及过去分词 

has shone the spotlight on 使……备受关注

unlisted adj.未上市的；未编入册的

It is also the only technology firm bar Apple with more than 100m users in both China and America, where TikTok has taken on the likes of YouTube and Instagram. And ByteDance isn't done（译为：并未止步于此）. 

bar prep.除……之外  vt.禁止；阻拦  n.酒吧；条；棒；障碍

The 60,000 people in its buzzy offices —— "We are like flies," says one former employee —— crank out one app after another. In the past year it has launched a worldwide corporate-software service (Lark), a music-streaming app in India and Indonesia (Resso) and, in China, a messaging rival to WeChat. 

buzzy  n.伸缩式风钻  adj.嗡嗡响的

crank n.曲柄；奇想  adj.易怒的  vt.装曲柄

crank out 制成；粗制滥造

As other firms sack workers amid（面对） covid-19, ByteDance is hiring 10,000 globally. It plans to employ 30,000 on top of that this year. ByteDance is not the first Chinese firm with foreign ambitions.

sack  n.麻袋，包  vt.开除，解雇，装入袋中

on top of 另外；熟练掌握；在……之上；紧接着

Commodity giants such as CNOOC（中国海洋石油总公司 China National Offshore Oil Corporation）, an oil firm, have been buying foreign reserves, and rivals, since the 1990s. In the past decade industrial giants have pursued Western competitors from carmaking (as with Geely's purchase of Volvo如吉利收购沃尔沃) to chemicals (ChemChina's of Syngenta中国化工收购先正达). 

commodity n.商品，货物；有用的东西

foreign reserve 外汇储备（Foreign Exchange Reserve）

More haphazardly, conglomerates like Fosun（复星） and Anbang（安邦） splurged on trophy assets (including Club Med 地中海俱乐部 and the Waldorf Astoria hotel 华尔道夫酒店, respectively)

hap'hazard adj.偶然的，随意的，无计划的

haphazard investment 盲目投资

con'glomerate n.（多种经营的）联合大企业，企业集团 ；聚集物；砾岩

splurge n./v.炫耀；卖弄；挥霍

trophy n.奖品；战利品；纪念品  vt.用战利品装饰  adj.显示身份的；有威望的