2019-04-19

Tech’s new stars have it all—except a path to high profits
Millions of users, cool brands and charismatic bosses are not enough
原文来源：The Economist 2019-4-18

Article

https://frankzhougq.github.io/article/TE-2019-04-19/

Notes

privately held tech firms worth over $1bn that are supposedly strong and world-beating—miraculous almost.
第一流的

It will be America’s third-biggest-ever tech IPO, after Alibaba and Facebook.
Uber

In China, an IPO wave that began last year rumbles on.

rumble 'on (especially BrE) (of an argument, a disagreement, etc. 争论、分歧等) to continue slowly and steadily for a long time 缓慢而长久地持续；无休止地继续下去
Discussions rumble on over the siting of the new airport.
关于新机场的选址问题，讨论起来没完没了。

armies of users
大批的

They and their venture-capital (VC) backers
VC支持者

There is, however, a problem with the unicorns: their business models.
商业模式

posted combined losses of $14bn last year.
披露损失

ride-hailing
打车，ride-hailing app

The justification for this is the Silicon Valley doctrine of “blitzscaling” in order to conquer “winner-takes-all” markets
闪电式扩张；赢者通吃

conducting a high-speed land grab in the hope of finding gold.
抢地掘金

building firms and commercialising ideas.

Low interest rates left investors chasing returns.

untold riches

untold misery/ wealth
极度的痛苦；巨额财富

using piles of money to speed up the process.

have large user bases.
用户基础

outsourcing their IT to cloud providers.
外包

fight other richly funded rivals
资金雄厚的对手

is going head-to-head with Apple.

in which two people or groups face each other directly in order to decide the result of a disagreement or competition 正面交锋的；面对面的
a head-to-head battle/ clash/ contest
正面战斗╱冲突╱竞争

the unicorns’ markets are contested,
竞争很激烈

And without deep moats around their businesses a permanent question-mark hangs over the unicorns
比喻用的好，护城河，也就是行业壁垒

hang 'over sb if sth bad or unpleasant is hanging over you, you think about it and worry about it a lot because it is happening or might happen 使忧心忡忡；担心可能发生
The possibility of a court case is still hanging over her.
可能被告上法庭的阴影依然笼罩在她的心头。

The earlier generation of firms did not face many rules—few legislators had imagined the internet—so they could charge ahead first and beg forgiveness later.
有道理

Airbnb sidestepped taxes on hotels and Uber drove through regulations on taxi-licensing.
例子

Today a reaction is in full swing

in full 'swing having reached a very lively level 在热烈进行中；处于兴盛阶段
When we arrived the party was already in full swing.
我们赶到时，聚会已进入高潮。

investor circulars
投资者通告

Investors, meanwhile, need to hold their nerve.
紧绷神经

most unicorns cap outside investors’ voting rights (Uber is an exception), and many have “poison pills” too, making takeovers hard and constraining investors’ ability to intervene if the firms do not eventually find a way to make enough profits to justify their IPO valuations.
保证管理权的独立性