2020/2/23

经济学人精读笔记6：美团拼多多上市后高歌猛进，逆袭成功

标签（空格分隔）：经济学人

Part 1

China’s tech darlings have been on a tear

Meituan and Pinduoduo are now the country’s third- and fifth-biggest listed internet firms

America’s technology unicorns, as privately held startups worth $1bn or more are known, seem to lose their magic as soon as they go public. The market capitalisation of Uber is down by almost half since it listed in May. Lyft has shed a bit more even than its bigger ride-hailing rival.

中国科技宠儿一路高歌猛进
美团和拼多多已成为中国排在第三和第五的
上市互联网公司
众所周知，美国的科技独角兽公司（市值10亿美元或以上的私营初创公司）一上市就似乎失去了魔力。自5月份上市以来，Uber的市值下降了近一半，而比其这位最大的网约车竞争对手，Lyft的降幅则更大。

be on a tear表示 “接连胜利, 高歌猛进”

The Liverpool forward has been on a tear ever since he recovered from nose, scoring four goals in three games.这个利物埔的前锋自从鼻子康复，凭借他在三场比赛中的四个进球，已经成了一个炙手可热的明星。

list v. 上市【熟词僻义】
A new social stock exchange could radically change this, and only companies with a clearly defined social purpose would be allowed to list.一种新的社会型证交所将极大地改变着这种情况，只有明确定义其社会目标的公司才会被允许上市。

listed company/firma listed company is one which offers its shares for sale on the stock exchange 上市公司= public company / public corporation

【相关表达】go public 也是“上市”的意思

IPO 首次公开募股(initial public offering)；首次公开发行；首次公开招股，上市

stake [stek] n. money that sb invests in a company 股本；股份

stakeholder n. 参与人，有权益关系者

share price 股价But the idea that the company as a whole might be taken over has become significantly more likely as its share price has plummeted.虽然这个可能性不大，但是整个公司极有可能被接管，因为它的股价暴跌。

数字+ a share 意为多少钱一股But he added that Yahoo had insisted on at least $53bn, or $37 a share - more than Microsoft was prepared to pay.

但是他补充道，雅虎坚持至少530亿美元的报价，或者37美元每股，高出了微软的预期支出。

unicorn指传说中的独角兽，前缀uni-表示"一个,单一"（比如：uniform制服）加上corn是“角”的意思，unicorn 就是独角兽，现在也指“独角兽公司”，一般指投资界对于10亿美元以上估值，并且创办时间相对较短（一般为十年内）还未上市的公司的称谓。
ride-hailing 或taxi-hailing n.打车

ride-hailing service叫车服务，也就是我们平时所说的滴滴打车。滴滴和优步这种打车软件叫taxi-hailing app. 这里hail作动词指招手让出租车停下的动作，“打的”就可以说hail a taxi / cab

Mr Jonas of Morgan Stanley reckons that by 2030 around 25% of miles travelled in India will be on ride-hailing and ride-sharing services.摩根斯坦利的琼斯认为到2030年，印度1/4的出行将通过叫车和拼车的方式实现。

capitalisation n. 〈主英〉资本化,股本,资本总额,大写
shed vt. 流出, 流下

Part 2

Neither is remotely profitable. Slack, a corporate-messaging service, lost $360m in its first quarter as a public company, over ten times more than as a private one a year earlier. Its share price has slid, too.

这两家公司都未能实现盈利。企业信息服务公司Slack在其成为上市公司的首个季度亏损了3.6亿美元，是其一年前作为私有公司亏损额的十倍多。其股价也在下跌。

remotely adv. (用于否定句)丝毫，根本 You use remotely with a negative statement to emphasize the statement.【写作推荐】

We had never seen anything remotely like it before... 我们以前从来没有见过任何类似的事情。

Nobody was remotely interested. 根本没有人感兴趣。

形容词形式是remote，意为“偏远的，遥远的”比如偏远乡村就是remote rural areas

遥控器则是“the remote-control”The children were squabbling over the remote-control gadget for the television. 孩子们正在为抢夺电视机的遥控器而争吵。

profitable adj.有利润的；赢利的

a highly profitable business一家赢利很高的企业

unprofitable [ʌnˈprɑfɪtəbl] adj.not making enough financial profit不赢利的

unprofitable companies不赚钱的公司

【类似表达】lucrative [ˈluː.krə.tɪv] adj.获利多的；赚大钱的

lucrative business / contract / market 利润丰厚的生意 / 合同 / 市场

quarter 是名词表示“季度”

quarterly有三种词性：adj.季度的/ adv.按季度地/ n.季刊

【注意】-ly结尾的不一定是副词，也有 n.+ ly = adj. 的形式

The quarterly had been a forum for sound academic debate. 这本季刊曾经是进行颇有见地的学术讨论的论坛。

weekly adj.每周的/ n.周刊

slide [slaɪd]本义是“滑行，滑动”，引申为降低，下滑时往往指逐渐地降低(become gradually lower or of less value)

再学习一些关于 “增长”的多样表达:

增加：rise, climb, grow, mount, swell, multiply激增：surge, shoot up, soar, escalate, balloon, explode, rocket, skyrocket

Part 3

China also has its own tech duds. Shares in Xiaomi, a maker of smartphones and gadgets, are worth half of their offering price last July. But other Chinese unicorns have managed to retain some of their mojo.

中国也有一些在上市后表现不佳的科技公司。智能手机和电子产品制造商小米公司的股价就已经跌至去年7月发行价的一半了。但还有一些中国独角兽公司却能在上市后保持魔力。

dud n.[dʌd] (informal) a thing that is useless, especially because it does not work correctly 不中用的东西；废物

Two of the fireworks in the box were duds.盒子里的烟火有两个是点不着的废品。

gadget [‘ɡædʒit]常用来指高科技的小玩意儿，小工具，像iPad, iPod这类产品都是gadget。

obsessive gadget fans即“科技产品狂人”，或者说是“科技产品发烧友”

[经济学人.Apple and Iphone] Since then Apple has sold some 1.2bn phones and notched up more than $740bn in sales from the bestselling tech gadget in history.至今苹果已售出约12亿台手机，销售额超过7400亿美元，是史上最畅销的科技设备。

mojo n.[ˈməʊdʒəʊ] magic power 魔力

Part 4

Two in particular have been on a tear in the past six months: Meituan-Dianping, an online-services super-app that trades in Hong Kong, and Pinduoduo, a shopping app listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange.

With a market capitalisation of $72bn,Meituan is now China’s third-biggest listed internet firm, behind Alibaba and Tencent. Pinduoduo’s $36bn puts it fifth, behind Baidu.

在过去的六个月中，有两家中国公司的股价一直在上涨：美团点评（一款在香港交易所上市的在线服务超级应用）和拼多多（一款在纽约纳斯达克交易所上市的购物应用）。
美团以720亿美元的市值成为了仅次于阿里巴巴和腾讯的中国第三大上市互联网公司。拼多多以360亿美元的市值排在第五名，仅次于百度。

exchange做动词为 “交换”，作名词指“交易大厅;交易所”Exchange is used in the names of some places where people used to trade and do business with each other.
With a market capitalisation of …市值….

With a market capitalisation of nearly $ 50 billion , Genentech is larger than many " big pharm " groups. 市场资本接近500亿美元的基因技术公司,比许多制药业 “ 大集团 ” 还大.

on a tear 表示接连胜利

Part 5

Meituan burned through cash to fuel its food-delivery and bike-rental businesses. Users were delighted; investors, less so. But the strategy appears to have paid off: the company reported its first net profit, of 876m yuan ($128m), in the second quarter.

美团通过烧钱的策略来推动其外卖和共享单车业务。用户很高兴，但投资者却不太乐意。但这一策略似乎颇具成效：美团在今年第二季度以8.76亿元（约合1.28亿美元）的净利润首次实现了盈利。

fuel是一个很形象的小词，我们重点讲解一下。fuel作名词讲是“燃料”，比如fossil fuel化石燃料，常引申为“动力”。经济学家朱利安·西蒙（Julian Simon）就有一句名言：The main fuel to speed the world’s progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination.推动世界进步的主要动力是我们的知识储备，而阻力是我们想象力的匮乏。

《经济学人》一篇关于中国农村教育的文章谈到了农民工对城市建设的推动作用，也用到了fuel一词：The migration of more than 200m of them into cities, where their labour is more productive than it is in the fields, has been the rocket fuel of the country’s spectacular growth. the rocket fuel 本义是火箭燃料，比喻某事的强力助推。

fuel也可作动词，义为“刺激；加强”，相当于increase sth, make sth stronger，常见的搭配是 fuel speculation / rumours / fears 引起猜测 / 谣传 / 恐惧推动经济发展，比如《纽约时报》一篇报道范冰冰逃税事件的文章提到：It has fueled a flurry of rumors of personal rivalries and political intrigue, even at the pinnacles of power in Beijing, though few concrete facts.这件事也引发了种种关于个人恩怨和政治阴谋的传言，甚至涉及到北京的权力巅峰，但没有多少具体的事实。

【类似表达】boost growth 促进增长，boost表示“使增长，使兴旺” (to make sth increase, or become better or more successful), 是一个外刊的高频用词，常用于指提高价格、促进增长、振作精神等抽象概念，比如 The new resort area has boosted tourism. 新的度假区促进了旅游业的发展。

同义表达还有facilitate, promote, encourage。

food-delivery service 外卖服务，送餐服务

bike-rental 或bike sharing共享单车

pay off v.to be successful and bring good results 成功；奏效；达到目的

The gamble paid off.赌博赢了。

net adj.净得的；纯的 a net profit of $500 500美元的纯利润 net income/earnings 纯收入（税后）
gross adj. 总的；毛的 gross income / wage（税前）总收益/工资

Part 6

Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, reckons that Meituan may continue to make money, not least because its meal-toting rivals—including Alibaba—are losing their appetite to fork out much more.

Pinduoduo, for its part, has overtaken JD.com as China’s second-largest e-commerce site by number of annual buyers (over 500m). It claims to be a combination of Costco (cheap) and Disneyland (thrills). Recruit friends to join you in ordering a crate of 30 kiwis, and their price falls.

研究公司桑福德·伯恩斯坦认为，美团还将继续盈利，尤其是因为其竞争对手阿里巴巴不愿意再实行烧钱的策略。
就拼多多而言，按年采购量（超过5亿）计算，它已超过京东成为中国第二大电子商务平台。拼多多声称是Costco（廉价）和Disneyland（乐趣）的结合。叫上朋友与您一起订购30个奇异果的箱子，就可用低价买到它。

meal-toting rival 竞争对手 n. 竞争者；对手
appetite n. ~ (for sth) a strong desire for sth 强烈欲望

The public have an insatiable appetite for scandal.公众对丑事总是喜闻乐道。

whet one’s appetite for sth 吊某人胃口；激发某人的对...的兴趣/欲望
fork out for sth/ fork out sth on sth (informal) to spend a lot of money on sth, especially unwillingly （尤指不情愿地）大量花钱，大把掏钱

Why fork out for a taxi when there's a perfectly good bus service?有挺好的公共汽车，干吗要多掏钱坐出租汽车？

We've forked out a small fortune on their education.我们在他们的教育上可花了不少钱。

overtake sb as sth 指“超越某人成为…”

比如刚刚离婚的贝佐斯在去年超过比尔·盖茨成为世界首富，我们可以说：Last year Jeff Bezos overtook Bill Gates as the world’s wealthiest person.

再比如“电子支付很快超过现金，成为中国人最常用的支付方式”：Electronic payments soon overtook cash as the most popular ways to pay for things in China.

thrill n.a strong feeling of excitement or pleasure; an experience that gives you this feeling 震颤感；兴奋感；兴奋；激动；令人兴奋的经历

It gave me a big thrill to meet my favourite author in person.能见到我最喜欢的作者本人使我感到兴奋不已。

thrilling adj.[ˈθrɪlɪŋ]exciting and enjoyable 惊险的；紧张的；扣人心弦的；令人兴奋不已的

a thrilling experience/finish激动人心的经历 / 结局

reckon vt. 猜想; 估计