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1、Battle of the internet giants互联网巨头间的战斗Survival of the biggest最大者则生存Concern about the clout of the internet giants is growing. But antitrust watchdogs should tread carefully对互联网巨头势力的关注日益增加，但是反垄断机构应当慎重行事。Dec 1st 2012 | from the print editionTHE four giants of the internet ageGoogle, Apple, Facebook an
2、d Amazonare extraordinary creatures. Never before has the world seen firms grow so fast or spread their tentacles so widely. Apple has become a colossus of capitalism, accounting for 4.3% of the value of the S&P 500 and 1.1% of the global equity market. Some 425m people now use its iTunes online sto
3、re, whose virtual shelves are packed to the gills with music and other digital content. Google, meanwhile, is the undisputed global leader in search and online advertising. Its Android software powers three-quarters of the smartphones being shipped. Amazon dominates the online-retail and e-book mark
4、ets in many countries; less well known is its behind-the-scenes power in cloud computing. As for Facebook, if the social networks one billion users were a country, it would be the worlds third largest.互联网时代的四巨头谷歌，苹果，脸谱和亚马逊都是庞然大物。有史以来还从未有公司以他们这样的速度成长，或是将触角延伸得如此宽广。苹果已经成为资本市场的巨无霸，其市值占标普500总市值的4.3%，占全球权
5、益类市场总市值的1.1%。如今，大约4.25亿人使用它的iTunes在线商店，其虚拟货架上摆满了音乐和其他数字产品。同时，谷歌是无可争议的搜索和在线广告全球霸主，其Android软件装配了四分之三的已发货智能手机。亚马逊主导着多国的在线零售和电子书市场；较不为人所知的是，它是云计算的幕后大佬。至于脸谱，如果这个社交网络的10亿用户算作一个国家的话，那么它就是世界上第三大国家。The digital revolution these giants have helped foment has brought huge benefits to consumers and businesses, a
6、nd promoted free speech and the spread of democracy along the way. Yet they provoke fear as well as wonder. Their size and speed can, if left unchecked, be used to choke off competition. That is why they are attracting close scrutiny from regulators.由四巨头助力而引发的数字革命给消费者和工商业带来了巨大的效益，并且促进了言论自由和民主的传播。但是，
7、它们在带来惊喜的同时也引发了不安。如果任其不受约束，它们的规模和速度可被用来窒息竞争。这是它们正遭遇监管者详细审查的原因。Google is the one most under threat. Both the European Commission and Americas Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have been investigating allegations that it has unfairly manipulated its search results to favour its own services. The company a
8、lso stands accused of several other transgressions, including using patents to stymie competition in the smartphone market. The regulators want Google, which disputes the charges, to change its practices. If talks failthey were still continuing as The Economist went to pressthe search firm could end
9、 up mired in costly legal fights on both sides of the Atlantic. This could become the defining antitrust battle of the internet age, just as Microsofts epic fight a decade agoover its bundling of its web-browser with its Windows operating systemdefined the personal-computer era.谷歌的压力最大。欧盟委员会和美国联邦贸易委
10、员会(FTC)一直在对其不公平地操纵其搜索结果以有利于自身服务的指控进行调查，同时它还面临着在智能手机市场上利用专利阻挠竞争等其他数项违法指控。监管者希望否认指控的谷歌改变它的行为。如果谈判破裂的话在经济学人付印时，谈判尚在进行中这家搜索引擎公司可能会在大西洋两岸陷入昂贵的法律之争。这或许会成为互联网时代具有决定性意义的反垄断战斗，恰如10年前同微软的划时代战斗那样指控其将网络浏览器与Windows操作系统捆绑在一起定义个人电脑时代。Why size matters为何规模大小这么重要Three trends alarm those who think the digital giants a
11、re becoming too powerful for consumers good. The first is the rise of winner-take-almost-all markets on the internet. Although Microsoft has poured money into its rival search engine, Bing, Google still accounts for over two-thirds of searches undertaken in America and a whopping 90% or so of them i
12、n some European markets. Facebook, too, enjoys a quasi-monopoly in the social-networking arena. Rivals fear that the big four will exploit their dominant status in their main businesses to gain an unfair advantage in other areasa charge that lies at the heart of the antitrust case against Google.三种趋
13、势警告人们，对于消费者的利益来说，数字巨头正在变得过于强大。第一种趋势是，互联网市场中“赢者几乎通吃”模式的出现。尽管微软为作为竞争对手的搜索引擎必应投入巨资，但是谷歌仍旧占据了美国三分之二的搜索市场，并且在某些欧洲市场的占有量达到惊人的90%左右。在社交网络的竞争中，脸谱也享有类似的垄断。对手们担心，四巨头会扩大它们在各自主业中的优势地位，从而在其他领域获取不公平的优势这是谷歌反垄断案的核心所在。Second, the giants want to get consumers hooked on their own “platforms”combinations of online serv
14、ices and apps that run on smartphones and tablet computers. These platforms can be very appealing. Apple mints money because its hugely profitable iPhone has, in effect, become a remote control for many peoples digital lives. But there are worries that Apple and its peers are creating “walled garden
15、s”* which make it hard for users to move content from one platform to another.第二种趋势是，巨头们想让消费者对它们的“平台”对那些在智能手机和平板电脑上运行的在线服务和应用程序的整合上瘾。这些平台可以是非常有诱惑力的。由于其盈利巨大的 iPhone已经成为多数人数字生活的遥控器，苹果公司成为一台印钞机。 但是，人们担心苹果公司及其同行正在建造一所“围墙花园”，使用户难以将内容从一个平台转移到另一个平台。The third concern is the internet behemoths habit of gobbl
16、ing up promising firms before they become a threat. Amazon, which raised $3 billion in a rare bond issue this week, has splashed out on firms such as Zappos, an online shoe retailer that had ambitions to rival it. Facebook and Google have made big acquisitions too, such as Instagram and AdMob, some
17、of which have drawn intense scrutiny from regulators.第三种趋势是，网络巨无霸们具有在一些有前景的公司成为威胁之前就吞噬它们的恶习。本周，以罕见的债券形式集资30亿美元的亚马逊收购了Zappos，这是一家有雄心同亚马逊竞争的在线鞋业零售商。脸谱和谷歌也曾经进行了一些大型的收购，如Instagram和AdMob，监管方对其中一些收购进行了详尽的审查。So far the watchdogs have focused on surgical strikes, in areas such as online search and the e-boo
18、k market (where Apple is under investigation for alleged cartel-like behaviour with several publishers). Their goal has been to get swift settlements with negotiated remedies that curtail bad behaviour.到目前为止，监管方的重点是对诸如在线搜索和电子书市场（苹果公司因与几家出版商有垄断性合作而正在接受调查）进行外科手术式的打击。他们的目标是达成带有协商补救措施的快速协议，从而禁止不良市场行为。So
19、me critics think that is too weak. There have been calls for Google to be chopped up into two independent firms, severing its search business from its other activities. Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and consultant to the FTC, has even argued that in the interests of promoting competitio
20、n, big “information monopolies” such as Apple and Google should be forced to choose between being providers of digital content, producers of hardware or information distributors (via such things as cloud-computing services).某些舆论认为，这种做法过于软弱。有人呼吁把谷歌拆分为两个独立的公司，将其搜索业务从其他业务中分离出来。哥伦比亚大学法学院教授兼FTC顾问Tim Wu甚至
21、提出，为了保障竞争的利益，应当强迫如苹果和谷歌这样的大型“信息垄断者”在数字内容提供商，硬件生产商或信息传播商（通过云服务这样的服务）之间做出选择。The danger is that such corporate butchery would do more harm than good. The fact that people have flocked to big web firms platforms suggests that consumers are perfectly willing to trade some openness for convenience and eas
22、e-of-use. And if they do want to change providers, the cost of doing so has fallen dramatically in the broadband era. Switching to a new search engine or music service takes a matter of seconds. And this time, rather than there being one dominant player (as Microsoft was for a while), there is a war
23、 of all against all (see article). 对企业如此分拆的危险在于弊大于利。人们对大型网络公司平台趋之若鹜的事实表明，消费者完全愿意为了便利而牺牲多样化选择。如果他们想更换提供商，这样做的费用在宽带时期已经大幅下降。切换到一个新搜索引擎或者音乐服务是几秒钟的事情。这次，除了一个主导者之外（像曾经的微软那样），所有对手之间都要进行一场战争。Smartphones powered by Googles Android operating system have come from nowhere to dominate the market, eclipsing App
24、les iPhone. Amazons Kindle tablet is going head-to-head with the iPad. In social networking Google+ is fighting Facebook. And Facebook and Apple, along with Microsoft, now have designs on Googles dominance in search. Smaller firms such as Twitter are also keen to join the giants ranks, and have rebu
25、ffed marriage offers from them. Facebook itself was a start-up just eight years ago.搭配谷歌Android 操作系统的智能手机从无到有再到主导市场，已超越苹果的iPhone。亚马逊的Kindle平板电脑 把iPad当做对手。在社交网络领域，Google+正在挑战脸谱。同时，脸谱与苹果，连同微软在内，如今正在谋划取代谷歌在搜索方面的霸主地位。像Twitter等规模小一点的公司也急于加入巨无霸的行列，并且回绝了它们的联姻提议。脸谱自己在8年前还是一家刚起步的公司。Schumpeter 2.0熊彼得理论2.0版Ind
26、eed, the tech world is changing so fast that it brings to mind Joseph Schumpeters comment about the “perennial gale of creative destruction” that sweeps through economies as innovative insurgents take on entrenched incumbents. Microsofts antitrust problems now seem less vital than the fact that, eve
27、n while it tangled with regulators, the giant squid failed to sense that the commercial currents had shifted against it. The four big fish nowadays also have a reputation for arrogance and plenty of enemies. If they really want to keep the trustbusters at bay, they should not let their size go to th
28、eir heads.事实上，科技界更新换代的速度如此之快，让人无法不想起约瑟夫熊彼得对“创造性破坏的永恒风暴”的论述，这是一种在具有创新意识的造反者挑战腐朽顽固的在任者时风靡经济界的一种理论。现在看来，即使微软仍同监管方纠缠不清，其反垄断问题似乎已经没有事实那么关键了，事实是这条大章鱼没能意识到它早已站在了商业潮流的对立面。今天的四巨头同样有着自大和到处树敌的名声。如果它们真得想把反垄断者拒之门外的话，它们的规模不应当超过现在的大小。注：*“围墙花园”指的是一个控制用户对网页内容和服务进行访问的环境。围墙花园一般是把用户限制在一个特定的范围内，允许用户访问指定内容，而防止用户访问其他未被允许的内容。
