亞馬遜顛覆了傳統產業，甚至改變了世界的消費方式。但現在應該謹防它濫用其主導地位。
WHEN Jeff Bezos left his job in finance and moved to Seattle 20 years ago to start a new firm, he rented a house with a garage, as that was where the likes of Apple and HP had been born. Although he started selling books, he called the firm Amazon because a giant river reflected the scale of his ambitions. This week the world's leading e-commerce company unveiled its first smartphone, which Amazon treats less as a communication device than an ingenious shopping platform and a way of gathering data about people in order to make even more accurate product recommendations.
20年前，當傑夫·貝佐斯從金融行業辭職來到西雅圖時，他租了壹套帶有車庫的房子，在此之前，像蘋果和惠普等巨頭都是從類似這樣的車庫裏誕生的。雖然傑夫是以賣書起家的，但他卻給公司起名為亞馬遜，以這條流域最廣的河流命名，充分的彰顯了其野心。本周，這家全球領先的電子商務公司，推出了其首款智能手機，但在亞馬遜看來，其主要目的並不是這款通訊設備，而是開創壹個獨特的購物平臺，以及創建壹個用戶數據收集平臺，以便更好的了解客戶需求，並推出相應的產品。
The smartphone is typical of Amazon. There is the remorseless expansion: if you can deliver books and washing machines, why not a phone? There is the ability to switch between the real world of atoms and the digital world of bits: Amazon has one of the world's most impressive physical distribution systems, even as it has branched out into cloud computing, e-books, video streaming and music downloads (see article). There is the drive for market share over immediate profits. And there is the slightly creepy feeling that Amazon knows too much about its users already. So far its insatiable appetite has helped consumers; but as it grows in size and power the danger is that it will go too far.
這款智能手機極具亞馬遜的特色。它始終在堅持不懈的擴張其業務：如果妳能配送書和洗衣機，那為什麽不能配送手機呢?它有著在現實世界和數字空間之間交替跳躍的能力。亞馬遜擁有世界上最令人欽佩的物流系統，同時還擴展到雲計算，電子書，視頻流媒體和音樂下載等(見文章)。相比較於眼前利益，亞馬遜更趨向於市場占有額的獲齲不得不說的是，人們認為，亞馬遜對用戶的了解過於詳細，甚至有些讓人毛骨悚然。迄今為止，它對數據的需求，雖有些貪得無厭，但還是對客戶有幫助。但是隨著亞馬遜的規模不斷擴大，能力的不斷提升，該公司可能會走的過遠，以至於無法回頭。
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For the moment, admiration should count for more than fear. Many things the world now takes for granted were introduced by Mr Bezos. Typing your credit-card number into a web browser was once considered a sign of insanity until Amazon showed how easy and safe buying things online could be. Once people had bought a book, they tried other things. Today the global e-commerce market is worth $1.5 trillion.
就目前而言，人們對亞馬遜尊敬大於恐懼。如今許多人們認為理所當然的事，都是出自貝佐斯先生之手。在瀏覽器中輸入信用卡號碼曾被認為是壹種很瘋狂的行為，知道亞馬遜證實了網上購物的便利性和安全性。壹旦人們成功購買了壹本書，他們就會想要買更多的東西。如今，全球電子商務市場份額已達到1.5萬億美元。
Amazon also fostered the emergence of customer reviews. From the start it let buyers rate and review books. This still irks some professional critics, and some of the most fulsome five-star ratings may be from spouses of authors. But overall they provide valuable advice to buyers. Today everything from apps to hotels to hoses can be rated online, and retail websites seem incomplete without customer reviews.
除此之外，亞馬遜還催生出了用戶點評模式。從創立之初，亞馬遜便允許買家對圖書進行評分及評論。這仍然為壹些專業評書人所不齒，而且壹些過度贊美的五星評價也很可能出至作者的親屬。但總的而言，這種方式確實可以給買家提供壹些有價值的建議。如今，從應用到酒店都可以在網上接受用戶評價，甚至沒有用戶評價的網頁會給人感覺少了些什麽。
Then there are the industries it has upended. Books came first. Amazon has changed publishing twice—first by making any book in the world quickly available and then by making e-books mainstream. Before Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007, e-readers were fiddly gadgets that few people used. The Kindle was easy to use, worked anywhere and allowed instant delivery straight to the device (rather than via a PC). Amazon also pioneered a new model for cloud computing. In 2006 it began renting out computer capacity by the hour. The option to rent rather than buy computing power greatly reduced the cost and complexity of launching a new company. Amazon's cloud services have since been used by startups including Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, Spotify and Airbnb, and have spawned a whole new industry.
此外，亞馬遜還顛覆了許多行業，其中圖書首當其沖。亞馬遜已經改變了兩次出版行業。壹次是通過網絡書店方便人們購書，第二次則是通過電子書方便人們隨時閱讀。在2007，亞馬遜推出Kindle之前，電子書只是壹種小眾設備。因為Kindle非常易用，可以隨時隨地使用，而且可以在不借助PC的情況下，能夠立即將圖書下載到設備中。亞馬遜還推出了壹種全新的雲計算方法。在2006年便開始按照時間出租計算資源。這種以租代購的方式大大降低了公司的創業成本及復雜度。亞馬遜的雲端服務還被廣泛的應用於像Netflix，Instagram，Pinterest, Spotify 和Airbnb這樣的新創公司，甚至還催生出了壹些全新的產業。
Apple may be better known as an innovator, but Amazon may have had just as big an impact on the workings of the digital world. And it keeps on experimenting. Unconstrained by a self-image as a company that does a particular thing, Amazon has dabbled in areas from internet search to robotics to film and television development.
作為創新者，蘋果顯然更為人知，但在數字空間的運作上，亞馬遜好像有更巨大的影響。而且它還在不斷探索。但亞馬遜並不是局限在單壹的業務上，在不斷嘗試中，亞馬遜從互聯網搜索發展到機器人，從電影到電視制作。
Indeed, if your glasses are particularly rose-tinted, Amazon seems to have put the “long term” back into Anglo-Saxon capitalism. At a time when Wall Street is obsessed by quarterly results and share buy-backs, Amazon has made it clear to shareholders that, given a choice between making a profit and investing in new areas, it will always choose the latter. While other technology giants sit on record piles of cash, Amazon still has plenty of ideas about where to invest and innovate. And investors seem happy with it: Amazon's price-to-earnings ratio has exceeded 3,500 at times. It aligns top executives' interests with those of shareholders by paying them largely in stock: its highest salary is $175,000 a year.
事實上，如果妳足夠樂觀，亞馬遜似乎在把“長期視角”重新帶回盎格魯薩克遜資本主義。在當今，普遍看重於季度業績和股票回購的華爾街，亞馬遜卻向股東明確表示：每當面臨短期利潤和投資機會二選其壹的命題時，它總會選擇後者。在其他科技巨頭在大量累積現金的時候，亞馬遜仍在努力投資創新。投資者似乎也樂見於此：亞馬遜的市盈率已經超過3500倍。通過用股票作為對股東的支付手段，將高管利益與股東利益捆綁在壹起：高管的最高年薪是17.5萬美元。
Giant selection, tiny tax bill
巨大的選擇，微小的稅收方案
The problem is that many of these virtues come with accompanying vices. Amazon stands accused of unfair competition—of being a lousy employer, dodging tax and bullying its rivals. Amazon says median pay in its American warehouses is 30% higher than in large retail stores. On tax, the picture is a little more nuanced. The main reason its tax bill is so low is that it does not make profits, but Amazon has also been extremely aggressive in (legally) booking profits to low-tax countries. Having campaigned against sales taxes for online transactions for many years, it has lately changed its tune, and now collects sales taxes in a growing number of American states.
問題在於，在這許多的優點之中依然伴隨著許多缺點。亞馬遜被指責不公平競爭，用工環境不佳，避稅和欺淩對手。亞馬遜對此表示，其在美國倉庫的薪水中值比大型零售商還要高出30%。在稅收上，可能有壹些很微妙的情況。亞馬遜的稅收之所以很低，是因為其利潤並不高，但不可否認的是，亞馬遜也在積極地采取合法方式將利潤轉移至稅率低的國家。在反對了那麽多年的網上交易稅後，亞馬遜最近卻改變了態度，開始在美國的越來越多的州代收營業稅。
As for bullying competitors, most of this is just the savage magic of capitalism. Amazon has crushed local bookshops but only in the same way that Tesco and Walmart crushed grocers—by providing a cheaper, easier way to shop. However antitrust regulators must ensure it is not abusing its market power, on a case-by-case basis. For instance, Amazon's current dispute with Hachette, a large publisher, may largely be a standard tussle between retailer and supplier. But when the dominant seller of e-books removes pre-order buttons and makes delivery times longer for Hachette books, that hardly squares with Mr Bezos's professed emphasis on customer service.
至於欺淩弱小的競爭對手，大部分的只是資本主義的野蠻魔法。亞馬遜像樂購和沃爾瑪摧毀雜貨商們壹樣，用提供更便宜，更方便的購物方式來摧毀當地的書店。然而在這個案子的基礎上，反壟斷監管機制必須確保它不會濫用其市場支配力。例如，亞馬遜目前與大型出版商，阿歇特的競爭，很大程度上可能是壹個零售商和供應商之間的爭鬥。但當主要的電子書銷售商刪除預訂按鈕時，將會使阿歇特的圖書交貨時間延長。這很難符合貝佐斯先生所強調的重視客戶服務。
Perhaps the biggest concern about Amazon is, paradoxically, a consequence of its long-term vision. It is hard to compete with a company whose shareholders do not expect it to make a profit. Its vast scale and willingness to operate at zero or negative margins represent high barriers to entry for potential competitors. This cannot go on for ever. The concern is that Amazon is merely waiting for rivals to go out of business before raising its prices. If that happens, regulators should jump on it hard. That would provide an opportunity for another firm—China's Alibaba, say—and some investors might rue the Amazon earnings that never came. But consumers would once again win, as indeed they generally have done as Mr Bezos's scrappy startup has expanded its reach into so many aspects of everyday life
或許，在眾多矛盾之中，亞馬遜最令人擔憂的還是其長期遠景。要與壹個連股東都不想賺錢的公司競爭，難度是可想而知的。它龐大的規模和不惜虧本的經營態度，給潛在的競爭對手設立了壹道不小的門檻。但這種情況不會壹直持續下去，人們擔心的僅僅是在等待壹個個競爭對手逐壹退出市場後，再擡高價格。如果出現這種情況，監管部門該強勢介入。但這樣便會給其他公司，諸如中國的阿裏巴巴，提供機會。而壹些投資者可能會因為盈利遙遙無期而拋棄亞馬遜。但消費者將再次獲益，而在貝佐斯的這家生機勃勃的創業公司逐步滲透到我們生活的方方面面時，這已經成為常態。