《经济学人》双语：亚马逊视频业务的商业逻辑？（Part 2）

原文标题：
The shopping channel
Amazon has Hollywood’s worst shows but its best business model
It aims to make video pay by applying the techniques of e-commerce
购物频道

亚马逊的电影质量最差，但它的商业模式却称霸好莱坞
旨在运用电子商务技术推出视频购物

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Among streamers, Amazon is uniquely well placed in the advertising game.

在流媒体公司中，亚马逊在广告领域处于独特地位。

Whereas Netflix acknowledges that it is mainly limited to generic “brand” advertising, Amazon has enough information on its customers, through its e-commerce site and its Fresh grocery stores, to target them with highly personalised ads.

相对于网飞受限于品牌形象广告，亚马逊通过其电子商务网站和Fresh杂货店，拥有客户足够多的信息，可以精准投放个性化广告。

What’s more, it can measure the effectiveness of those ads, by observing viewers’ subsequent behaviour in its shops.
更重要的是，通过观察视频浏览者在商店的后续行为，亚马逊能够衡量这些广告的有效性。

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It has yet to exploit this ability fully, but viewers will get a taste of it later this month when Amazon is expected to run targeted, measured ads alongside its “Thursday Night Football” programme.

尽管亚马逊尚未充分发挥这种能力，但观众将在本月底体验到，届时亚马逊预计将在其《周四橄榄球之夜》节目中投放定向、可衡量的广告。

In November it will show a blizzard of video commercials when it airs the first American-football game to coincide with Black Friday, an annual holiday to honour the shopping gods.
今年 11 月，亚马逊将在 "黑色星期五 "这个一年一度向购物之神致敬的节日播出第一场美国足球比赛，届时将大量播放视频广告。

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That makes this a “foundational year” for Amazon’s video-ad business, says Andrew Lipsman of Insider Intelligence. “The future of their advertising strategy on video is going to really take hold,” he predicts.

研究公司Insider Intelligence 的安德鲁·利普斯曼说，这使得今年成为亚马逊视频广告业务的“奠基之年”。他预测说：“他们的视频广告战略将在未来大放异彩。”

Morgan Stanley, a bank, forecasts that within two years Amazon’s nascent video-ad business will be worth more than $5bn a year in America alone, and that in the long run its superior intel on its viewers could allow it to charge higher rates for its ads than any other video platform.
摩根士丹利银行预测，两年之内，亚马逊的新兴视频广告业务仅在美国的市场价值就将超过50亿美元，从长远来看，亚马逊对视频用户的卓越洞察力可能使其能够比其他任何视频平台收取更高的广告费。

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Such an ability will become more valuable as viewing shifts to streaming.

随着人们的观看方式转向流媒体，这种能力将变得更有价值。

TV ads are reckoned to be among the most effective, but their impact is hard to measure.

电视广告被认为是最有效的广告之一，但其效果难以衡量。

As advertisers gain the ability to see how customers respond to their commercials, the TV advertising market, which is currently worth about $90bn a year in America, stands to grow, with the lion’s share of new business going to the companies that offer the best measurement.
随着广告商能够了解客户对其广告的反应，目前美国每年价值约 900 亿美元的电视广告市场将不断扩大，其中绝大部分新业务将流向提供最佳衡量广告效果的公司。

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Television’s new landlord

电视的新房东

Amazon’s second approach to making video pay is to sell viewers not just its own output but other companies’ content, too.

亚马逊用视频赚钱的第二种方法是不仅销售自家节目，还向观众出售其他公司的创作内容。

Whereas viewers opening the Netflix or Disney+ app see only shows on those platforms, those opening Prime Video are offered content from a range of other streamers.

与在网飞或 Disney+ 应用上只能看到这些平台上的节目不同，用户打开Prime Video时可以看到来自其他流媒体平台的内容。

If a customer subscribes to one of those other services via Prime, or buys or rents a show, Amazon takes a cut, reckoned to be between 20% and 50%.

如果用户通过Prime订阅了一个服务，或者购买或租借一个节目，亚马逊将收取20%至50%的佣金。

And when a viewer watches a free channel via Prime, Amazon takes a slice of the advertising revenue or sells its own ads in some of the channel’s slots.
当观众通过 Prime 观看免费频道时，亚马逊将会获得一部分广告收入，或在该频道的某些时段播放自家广告。

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Tom Harrington of Enders Analysis, a research firm, likens the approach to Amazon’s tried-and-tested strategy in retail.

汤姆·哈灵顿是安德斯分析公司的研究员，他将这种方法比作亚马逊久经考验行之有效的零售战略。

The company began by selling its own products, before opening its marketplace to other traders.

亚马逊开始只卖自己的产品，后来才将市场开放给其他交易商。

These days two-thirds of sales on Amazon.com are made by third parties, with Amazon taking a commission—a much higher-margin business than selling its own wares.

如今，亚马逊销售额的2/3来自第三方，它向商户收取佣金——这是一项比销售自家商品利润率高得多的业务。

Its aim is to be the same kind of “landlord” in video, believes Mr Harrington.
哈灵顿认为，亚马逊的目标是成为视频领域的“地主”。

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This analysis sheds light on the purpose of big-budget shows like “Citadel”.

这一分析揭示了《堡垒》等大制作节目的真正目的。

Amazon continues to stock its e-commerce site with first-party products, to maintain price competition and ensure that the marketplace has a broad enough offering to keep customers returning.

亚马逊继续向其电子商务网站提供自营产品，以维持价格竞争，并确保市场有足够广泛的品类供应，以保持顾客的回头率。

Prime Video content plays a similar role: high-profile shows and live sports—something not available from most other streamers—get people to open the app, while guaranteeing them a wide range of content to choose from.

Prime Video 内容发挥着类似的作用：知名影视节目和体育比赛直播--这是大多数其他流媒体平台无法提供的内容--吸引用户打开应用程序，同时保证他们有广泛的内容可供选择。

“The real question isn’t how many people watched ‘Rings of Power’,” says Mr Harrington. “It’s how many people went into Prime because of ‘Rings of Power’...and then [spent] more on other content.”
哈林顿说：“重要的不是有多少人观看了《指环王》，而是有多少人因为《指环王》而打开Prime…然后在其他内容上[花]更多钱。”

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Amazon seems to be succeeding in getting people to spend time on its platform.

亚马逊似乎成功地吸引了人们的注意力时间。

Although relatively few of its shows break into the top ten individually, Nielsen’s figures show that Prime Video’s share of streaming in America—about 8.9% of hours watched in July—is about 70% greater than that of Disney+, and more than twice that of Max.
虽然进入前十的影视节目相对较少，但尼尔森的数据显示，Prime Video 在美国的流媒体份额——在7月观看的小时数约占8.9％--比 Disney+ 高出约 70%，是Max服务的两倍多。

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Becoming a content landlord is not easy.

成为内容领域的地主并非易事。

Amazon’s bargaining power over suppliers is weaker in video, where there are a few big studios with their own direct-to-consumer offerings, than in e-commerce, where millions of tiny sellers use its marketplace.

在视频领域，亚马逊在供应商方面的议价能力较弱，因为几家大型制片公司有自己的面向消费者的直销渠道，而在电子商务领域，数百万小卖家使用其电商平台使亚马逊的议价能力更强大。

Amazon’s hold over consumers is weaker, too: whereas the company accounts for nearly 40% of e-commerce sales in America, its Fire TV platform handles only about 15% of streaming traffic there.
亚马逊对消费者的控制力也较弱：虽然它占美国电子商务销售额的近 40%，但其Fire TV平台在流媒体流量中只占15％左右。

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Still, the company is carving out ways of making money in an industry that is drowning in losses.

尽管如此，亚马逊正在开辟一个在亏损严重的行业中赚钱的方式。

Amazon may not dominate the Emmy awards, or Nielsen’s top ten. But, says a former executive, its chief aims in video are for people to watch TV through its hardware, to buy content through its store and to watch commercials served by Amazon advertising.

亚马逊可能无法在艾美奖或尼尔森奖前十名中占据主导地位。但是，一位前高管表示，亚马逊视频业务的主要目标是让人们用它的硬件看电视、用它的商店买影视剧、以及看它投放的商业广告。

Even if “Citadel” remains a critical flop, it may have done its job.
尽管《堡垒》在评论方面不成功，但它已经达到了它的目的。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量880/1705左右）
原文出自：2023年9月2日《The Economist》Business版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
品牌形象广告generic brand advertising是一种广告策略。在广告领域，"generic"指的是针对品牌整体形象而不是特定产品或服务进行的广告。这种广告的目的是增强品牌认知度、塑造品牌形象和加强品牌关联性，而不是直接促进销售或推广特定产品。这种广告通常特点是通过创意手法、情感表达或故事叙述来吸引观众，并与品牌的核心价值观和个性进行连接。它不涉及具体的产品特点或功能，而是更多着重于品牌的理念、文化、声誉等方面。

黑色星期五Black Friday 是指每年11月的第四个星期五，它被视为传统的美国购物季节的开始。在这一天，零售商会提供大量的折扣和促销活动，吸引消费者前来购物。这个节日的起源可以追溯到20世纪40年代的美国，当时它被用来形容交通拥堵和人流量庞大的情景，因为许多人利用这一天休假，进城购物。而现在，这个节日已经扩展到全球范围，许多国家都会举办类似的促销活动。Black Friday 的名字可能有几种解释。一种解释是，这一天代表了零售商从亏损（红字）转向盈利（黑字）的阶段，因为他们能够以折扣价出售商品，同时吸引更多的消费者。另一种解释是，这个名称是由于交通拥堵和人流量增加而得来的，可以形容这一天商店周边的一片黑压压的人群。

【重点句子】（3个）
Among streamers, Amazon is uniquely well placed in the advertising game.
在流媒体公司中，亚马逊在广告领域处于独特地位。

Amazon’s second approach to making video pay is to sell viewers not just its own output but other companies’ content, too.
亚马逊用视频赚钱的第二种方法是不仅销售自家节目，还向观众出售其他公司的创作内容。

Prime Video content plays a similar role: high-profile shows and live sports—something not available from most other streamers—get people to open the app, while guaranteeing them a wide range of content to choose from.
Prime Video 内容发挥着类似的作用：知名影视节目和体育比赛直播--这是大多数其他流媒体平台无法提供的内容--吸引用户打开应用程序，同时保证他们有广泛的内容可供选择。