Apps for the old

面向老年人的应用

Silver screens

大屏幕

SHANGHAI

The next big growth market for China’s tech firms

中国科技公司的下一个巨大的成长型市场

Soon after dinner time, Xiangyang Park in central Shanghai transforms into a ballroom. Loudspeakers pump out old pop songs as elderly folk sway under the plane trees. A picture of geriatric nostalgia—until you meet Ms Shi and Mr Zhou, a couple in their 70s whose enthusiasm for the waltz is matched only by that for their smartphones. Mr Zhou reads online novels. Ms Shi watches far-flung Chinese parks come alive with their own group dancing on Huoshan, a short-video app favoured by teens. Both love WeChat, a messaging app. “I can go without food, but not without my smartphone,” Ms Shi confesses.

晚饭后不久，位于上海市中心的襄阳公园变成了一个跳舞场。伴随着扬声器里播放着旧时的流行歌曲，老人们在梧桐树下跳着广场舞。但直到你遇见施女士和周先生，你就会发现这是一幅属于老人们令人怀旧的景象；他俩是一对70多岁的老夫妇，他们对华尔兹（广场舞）的热情只有对智能手机的热情能与之媲美。周读网络小说。石女士通过“火山小视频”来观看属于她们的广场舞，即使与屏幕另一端的公园相距甚远，他们自己的团队在火山跳舞。“火山小视频”是一款深受青少年喜爱的短视频应用。两人都喜欢即时通讯应用——微信。石女士坦言道：“我可以不吃饭，但我不能离开我的智能手机。”

词汇

Ballroom/舞厅；跳舞场

Geriatric/老年人；老头子

Nostalgia/乡愁；怀旧之情

far-flung/遥远的；广泛的

confesses/承认；坦白；忏悔

 

She and her husband remain unusual. Less than one in three Chinese over 50 reported owning a smartphone in 2016, the latest year for which the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, has data, half the share in America. A survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tencent, which owns WeChat, found that only 17% frequently paid for purchases with mobile phones; close to half had never done so.

但她和她的丈夫依旧与众不同。2016年，不到三分之一的50岁以上中国人拥有智能手机，这是智库皮尤研究中心(Pew Research center)拥有的最近一年的数据，占美国智能手机市场份额的一半。中国社会科学院和运营微信的腾讯公司联合进行的一项调查发现，只有17%的人经常用手机购物;而将近一半的人从未用手机购物过。

 

Tech companies want to lure more Ms Shis and Mr Zhous online—and take a bigger slice of the 7trn yuan ($1trn) that Chinese seniors are expected to spend on consumer goods in 2020. To tech firms, the disconnectedness of China’s 250m-odd old, or 18% of the population, is an opportunity. Unlike the young, whose fragmented attention is fought over by thousands of apps, retirees are up for grabs. And once on the internet, they splurge. In 2017jd.com, a big e-commerce firm, found that they spent 2.3 times as much as the average user. Their typical deposit in Yu’E Bao, an online cash-management service controlled by Alibaba, a giant internet firm, is 7,000 yuan compared with 4,000 yuan across all ages.

科技公司希望吸引更多的石女士和周先生这样的老年人上线，并在2020年渴望在7万亿元人民币(1万亿美元)这一中国老年人在购买消费品中的预期消费中分得更大的份额。对科技公司来说，中国2.5亿多老年人(占总人口18%)的断层是一个机遇。与年轻人不同的是，年轻人碎片化的注意力被成千上万的应用程序争夺，但退休人员的精力则是可以被争夺。一旦上了网，他们就会大肆挥霍。2017年，大型电子商务公司京东发现，他们的花费是平均用户水平的2.3倍。他们在余额宝(由互联网巨头阿里巴巴控股的在线现金管理服务)的存款一般是7000元，而在全部年龄段的人存款的平均水平是4000元。

词汇

Retiree/退休人员

Splurge/挥霍；卖弄

 

Early adopters may be better-off than a typical senior, rattled when shops refuse cash. But startups see rich pickings. “I Have A Partner”, a grey-dating app, debuted last year with bold fonts and voice messaging for slow typists. Tangdou Guangchang Wu (“Jelly Bean Square Dance”), which started out posting dance videos (with filters to iron out wrinkles), aspires to be a one-stop shop for the old. It reports over 200m downloads since its launch in 2015.

早期支付宝（老年）用户可能比通常的老年人更富有，当商店拒绝支付现金时，老年人们会感到恼火。但如今创业者们看到了老年领域的富裕的前景。“我有一个伴侣”，一个去年推出的灰色约会应用程序，为打字速度慢的人提供粗体字和语音信息。“糖豆广场舞”(Jelly Bean Square Dance)最初是发布舞蹈视频(用滤镜抹去皱纹)，它立志成为老年人的一站式商店。据报道，自2015年推出以来，其下载量超过2亿次。

词汇

Rattled/担忧的；紧张的；恼火的

Debut/初次登台

 

The big generalists hope to lock the oldies in early. The over-60s use four-fifths of their mobile data on WeChat, against 7% for those aged 18-35. In 2017 Tencent made a video of old-timers rapping about their confusion over tech to encourage children to set their parents up with WeChat Helper, an app assistant. People over 55 are now WeChat’s fastest-growing cohort. Last year Taobao, Alibaba’s online emporium, introduced a “pay-for-me” option for elderly customers to use with family members.

大的通才们希望能尽早锁定老歌。60岁以上的人将其移动流量五分之四花费在微信上，而18-35岁的人只有7%。2017年，腾讯制作了一段老人们饶舌的视频，讲述他们对科技的困惑，鼓励孩子们为他们的父母提供应用助手微信帮助。55岁以上的人现在是微信增长最快的群体。去年，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的在线商城淘宝推出了一项“亲情付”服务，供老年客户与家人一起使用。

词汇

generalists/有多方面知识和经验的）通才；多面手

emporium/商场，大百货商店（复数 emporiums或 emporia）

 

The site broadcasts daily over 1,000 livestreaming shows aimed at them. Ele.me, a food-delivery service bought by Alibaba last year, is trialling meal and medicine deliveries for the elderly, and one-off help with things like changing light bulbs. With the over-60s’ share of the population expected to double to one-third by 2050, there is wisdom in this strategy.

该网站每天播放超过1000个面向他们的直播节目（这里应该是指淘宝直播）。阿里巴巴(Alibaba)去年收购的外卖服务“饿了么”正在尝试为老年人提供送餐和送药服务，以及更换灯泡等一次性服务。到2050年，60岁以上人口的比例预计将翻一番，达到三分之一，而在老年网络市场上创立一番事业是相当明智的。

词汇

Trial/试验，试用