经济学人2019.4.27/Can Uber ever make money？/part1
Schumpeter|Can Uber ever make money？
熊彼特|优步还能再赚钱吗？
熊彼特（美籍奥匈帝国经济学家，当代资产阶级经济学代表人物之一）
A ride back through history offers sobering lessons
历史的回顾给予了发人深省的教训
词汇
Sobering/使清醒的；使冷静的；严重的
London cabbies enjoy a good moan. But few can match the satirical indignation of a former ferry operator, John Taylor, who used to carry passengers on the Thames. As well as being a “waterman”, Taylor was a poet, writing in the 1620s just when horse drawn Hackney carriages were making their debut on the streets of the capital. In “An Arrant Thief”, published in 1622, he described the carnage from “upstart Hell-cart-coaches” robbing his brethren of their fares. “Against the ground, we stand and knock our heels/ Whilst all our profit runs away on wheels.”
伦敦的出租车司机们喜欢抱怨。但是很少有人能比得上曾经在泰晤士河上载客的前渡轮司机约翰·泰勒(John Taylor)的讽刺愤怒。泰勒不仅是一位“船夫”，还是一位诗人，他写于1620年代，当时伦敦街头刚开始出现马车。在1622年出版的《一个彻头彻尾的小偷》(An Arrant Thief)一书中，他描述了“暴发户的地狱马车”抢劫他的兄弟们车票的大屠杀。“当我们所有的利润都被车轮碾碎的时候，我们站在地上，用脚后跟撞着地面。”
词汇
Cabby/计程车司机；出租马车的车夫
moan./ 呻吟声；悲叹
satirical/讽刺性的；讥讽的；爱挖苦人的
indignation/愤慨；愤怒；义愤
Arrant/极恶的；声名狼藉的；彻头彻尾的
carnage/大屠杀；残杀
brethren/ <旧>兄弟们，同胞
Four centuries later, profits across the global taxi industry are again running away—but this time into thin air. Until recently, the fortunes of regulated cab companies drew the most attention. Uber and Lyft in America, Didi in China and other ride-hailing firms elsewhere have used sack loads of venture capital to drive down fares and flood the streets of big cities with cars, clobbering the earnings of licensed rivals. But now their own losses are in the spotlight.
四个世纪后，全球出租车行业的利润再次流失——但这一次是无疾而终。直到最近，受到监管的出租车公司的命运才受到最多关注。美国的优步(Uber)和Lyft，中国的滴滴(Didi)以及其他地方的叫车公司都利用大量风险资本压低了车费，并在大城市的街道上大量投放汽车，打击了获得牌照的竞争对手的盈利。但现在，他们自己的损失却成了人们关注的焦点。
词汇
into thin air/无影无踪【例|vanish into thin air/烟消云散；不知去向】
clobber/击倒；痛打
capital/首都，省会；资金；
In a filing released in the run-up to its initial public offering, Uber says it has lost $7.9bn since 2009. Lyft, which listed last month, lost $2.9bn in seven years. Uber is seeking a valuation of up to $100bn but as yet it is unclear if it can make money. To understand why, it helps to look at the history of the taxi industry. When regulated, it is a cushy business. When not, it is cut-throat.
在首次公开发行(ipo)前夕发布的一份文件中，优步表示，自2009年以来，该公司已亏损79亿美元。上月上市的Lyft在7年内亏损29亿美元。优步正在寻求高达1000亿美元的估值，但目前尚不清楚它能否盈利。要了解原因，不妨看看出租车行业的历史。如果受到监管，这是一项轻松的业务。如果不是这样，那就太残酷了。
词汇
Cushy/轻松的；容易的
Start with Uber’s most oft-touted attributes. Its name has become synonymous with ride-hailing thanks to rapid expansion that its advocates put down to “first-mover advantage” and network effects, or the belief that it will become more valuable as more people use it. The company claims to have more than 65% of the ride-hailing market in the United States and Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Latin America. But it sees itself as more than just a taxi company, with car ownership and public transport in its sights. The proposed valuat implies a huge market which Uber would need to all but monopolise.
从优步最常被吹捧的特性开始。由于其支持者将其归因于“先发优势”和网络效应的快速扩张，或者认为随着越来越多的人使用它，它将变得更有价值，优步的名字已成为叫车服务的同义词。该公司声称在美国、加拿大、欧洲、澳大利亚、新西兰和拉丁美洲的叫车服务市场占有65%以上的份额。但它认为自己不仅仅是一家出租车公司，它的目标是拥有汽车和公共交通的所有权。而对于这个市场的估值是巨大的，优步几乎需要垄断这个市场。
词汇
oft-touted/常常被吹捧的
synonymous/同义的；同义词的
monopolise/垄断，获得专卖权
Look through history, though, and taxi monopolies look anything but impregnable. That is because the ride-hailing business, which will remain Uber’s bread and butter for the foreseeable future, is local, not global. And, as long as competition is unregulated, entering local markets is relatively easy. Len Sherman of Columbia Business School draws a parallel between Uber’s business and that of unregulated taxis in New York in the 1930s, when Ford’s Model t emerged as a new, low-cost cab. During the Depression many jobless workers took to taxi-driving for a living, undercutting each other viciously. The streets were saturated with vehicles but the earnings of drivers and taxi companies evaporated. Customers benefited, but no one else did. Uber and Lyft are reprising that episode as they fight city by city for drivers and customers
然而纵观历史，出租车垄断绝非坚不可摧。这是因为，在可预见的未来，叫车业务仍将是优步的主要业务，是本地业务，而非全球业务。而且，只要竞争不受监管，进入当地市场就相对容易。哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)的莱恩•舍曼(Len Sherman)将优步的业务与上世纪30年代纽约不受监管的出租车业务进行了对比。在经济大萧条时期，许多失业工人以开出租汽车为生，相互之间恶性竞争。街道上挤满了汽车，但司机和出租车公司的收入却蒸发殆尽。客户从中受益，但其他人没有。优步(Uber)和Lyft正在重演这一幕，它们正在一个城市接一个城市地争夺司机和客户
词汇
Impregnable/无法攻取的；不受影响的；
saturated/渗透，饱和
Evaporate/蒸发；消失
Uber’s name recognition may help. Historically, taxi firms have benefited from strong brands. London’s black taxis, or New York’s yellow ones, for instance, attract users despite high fares and relative scarcity. They are hallmarks of their cities. In an ideal world for Uber, brand awareness would mean customers went straight to its app rather than that of a rival, convincing more drivers to work for it because they can access a bigger market. This would produce the vaunted network effect for drivers and riders.
Uber的知名度可能会有所帮助。从历史上看，出租车公司一直受益于强大的品牌。例如，伦敦的黑色出租车，或纽约的黄色出租车，尽管价格昂贵且相对稀缺，却能吸引用户。他们是他们城市的标志。在优步的理想世界中，品牌知名度意味着客户直接使用其应用程序，而不是竞争对手的应用程序，这将说服更多司机为优步工作，因为他们可以进入一个更大的市场。这将对司机和乘客产生自吹自擂的网络效应。
词汇
Scarcity/不足；缺乏
Hallmark/特点；品质证明
Vaunted/自夸的；大肆吹嘘的
