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（美国）西海岸财富重新洗牌
如今科技行业的重要性。目前，硅谷五大巨头的股票指数就占所有美国大企业中标准普尔500指数的约20%。然而迄今为止，对于这些至关重要的巨头们在经济低迷期的遭遇却鲜有人知。
West-coast shuffle
西海岸财富重新洗牌Big tech is thriving in the midst of the recession. Its centre of gravity is shifting, too
大型科技公司身处衰退期仍蓬勃发展,其发展重心也发生转移
THE TECHNOLOGY industry has never been more economically important. The biggest five Silicon Valley firms now make up about 20% of the value of the S&P 500 stock market index of big American companies. Yet until recently no one had much idea of how these vast, essential businesses would fare in an economic downturn. When the last slump started in 2007, Facebook was only four years old, Amazon was a twentieth of its size today, and Apple made more cash from Mac computers than from iPhones.
从经济上考虑，如今科技行业的重要性。目前，硅谷五大巨头的股票指数就占所有美国大企业中标准普尔500指数的约20%。然而迄今为止，对于这些至关重要的巨头们在经济低迷期的遭遇却鲜有人知。上一次低迷期还是2007年，那时Facebook才成立了4年，亚马逊的规模是现在的二十分之一，而苹果Mac电脑比iPhone获利更丰。
So how is big tech doing? An obvious—and frequently made-point is that the industry is thriving amid a savage recession as people spend more time on screens and work remotely. Look closer, however, and the picture is more complex. The industry is tilting away from business models that ruled in the past decade, towards a new era of subscriptions, e-commerce and business infrastructure. A simple way of putting it is that tech’s spiritual centre of gravity is moving from San Francisco to Seattle.
那么这些大型科技公司现在表现如何呢？随着人们花更多时间盯着屏幕并开展远程工作，即便是在严重的衰退期，该行业也保持着蓬勃发展，这是显而易见的，且经常被提起。但是，仔细观察的话，情况就变得复杂了。该行业正在逐渐远离过去十年间占统治地位的商业模式，而跨向一个新时代，逐渐成为订阅，电商和商业的基础设施。简单地说，技术的精神重心正在从旧金山转移到西雅图。
The level of pain being endured by more traditional big firms is hard to overstate. On April 29th Ford said that it would lose $5bn this quarter while Boeing is going through $4.7bn of cash every three months. Compared with that, the tech firms are on a roll. Alphabet, Google’s parent, saw sales rise by 13% in the first quarter compared with the year before, and profits reached $7bn. Facebook’s 3bn users are spending more time on its services. Microsoft, now the most valuable tech firm, booked profits of $10.8bn for the quarter.
更为传统的大公司所承受的痛苦程度的确名副其实。4月29日，福特汽车表示本季度将亏损50亿美元，而波音则每季度损47亿美元。与此相比，科技公司则是一帆风顺。与去年同期相比，Google的母公司Alphabet第一季度的销售额增长了13％，利润为70亿美元。Facebook的30亿用户正把更多时间放在这个社交平台上。当前微软是创收最高的科技公司，本季度盈利108亿美元。
Yet behind those figures are hints of vulnerability. Advertising revenue, the main source of income for Alphabet and Facebook, is under pressure. Google saw spending on search adverts drop by about 15% in March compared with the year before. Small-business clients, in particular, are forking out less as the recession bites. Another area of weakness may be smartphone sales, which are typically sold through retail stores and rely on fiddly supply chains. As The Economist went to press, Apple had yet to report, but both Samsung and Qualcomm, which make money from handsets, have warned that sales of devices may fall. Among firms that rely on human contact, meanwhile, there is a brutal shake-out. Lyft, a ride-sharing firm which went public a year ago, plans to fire 17% of its workforce.
然而，在这些数字的背后却隐藏着金融脆弱性。广告收入是Alphabet和Facebook的主要收入来源，目前却饱受压力。与去年同期相比，谷歌3月份在搜索广告上的收入下降了约15%。这是由于随着经济衰退的加剧，特别是小企业客户的支出越来越少。另一个薄弱环节可能是智能手机销售，智能手机销售通常通过零售商店销售，并依赖于繁琐的供应链。当《经济学人》付印时，苹果尚未发布预测报告，但三星和高通都警告说，设备销量可能会下降。与此同时，在依赖人际接触的公司中，出现了残酷的“人员洗牌”。一年前上市的拼车公司Lyft计划解雇17%的员工。
Just as some of the ingredients that defined the previous era grow stale, new sources of growth are becoming clearer. Instead of bombarding consumers with advertising, subscriptions are booming. Netflix, a streaming giant, added 16m new subscribers in the quarter to March. Spotify, a music service, posted similar gains (it also reported a surge in listeners searching for “chill”). Microsoft is providing the crucial infrastructure for remote working, alongside new stars such as Zoom. And Amazon has shown that many countries cannot live without its cloud-computing arm, AWS, and its booming e-commerce operation.
随着那些推动过往时代发展的因素逐渐衰退，新的增长因素正冉冉升起。与广告轰炸消费者不同，订阅人数正在暴涨。媒体巨头Netflix在第一季度新增了1600万用户。音乐服务公司Spotify的收益与Netflix旗鼓相当（它也报道了搜索"寒流"的听众数量激增）。微软与Zoom这颗行业新星一道，正在为远程工作提供关键的架构。亚马逊表示，如果没有云计算部门 AWS 及其蓬勃发展的电子商务运营的话，许多国家寸步难行。
Heading north
迎难而上
The big firms that are less well positioned are adapting fast to this emerging new era. Facebook is rushing to beef up its video-call offering. Google is boosting its cloud-computing operation and, to stimulate demand, Apple is discounting phones and promoting its services arm. But for now the winners are Microsoft and Amazon, both based farther north on the Pacific Shelf, in Seattle. The crisis has illuminated big tech’s resilience—but also that the balance of power is shifting.
业绩平平的大公司正快速适应这个新兴时代。Facebook正急于加强其视频通话产品。谷歌正在加强其云计算业务，为刺激消费，苹果削价出售手机并扩大其服务部门。但现在，赢家是位于西雅图太平洋架北端的微软和亚马逊。这场危机不仅让人们看出大型科技企业的适应能力，同时也让人们看到力量平衡正在悄然发生变化。
标准普尔是世界权威金融分析机构，由普尔先生(Mr Henry Varnum Poor)于1860年创立。标准普尔由普尔出版公司和标准统计公司于1941年合并而成。标准普尔500指数英文简写为S&P 500 Index，是记录美国500家上市公司的一个股票指数。这个股票指数由标准普尔公司创建并维护。标准普尔500指数覆盖的所有公司，都是在美国主要交易所，如纽约证券交易所、Nasdaq交易的上市公司。与道琼斯指数相比，标准普尔500指数包含的公司更多，因此风险更为分散，能够反映更广泛的市场变化。
shuffle off 摆脱；推卸
The crowd shuffled out of the theater.人群曳步挪出剧院。
full fare全价票 bill of fare 节目单；菜谱
词汇辨析：表示“费用”的词汇
On a roll 运气好；超常发挥
Amsterdam in the 1630s, Rembrandt's on a roll. Everything he touches seems to come up trumps. 十七世纪三十年代的阿姆斯特丹，当时伦勃朗风头正盛，他仿佛有点石成金之术。fork out v.支付；放弃
They will fork out for expensive coverage instead. 相反，他们会为昂贵的承包范围出钱。
stale check [金融] 失效支票，过期支票
The phony glamour of night clubs soon became stale and boring。夜总会那种虚荣的繁华不久便失去了新意而使人生厌。
