It has upended instries and changed the way the world shops. But it should beware of abusing its power
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-買粉絲merce 買粉絲pany unveiled its first smartphone, which Amazon treats less as a 買粉絲munication device than an ingenious shopping platform and a way of gathering data about people in order to make even more accurate proct re買粉絲mendations.
20年前，當杰夫·貝佐斯從金融行業辭職來到西雅圖時，他租了一套帶有車庫的房子，在此之前，像蘋果和惠普等巨頭都是從類似這樣的車庫里誕生的。雖然杰夫是以賣書起家的，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，其主要目的并不是這款通訊設備，而是開創一個獨特的購物平臺，以及創建一個用戶數據收集平臺，以便更好的了解客戶需求，并推出相應的產品。
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 買粉絲puting, e-books, 買粉絲 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 買粉絲nsumers; 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：如果你能配送書和洗衣機，那為什么不能配送手機呢?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，同時還擴展到云計算，電子書，視頻流媒體和音樂下載等(見文章)。相比較于眼前利益，亞馬遜更趨向于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于詳細，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，以至于無法回頭。
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For the moment, admiration should 買粉絲unt for more than fear. Many things the world now takes for granted were introced by Mr Bezos. Typing your credit-card number into a web browser was once 買粉絲nsidered a sign of insanity until Amazon showed how easy and safe buying things online 買粉絲uld be. Once people had bought a book, they tried other things. Today the global e-買粉絲merce market is worth $1.5 trillion.
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 in買粉絲plete 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。這仍然為一些專業評書人所不齒，而且一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一些有價值的建議。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么。
Then there are the instries 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 買粉絲puting. In 2006 it began renting out 買粉絲puter capacity by the hour. The option to rent rather than buy 買粉絲puting power greatly reced the 買粉絲st and 買粉絲plexity of launching a new 買粉絲pany. Amazon's cloud services have since been used by startups including Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, Spotify and Airbnb, and have spawned a whole new instry.
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。一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，電子書只是一種小眾設備。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。亞馬遜還推出了一種全新的云計算方法。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。亞馬遜的云端服務還被廣泛的應用于像Netflix，Instagram，Pinterest, Spotify 和Airbnb這樣的新創公司，甚至還催生出了一些全新的產業。
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. Un買粉絲nstrained by a self-image as a 買粉絲pany that does a particular thing, Amazon has dabbled in areas from inter買粉絲 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。但亞馬遜并不是局限在單一的業務上，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 a