2019年经济学人 facebook大转变(2)

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Facebook’s new, mature face plays well with investors¹. After a year of scandal and abysmal² press, its share price is just shy of record highs. It gained more than 1% on the news of the latest fine, which had already been priced in thanks to astute³ telegraphing earlier this year—a sign, perhaps, of a good working relationship with the American regulator. A Facebook which works with governments rather than around them appeals to shareholders⁴. So does Facebook’s ability to rake in money. The growth of its core social network is slowing down. But revenues from Instagram, its popular photo-sharing app, are growing apace.

Facebook成熟的新面孔很受投资者欢迎。在经历了一年的丑闻和糟糕的媒体报道之后，该公司的股价刚刚接近历史高点。在最新的罚款消息公布后，该公司股价上涨了1%以上。由于今年早些时候的精明电报，罚款已经被反映在股价中。一个与政府合作而不是围绕政府工作的Facebook对股东很有吸引力。Facebook赚钱的能力也是如此。其核心社交网络的增长正在放缓。但其广受欢迎的照片分享应用Instagram的收入正在快速增长。

It has yet to realise the money-spinning potential of WhatsApp, its messaging service. Analysts⁵ expect Facebook’s second-quarter results, due out on July 24th, to show revenues up by 25% from last year, to $16.3bn. Unlike profits at some other technology firms, its net income is expected to rise, by 6% to $5.4bn—more than enough to cover the fine. Facebook is not out of the woods. Other regulators and politicians are lining⁶ up to take a swipe at Big Tech, and not just in America. Financial authorities are leery of Libra, worrying that it could become a vehicle for fraud and money laundering⁷, as happened with some other cryptocurrencies. Central bankers fear that if adopted widely enough it could threaten financial stability. On July 16th Ursula von der Leyen, president-elect of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said she wants the tech giants to pay more taxes. The next day the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, announced a probe into Amazon’s use of merchant data. In some countries data-protection regulators want to order non-compliant companies to stop processing data altogether. That would hurt considerably⁸ more than a fine.

该公司尚未意识到其即时通讯服务WhatsApp的赚钱潜力。分析人士预计，Facebook将于7月24日公布的第二季度业绩将显示，其营收同比增长25%，达到163亿美元。与其他一些科技公司的利润不同，它的净收入预计将增长6%，达到54亿美元，足以支付罚款。Facebook并没有走出困境。其他的监管机构和政客们正排着队准备抨击大型科技公司，而且不仅仅是在美国。金融当局对天秤座持怀疑态度，担心它可能成为欺诈和洗钱的工具，就像其他一些加密货币一样。央行官员担心，如果广泛采用，可能会威胁到金融稳定。7月16日，欧盟执行机构欧盟委员会候任主席乌苏拉?冯?德莱恩表示，希望科技巨头缴纳更多的税款。第二天，欧盟竞争事务负责人玛格丽特·维斯塔格宣布对亚马逊使用商户数据的行为展开调查。在一些国家，数据保护监管机构希望命令不合规的公司完全停止处理数据。这比罚款要严重得多。