背景介紹：

2月5日，“中國短視頻第一股”快手正式登陸港交所，開盤價338港元，較發行價115港元暴漲193.91%，市值達到13886億港元（約合1791億美元）。作為中國短視頻領域的兩大巨頭，快手和抖音誰將成為最后的贏家？


Kuaishou takes on TikTok and its Chinese sibling

快手正在與抖音及中國其他短視頻應用相競爭

China’s short-video wars are heating up

中國短視頻之戰正在升溫

“We aim to be the most customer-obsessed company in the world,” declares the opening line in the 700-page prospectus from Kuaishou, a Chinese video app. The firm, launched a decade ago by a former software engineer at Google and another at Hewlett-Packard, boasts more than 250m daily active users, up from an average of just 67m in 2023. 

“我們致力于成為全球最癡迷于為客戶創造價值的公司”，中國短視頻應用快手在其長達700頁的招股說明書的開頭這樣寫道。十年前，兩位軟件工程師（分別任職于谷歌和惠普）共同創立了這家公司，如今，快手的日活躍用戶已超2.5億（2023年時還僅為6700萬）。

Kuaishou is expected to hit a valuation of around $50bn when it goes public next month in Hong Kong. That would lift it above better-known social-media titans like Twitter (worth $37bn).

下月，快手即將在香港上市，屆時其市值預計將達到近500億美元。此次上市將使其在市值上超越推特（市值370億美元）等更為知名的社交媒體巨頭。

Kuaishou’s revenues have soared in recent years, reaching 25bn yuan ($3.6bn) in the first six months of 2023, up by nearly half on the previous year. Just over two-thirds of this came from what the firm calls “live-stream gifting”. It hosted nearly 1bn live-streaming sessions in that period, taking a cut on “tips” that viewers shower on their favourite live-streamers. 

近年來，快手的營收實現了大幅增長，其在2023年上半年的營收高達250億元（約合36億美元），同比增長近50%。其中超過三分之二的營收來自于該公司所謂的“直播打賞”。在這半年時間里，快手組織直播近10億場次，在直播中，觀眾會給他們最喜歡的主播“打賞”，快手則從中抽成。

A tip can be as small as 10 fen (1.5 cents) or as generous as 2,000 yuan. Performers film themselves singing, dancing, otherwise prancing or just sunbathing. New stars can expect to fork half of their tips over to the platform.

一次打賞少則1毛（約合1.5美分），多則2000元。主播們則是表演唱歌、跳舞或神氣活現地歡蹦亂跳，甚至只是躺在那里曬太陽。新晉主播的打賞所得往往會被平臺抽走一半。

Amid this exuberance two threats loom. The first comes from China’s increasingly hands-on regulators (see article). In November they mandated that video apps like Kuaishou impose daily and monthly limits on the amount that users can tip live-streamers. 

快手的一片繁榮景象之下隱現著兩大威脅。其一來自于中國日漸嚴厲的監管機構。去年11月，監管機構要求快手等視頻應用對用戶每日及每月給主播打賞的最高金額加以限制。

Moreover, to prevent impressionable minors from being coaxed into sponsoring cunning broadcasters, platforms have been instructed to perform tougher background checks on users with such tools as facial-recognition technology. 

此外，為防止一些別有用心的主播引誘未成年人打賞，監管機構還要求各平臺利用人臉識別技術等工具對用戶進行更為嚴格的背景調查。

Bureaucrats in Beijing have yet to work out precisely what Kuaishou’s daily and monthly ceilings ought to be. But growth will probably slow down once the details are hashed out.

有關快手每日及每月的打賞限額目前尚未敲定，但一旦最終確定，快手或將面臨增長放緩的壓力。

Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app and Kuaishou’s arch-rival, is better insulated from the regulatory crackdown. Like Kuaishou, it operates a live-streaming business. But unlike its competitor, it earns most of its revenues from online ads, which the new rules do not affect. 

快手的首要競爭對手抖音（TikTok 在中國的姊妹應用）則并未在此次監管打擊下受到太大的影響。和快手一樣，抖音也經營著直播業務。但不同于快手的是，抖音的大部分收入都來自于在線廣告，而新規并未涉及這一領域。

For comparison, adverts accounted for just 28% of Kuaishou’s revenue mix in the first half of 2023. The company may now try to raise that share. To do so Kuaishou will have to overcome the somewhat outdated perception that its users are disproportionately folk living in small cities and rural areas with less money to buy advertised wares.

相比之下，快手2023年上半年的廣告收入僅占其總收入的28%。如今，快手或將努力提高其廣告收入的占比。但想要實現這一點，快手必須克服一種有些過時的觀念，即快手的用戶在很大程度上來自于小城市和農村地區，這些人可能無力購買廣告上的商品。

The second threat is the potential for a price war between Kuaishou and Douyin. For both platforms, user growth is largely a function of the appeal of their video content, which in turn depends on the calibre of the producers behind it. A race to the bottom, whereby each firm lowers its “take rate” on tips and ad sales to lure popular broadcasters from the other app, would depress margins.

第二大威脅則是快手與抖音之間可能會爆發一場價格戰。對于這兩個平臺而言，視頻內容的吸引力在很大程度上決定了其用戶增長，而視頻內容的吸引力又取決于其背后制作人的能力。如果兩家公司大打價格戰（即降低打賞和廣告的“抽成”），以吸引熱門主播跳槽而來，這將壓低公司利潤。

At the moment neither company has a particular incentive to shatter the cosy duopoly, points out Jeffrey Young of Grandly Asset Management, a broker. But the possible arrival of a big competitor—not inconceivable in China’s effervescent e-economy—could disrupt this equilibrium, Mr Young suggests.

經紀公司格蘭德資產管理公司的杰弗里·楊指出，就目前而言，兩家公司都沒有足夠的理由來打破這種舒適的雙頭壟斷。不過，杰弗里·楊認為，未來或許會出現一個強力競爭者來打破這種平衡，這種情況在中國蓬勃發展的電子經濟中并非不可想象。

Despite its domestic challenges (or maybe because of them), Kuaishou is proceeding apace with its global ambitions. The international version of its app, Kwai, claims “tens of millions” of users in markets from Brazil and Colombia to Malaysia and Vietnam. 

盡管面臨著國內的這些挑戰（或許也正因如此），快手正在迅速推進其全球擴張的步伐。從巴西和哥倫比亞到馬來西亞和越南，快手國際版“Kwai”號稱擁有“千萬級”用戶。

It still lacks the name-recognition of TikTok, though that may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Kwai has thus far avoided the sort of political scrutiny that its better-known rival has attracted in many foreign markets. 

目前，Kwai 尚不具 TikTok 那樣的知名度，但這或許并非一件壞事。不像廣為人知的 TikTok，到目前為止，Kwai 在外國市場還沒有受到太多的政治審查。

(紅色標注詞為重難點詞匯) 

小編說

快手此次IPO受到市場追捧，成為了近期新股發行的人氣王，開盤首日13886億港元的市值也使其擠進中國互聯網前五。但在一片繁榮景象之下，快手也面臨著巨大的壓力，其一是來自于監管機構的日益加劇的監管壓力，其二是來自于競爭對手的壓力。


重難點詞匯： obsess  [?b?ses] v. 迷住； 纏住； 困擾 prance  [pr?ns] v. 昂首闊步；歡躍 exuberance  [?ɡ?zu?b?r?ns] n. 繁榮；茂盛；健康 insulate  [??ns?le?t] v. 隔離；孤立；絕緣 crackdown  [?kr?kda?n] n. 鎮壓；制裁；懲罰 duopoly  [du??ɑ?p?li] n. 雙頭壟斷

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