Google
谷歌

Facing the frenemy
面对友敌
Nov 12th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.
Google一下:我们所能知道的世界尽头

By Ken Auletta. Penguin Press; 384 pages; $27.95. Buy from Amazon.com

SOMETIMES it seems as if Google has never come across an industry it doesn’t want to disrupt. Best known for its hugely popular search engine, the internet giant has spread its tentacles into an ever-growing array of businesses, including advertising, telecoms and, most recently, digital-navigation software. The company’s habit of selling services cheaply or giving them away for free has endeared it to consumers. But its tactics have enraged competitors, who complain their new rival is out to destroy the economics of entire industries.

有时候看起来Google好像对任何行业都想插上一脚。因其广受欢迎的搜索引擎而广为人知，这家网络巨头把触角伸向了越来越多领域，包括广告、电信以及最近涉及的电子导航软件。该公司一惯的低价甚至免费服务的做法深得客户欢心。但这种战略惹恼了竞争者，他们抱怨这个新来的对手根本就是存心来搞垮整个行业。

Such griping has been loudest in the worlds of publishing and entertainment. Although media companies are hooked on the money they mint via adverts that run on Google and its YouTube video-streaming business, many of them also accuse the search firm of commoditising their content and of undermining their profits by making it easy for marketers to track the effectiveness of online ad spend. “You’re fucking with the magic,” says the boss of one big media company to Google’s founders in a memorable scene recounted at the start of Ken Auletta’s new book.

这种牢骚在出版业和娱乐行业尤甚。虽然媒体公司贪恋其通过在Google及其YouTube流媒体业务上投放广告获得收益，他们中大多数还是指责Google使他们的内容变得商品化，以及降低了他们的利润空间，因为市场营销人员能轻易的了解网络广告效率。“你在玷污这种魔力”一家大媒体公司的老板对Google的联合创始人如是说。Ken Auletta在其新书的开头记录了这一幕印象深刻的情景

Mr Auletta, an American journalist and long-time commentator on the media industry, dismisses claims that Google’s programming wizards are to blame for putting a jinx on the media world. Instead, he places the blame squarely, and correctly, on the publishing and movie executives who failed to appreciate the speed with which the internet would sap their companies’ fortunes. They were also slow to spot that, although Google presented itself as a friend, it had all the hallmarks of a powerful enemy too. Now the frenemy has become a scapegoat for many of the industry’s self-inflicted wounds.

Auletta是一位美国记者，同时也是一位媒体行业的资深评论人，他驳斥了Google的谋划专长将会给媒体业带来灾难的传言。事实上他把责难公、正确的指向了那些未能正确意识到互联网带来的高速将榨干他们公司的未来的出版和电影从业者们。他们同样后知后觉，虽然Google把自己塑造成一个友好形象，它有一个强有力敌人所有的全部标志。现在这位友敌成为行业内许多自作自受者的替罪羊。

Mr Auletta does a respectable job of reviewing the media companies’ predicaments. He also rehearses some of the well-known elements of Google’s culture that have helped transform it from a start-up launched in a garage 11 years ago to a colossus with ambitions to become the world’s first media company with revenues of $100 billion. Among other things, these include lavish stock options, perks such as free meals and massages, and a rigorous and sometimes quirky recruitment process. (In one passage in the book, Sergey Brin, one of Google’s co-founders, asks a candidate for a senior legal position to draw up a contract for the sale of Mr Brin’s soul to the devil.)

Mr Auletta做了一项令人称道的工作：回顾了媒体公司的困境。他同样推演了一些帮助Google从11年前在小车库发家到现在成为一家有志于成为全球媒体老大，年营业额1000亿美金巨物的著名的企业文化。其中尤其引人注目的是慷慨的股权激励，免费午餐和按摩这样的福利，严谨但有时怪诞的招聘程序。（本书中，Google联合创始人之一Sergey Brin要一位高级法务职位的候选人起早一份把Brin的灵魂出售给魔鬼的契约）

More compelling are the book’s insights into the relationship between the members of the triumvirate that runs Google—Mr Brin, Larry Page, his co-founder, and Eric Schmidt, the chief executive, who arrived at Google several years after its launch. Brought in at the behest of venture capitalists that have backed the firm, Mr Schmidt found himself treading a delicate path between the sensibilities of the brilliant but socially awkward founders and the demands of the impatient financiers. With the help of a veteran Silicon Valley executive who acts as a coach, the three men ultimately developed an effective working relationship.

最引人入胜的是本书探究了Google三巨头—Brin，另一位创始人Larry Page和CEO, 在Google组建几年后才加入的Erci Schmidt之间的关系。带着风投的命令而来，Schmidt发现他要小心翼翼的维护才华洋溢却缺乏社会经验的开创者与急迫的投资人之间的敏感关系。在一位老资格的硅谷人的指导下，三人最终找到了一种有效地合作关系。

Which is just as well, for Google now faces some formidable challenges. Fast-growing social networks such as Facebook are after a much bigger chunk of online ad dollars. And Google’s size has begun to attract the attention of anti-trust watchdogs in areas such as digital book scanning, where it has ambitious plans. This hardly amounts to the end of Google’s dominance as we know it. But if the company misplays its hand, it could turn out to be the beginning of the end.

Google同时也面临一些艰巨的挑战。快速发展的社交网例如facebook正在追寻更大的在线广告资金。Google的规模在一些领域，如其有很大野心的电子书扫描，开始引起了一些反垄断卫士的注意。就我们所知这不会导致Google统治地位的终结。但如果下错了注，也有可能成为覆灭的导火索。