原文標題：
Social media
Mark to market
After a torrid 2022, things are looking up for Meta. Is the worst over?
社交媒體
市值調整
艱難的2022年已遠去，Meta公司漸有起色。至暗時刻過去了嗎？

Is the worst over for Mark Zuckerberg’s social-media empire?
馬克·扎克伯格的社交媒體王國至暗時刻結束了嗎？

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FOR MARK ZUCKERBERG, the first three quarters of last year were rough.
對于馬克·扎克伯格來說，他的公司去年艱難地熬過了前3個季度。

In July 2022 his social-media empire, Meta, announced its first ever year-on-year decline in quarterly revenues. Three months later it reported another.
2022年7月，他的社交平臺Meta季報顯示營收首次同比下降。3個月后，又一次下降。

Investors sneered at his expensive pivot from a lucrative ads business to the untested realm of the metaverse, on which Mr Zuckerberg was splurging $10bn a year.
扎克伯格進行了核心業(yè)務轉型，即把利潤豐厚的廣告業(yè)務轉到未經測試的元宇宙領域，投資者對這種轉型嗤之以鼻，因為他每年在元宇宙領域燒掉了100億美元。

By November Meta had lost roughly three-fifths of its market value since its peak of $1.1trn in August 2021, when the covid-19 pandemic meant that much of daily life was being lived online. Shortly after he sacked 11,000 people, or 13% of its workforce.
由于新冠疫情，人們大部分時間都在網上度過，2021年8月公司市值達到1.1萬億美元的峰值。但到去年11月，Meta相對峰值已跌去約3/5的市值。不久后，他解雇了1.1萬員工，占全員人數13%。

All the while, he has been fending off trustbusters and, in TikTok, a rival that has proved considerably more adept than previous challengers such as Snap or Pinterest at attracting eyeballs—and with them advertising dollars.
一直以來，他一直在躲避反壟斷機構的糾纏；還要面對強勁的競爭對手TikTok，它可比Snap或Pinterest等以前的對手更善于吸引大眾眼球--這樣可以賺廣告費。

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On February 1st Mr Zuckerberg reported another decline in sales for the last three months of 2022, of 4.5% year on year. But the drop was smaller than expected.

2月1日，扎克伯格的公司出了業(yè)績報告，2022年最后3個月的銷售額再次出現下降，同比下降4.5%。但降幅小于預期。

The company also put out an optimistic forecast for the current quarter, in which it thinks revenue could reach $28.5bn.

公司還對本季度做出了樂觀預測，預計營收可能達到285億美元。

That would be more than in the first three months of 2021, before Apple introduced privacy rules for its iDevices that made it considerably harder for advertisers to track users across the internet.

這將超過2021前三個月的營收。此前，蘋果出了iDevices的隱私規(guī)則，這使得廣告商很難追蹤網友的行為習慣。

Costs are coming under control, Mr Zuckerberg promised, and the company would be “be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial”.

扎克伯格稱，成本正在得到控制，公司將“更加積極主動地削減那些沒有業(yè)績或不再重要的項目”。

The firms said it would buy back an additional $40bn-worth of shares. To top it off, on the same day a judge in California threw out a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block Meta’s acquisition of Within, a maker of a popular virtual-reality fitness app.
公司稱將再回購價值400億美元的股票。更重要的是，就在同一天，加利福尼亞州的一名法官駁回了聯(lián)邦貿易委員會（FTC）提起的訴訟。訴訟案是為了阻止Meta收購Within（一家熱門虛擬現實健身應用程序制造商）。

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Investors greeted all this with a big “l(fā)ike”.

投資者們給這些利好消息點了一個大大的“贊”。

Meta’s share price, which had already risen by over 70% in the previous three months, leapt by another 20% or so after hours. That would put its market capitalisation at $484bn.

Meta的股價在過去的三個月里上漲幅度超過70%，盤后又上漲了20%左右。這將使其市值達到4840億美元。

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Can the hot streak last? Mr Zuckerberg has reasons for cautious optimism.

利好消息能否持續(xù)？扎克伯格有理由持謹慎樂觀態(tài)度。

Meta has come up with ways to work around Apple’s privacy settings.

對于蘋果隱私設置問題，Meta已有對策。

Its artificial-intelligence capabilities are improving, both in the lab and in the real world—specifically, in the world of Reels, where algorithms for serving up short videos on Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s two profit motors.These are reportedly getting cleverer at creating engagement.

無論是在實驗室還是在現實世界，公司的人工智能能力正在提高--特別是在Reels世界，它為Facebook和Instagram（Meta的兩大盈利來源）提供短視頻算法。據報道，這些平臺在想方設法吸引創(chuàng)作者的到來。

TikTok, which is under increasing scrutiny in America, where some politicians are calling for a ban on the popular app.

TikTok在美國面臨越來越多審查，一些政客呼吁禁用該軟件。

Even Apple has given Mr Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse a backhanded compliment, by working on its own virtual-reality-like headset.
甚至蘋果公司對扎克伯格的元宇宙愿景大加（言不由衷的）贊賞，蘋果也在開發(fā)自己的虛擬現實耳機。

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Plenty could still go wrong.

但仍有很多問題。

What used to be recession-proof digital-ad spending is becoming more cyclical, and the economic cycle is turning downwards.

過去數字廣告不受經濟衰退影響，現在也更加受經濟影響，而經濟周期正處于下行階段。

Even if Meta’s Western markets avoid a recession, advertisers are likely to rein in spending.

即使Meta的西方市場躲過了經濟衰退，廣告商也可能會控制支出。

Despite a degree of bipartisan support for a TikTok ban, political gridlock in Washington makes any actual legislation to that effect unlikely in the near future.

盡管兩黨都在一定程度上都支持TikTok禁令，但華盛頓的政治僵局一時半會不可能有任何實際的立法。

Its courtroom win over Within notwithstanding, Meta still faces other—more serious—challenges from regulators at home (where another FTC lawsuit calls for its break-up) and in Europe (where tough new rules on large digital platforms are being finalised).

盡管Meta在法庭上可以收購Within，但Meta仍面臨其他更嚴重的挑戰(zhàn)--來自國內監(jiān)管機構（另一場FTC訴訟案要求其破產）和歐洲監(jiān)管機構（正在就大型數字平臺制定嚴格新規(guī)）。

And few people are burning to migrate to the metaverse. Late last year Horizon Worlds, Meta’s main metaversal attraction, was reportedly losing users.

很少有人渴望遷移到元宇宙。去年年底，據報道，Meta的主要元宇宙平臺Horizon Worlds用戶正在流失。

Mr Zuckerberg is not out of the woods. But he no longer seems lost in the jungle.
雖然扎克伯格還沒完全走出困境，但他似乎不再迷茫了。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量646左右）
原文出自：2023年2月4日《The Economist》Business版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學習交流使用。

【補充資料】（來自于網絡）
Mark to Market (MTM)盯市；逐日盯市，代表市值調整。在每個上報數據期限內，如進行季報的月份，根據市值對公司所持有的證券的價值進行測算，并對相應賬務進行調整。對保證金、期貨交易賬戶的市值逐日計算的會計程序。

據華爾街日報消息，知情人士透露，一位美國法官拒絕叫停 Meta 收購虛擬現實初創(chuàng)公司 Within 的交易，美國聯(lián)邦貿易委員會（FTC）阻止該交易失敗。也就是美法院批準 Meta 收購 VR 公司 Within。起初FTC 去年 7 月起訴 Meta 要求停止對 Within 的收購，理由是 Meta 自 2014 年收購 Oculus 起便在策劃一場“VR 征服運動”。該案于去年 12 月開庭。

Meta旗下Instagram全新推出的Reels短視頻功能。Reels是Instagram(以下簡稱IG)應用程序新增的一項功能，目前已經對超過130個國家/地區(qū)開放可用。IG用戶可以通過特效，配音和剪輯輸出60s視頻內容，并將它們分享到他們的動態(tài)、故事和 Reels 探索頁面。

“Horizon Worlds”是Meta公司推出的元宇宙平臺。2021年12月初，元宇宙平臺“Horizon Worlds”開放。根據描述，“Horizon Worlds”是一個有趣溫馨的虛擬現實世界，多達20個角色可以在其中創(chuàng)建自己的社區(qū)、探索、休閑娛樂。但就像現實世界一樣，總有一些出人意料的事情會發(fā)生。

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【重點句子】（3?個）
Investors greeted all this with a big “l(fā)ike”.
投資者們給這些利好消息點了一個大大的“贊”。

Can the hot streak last? Mr Zuckerberg has reasons for cautious optimism.
利好消息能否持續(xù)？扎克伯格有理由持謹慎樂觀態(tài)度。

Mr Zuckerberg is not out of the woods. But he no longer seems lost in the jungle.
雖然扎克伯格還沒完全走出困境，但他似乎不再迷茫了。