The billionaire battle for the metaverse?

Next, they operate in constrained worlds. Apple is a particular bugbear for Mr?Zuckerberg and Mr Sweeney. The iPhone-maker is using the privacy settings in its iOS operating system to control the extent to which Facebook can sell digital adverts. Epic?is engaged in an antitrust battle with Apple over the fees its App Store imposes on game developers, which has so far been fairly unsuccessful.?That is why both men vow so vehemently to promote interoperability—ie, no closed systems —as well as common standards. They, too,want to be architects of the?operating systems of the future.

Vehement??adj. /?vi??m?nt/（感情）強(qiáng)烈的，激烈的；（尤指）憤怒的?? a vehement denial/attack/protest, etc. 強(qiáng)烈的否認(rèn)、攻擊、抗議等

interoperability?/??nt?r??p?r??b?l?ti/ n. [計(jì)] 互操作性；互用性

They won't?have the field to themselves. Apple, though so far quiet about the metaverse,?is no doubt preparing an offensive. Telecoms firms want a sniff, having invested heavily in ultra-fast, low-latency?5G spectrum. Rapidly growing platforms like Roblox, offering a build-your-own games model that attracts 200m users a month, have already captured young hearts. There are?naysayers, too, notably proponents?of more distributed technologies that are known as Web3, who argue that block?chains and cryptocurrencies are the next big thing-though as Ben Thompson, a tech?pundit,points out, these may find much better?use cases in the metaverse than in the real world.

They won't?have the field to themselves. 這句話直譯是他們（前面提到的布局元宇宙的公司）不會(huì)有自己的field。這個(gè)field指的應(yīng)該是元宇宙中公司所控制的領(lǐng)域（市場(chǎng)）。這個(gè)整句話要聯(lián)系上下文進(jìn)行理解，上文提到的是臉書、騰訊等一些企業(yè)的元宇宙布局。下文就提到蘋果、通訊企業(yè)等其他主體也會(huì)在元宇宙的世界分一杯羹。因此我理解是元宇宙的市場(chǎng)不會(huì)被臉書之類的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭所壟斷。

sniff/sn?f/ ?

動(dòng)：1.抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等時(shí)出聲地用鼻子吸氣）??We all had colds and couldn't stop sniffing and sneezing. 我們都感冒了，一個(gè)勁地抽鼻子，打噴嚏。 2.~ (at) (sth) （吸著氣）嗅，聞

名詞：1.吸氣（聲）；抽鼻子（聲）；嗅；聞?She took a deep sniff of the perfume. 她使勁聞了聞香水。 2.~ of sth 感覺(jué)；察覺(jué)??The sniff of power went to his head. 權(quán)力在握的感覺(jué)使他得意忘形。3.?~ of sth 微小的可能性?She didn't get even a sniff at a medal. 她根本不可能拿到獎(jiǎng)牌。 4. have a (good) ?sniff a?round：仔細(xì)檢查（某處）

low-latency?：低延時(shí)，低等待時(shí)間? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??5G spectrum：5G頻譜

Roblox：一個(gè)大型多人在線游戲創(chuàng)建平臺(tái)

naysayer?/?ne?se??/搖頭族（指那些說(shuō)某事成不了、經(jīng)常否定、拒絕或者反對(duì)一些事情的人）

Pundit??n. /?p?nd?t/ 行家；權(quán)威；專家

Moonshots

There is a lot to play for. AS Mr Thompson says:"Elon Musk wants to go to the Moon. Mark Zuckerberg wants to create entirely new moons in digital space." But just as space is a race, so is the metaverse. Messrs Zuckerberg, Huang, Sweeney, Ma et al may promise a future for the internet that is more open, immersive and engaging than the mobile one that exists today. But each wants to get there first,?so that they can set the rules to their advantage.

Messrs /?mes?rz/ 先生的復(fù)數(shù)形態(tài)，Mr的復(fù)數(shù)形式，用于一組人名或公司名稱前）

譯文

Next, they operate in constrained worlds. Apple is a particular bugbear for Mr?Zuckerberg and Mr Sweeney. The iPhone-maker is using the privacy settings in its iOS operating system to control the extent to which Facebook can sell digital adverts. Epic?is engaged in an antitrust battle with Apple over the fees its App Store imposes on game developers, which has so far been fairly unsuccessful.?That is why both men vow so vehemently to promote interoperability—ie, no closed systems —as well as common standards. They, too,want to be architects of the?operating systems of the future.

其次，他們?cè)谑芗s束的世界中運(yùn)作。對(duì)于扎克伯格和斯威尼來(lái)說(shuō)，蘋果尤其令人頭疼。iphone制造商正在使用iOS操作系統(tǒng)中的隱私設(shè)置來(lái)控制Facebook銷售數(shù)字廣告的范圍。Epic正在針對(duì)蘋果在其應(yīng)用商店上對(duì)游戲開(kāi)發(fā)商的強(qiáng)制收費(fèi)參與一場(chǎng)反壟斷戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，目前來(lái)看不怎么成功。這也是為什么這兩個(gè)人都慷慨宣誓要提高系統(tǒng)間的互操作性（既不能封閉系統(tǒng)）并推行通用標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。他們也希望成為未來(lái)操作系統(tǒng)的設(shè)計(jì)師。

They won't?have the field to themselves. Apple, though so far quiet about the metaverse,?is no doubt preparing an offensive. Telecoms firms want a sniff, having invested heavily in ultra-fast, low-latency?5G spectrum. Rapidly growing platforms like Roblox, offering a build-your-own games model that attracts 200m users a month, have already captured young hearts. There are?naysayers, too, notably proponents?of more distributed technologies that are known as Web3, who argue that block?chains and cryptocurrencies are the next big thing-though as Ben Thompson, a tech?pundit,points out, these may find much better?use cases in the metaverse than in the real world.

他們不會(huì)獨(dú)占市場(chǎng)。雖然蘋果目前為止對(duì)元宇宙沒(méi)啥表態(tài)，但絕對(duì)會(huì)有動(dòng)作。通訊企業(yè)在急速、低延時(shí)的5G通訊上進(jìn)行了大量投資，也想要在元宇宙分杯羹。如Roblox那樣的快速成長(zhǎng)的平臺(tái)，它提供可以自己創(chuàng)建游戲的模式每月吸引了2億用戶，已經(jīng)俘獲了年輕人的心。還有一些否定黨，比較突出的是分散式的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)技術(shù)WEB3的支持者，他們主張區(qū)塊鏈和加密貨幣是未來(lái)的主流趨勢(shì)。然而，Ben Thompson，一位科技專家指出，這些技術(shù)有可能在元宇宙中找到更好的應(yīng)用而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)世界。

Moonshots

There is a lot to play for. AS Mr Thompson says:"Elon Musk wants to go to the Moon. Mark Zuckerberg wants to create entirely new moons in digital space." But just as space is a race, so is the metaverse. Messrs Zuckerberg, Huang, Sweeney, Ma et al may promise a future for the internet that is more open, immersive and engaging than the mobile one that exists today. But each wants to get there first,?so that they can set the rules to their advantage.

還有更多的去探索。如同Thompson先生所說(shuō)：“馬斯克想探索月亮，扎克伯格想在數(shù)字空間創(chuàng)造全新的月亮?！本腿缣仗剿魇且粓?chǎng)賽跑一樣，元宇宙開(kāi)發(fā)也是。扎克伯格、黃、斯維尼和馬化騰等人可能承諾會(huì)帶來(lái)比現(xiàn)今移動(dòng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)更加開(kāi)放、沉浸式和參與感的未來(lái)網(wǎng)絡(luò)。但他們誰(shuí)都想先人一步，這樣就可以制定對(duì)自己有理的規(guī)則

英文轉(zhuǎn)自：《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人商論》21年12月刊