原文標(biāo)題：
Twitter
Singing for its supper
Elon Musk’s priority is to keep his social network solvent
推特
干活來獲取回報(bào)

埃隆·馬斯克的首要任務(wù)是保持推特的償付能力

Will people pay $8 a month for Twitter?
Elon Musk swaps ads for subscriptions
人們會(huì)購買推特8美元的月費(fèi)服務(wù)嗎？
埃隆·馬斯克用廣告換取訂閱

[Paragraph 1]
TWITTER IS NO longer a public company, but it is being run in a more public way than ever before.

推特不再是一家上市公司，但它仍然以公開方式運(yùn)營。

Elon Musk, who took the social network private on October 27th at a cost of $44bn and immediately installed himself as its temporary chief executive, has been developing his plans for the firm through the medium of tweets at all times of day and night.
埃隆·馬斯克于10月27日斥資440億美元將社交平臺(tái)推特私有化，并立即任命自己為該公司的臨時(shí)首席執(zhí)行官。他一直通過推文為自己的公司制定計(jì)劃。

[Paragraph 2]
Mr Musk, who said he was buying Twitter to protect free speech in “the de facto public town square”, tweeted on his first full day in charge that the company would set up a “content moderation council”.
馬斯克表示，他購買推特是為了保護(hù)這個(gè)“實(shí)際上的公共城市廣場(chǎng)”的言論自由，他在接管推特的第一天就發(fā)推表示，公司將成立“內(nèi)容審查委員會(huì)”。

Outsourcing moderation dilemmas to an independent board, as Facebook has since 2020, would be no bad thing.
將審查問題外包給獨(dú)立董事會(huì)并不是壞事，臉書從2020年開始就是如此操作。

One of the chief concerns about Mr Musk’s ownership of Twitter is that the platform could be leant on by anyone with leverage over his other, larger businesses.
馬斯克接管推特引發(fā)了大眾的擔(dān)憂，擔(dān)憂之一就是任何人都可以利用這個(gè)平臺(tái)來控制其他更大的企業(yè)。

[Paragraph 3]
Yet the focus of Mr Musk’s first week in charge was not moderation but money.
然而，馬斯克上任第一周的工作重點(diǎn)不是處理審查制度問題，而是處理資金問題。

His acquisition was funded with about $13bn of debt. Interest rates are rising and the ad market, which provides nearly all of Twitter’s revenue, is falling.
這樁收購中馬斯克借了130億美元資金。利率正在上升，廣告市場(chǎng)正在下降。而廣告業(yè)務(wù)幾乎是推特全部收入來源。

Some advertisers are especially nervous of the new Musk-owned Twitter: IPG Mediabrands, a giant media buyer, recommended on October 31st that clients pause their spending on Twitter while the dust settled.
一些廣告商對(duì)馬斯克接管的新推特甚是焦慮：10月31日，媒體巨頭IPG 盟博建議客戶在塵埃落定之際暫停在推特上的廣告投入。

[Paragraph 4]
To cut costs Mr Musk appears to have started a round of lay-offs, which is probably overdue.
為了削減成本，馬斯克已開始了一輪裁員。其實(shí)早就應(yīng)該裁員了。

Last year Twitter had 1.5 employees for every $1m in revenue, compared with 0.6 at Meta, Facebook’s owner.
去年，推特平均每1.5名員工創(chuàng)造100萬美元的收益，而臉書的這個(gè)數(shù)字是0.6名員工。

At the same time he hopes to bring in more users with features including the resurrection of Vine, a decade-old app that beat TikTok to the short-video craze but which Twitter allowed to wither.
與此同時(shí)，他希望重新啟用Vine等功能吸引更多用戶。Vine是一款擁有十年歷史的應(yīng)用程序，它在TikTok之前就引領(lǐng)短視頻熱潮，但推特的忽視使其衰弱。

[Paragraph 5]
The most radical plan, though, is to boost revenues by weaning Twitter partially off ads and onto subscriptions.
盡管如此，最激進(jìn)的計(jì)劃是終止部分推特廣告業(yè)務(wù)，轉(zhuǎn)而通過付費(fèi)訂閱來增加收入。

Users will be able to pay $8 a month (or another amount depending on their whereabouts, see chart) to see half as many ads, post long audio and video clips and get priority for their own tweets in other people’s replies and search results.
用戶可以每月支付8美元（或根據(jù)他們的所在地支付費(fèi)用，見圖表），享受的服務(wù)包含有：少看一半的廣告；發(fā)布長(zhǎng)音頻和視頻片段；在他人的回復(fù)和搜索結(jié)果中有優(yōu)先排名。

[Paragraph 6]
Mr Musk characterised this as a democratic alternative to the “l(fā)ords & peasants system”, in which Twitter awards blue badges verifying the identity of “notable” tweeters.
馬斯克將其稱為“領(lǐng)主和農(nóng)民制度”的民主替代方案，推特通過這個(gè)制度標(biāo)注藍(lán)V，為推特用戶認(rèn)證“名人”身份。

Increasing the number of verified users may help reduce spam. But prioritising tweets that are paid for, over ones that are good, may worsen the user experience.
增加認(rèn)證用戶的數(shù)量可能有助于減少垃圾郵件的騷擾。但優(yōu)先考慮付費(fèi)推文，而不是好推文，可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致糟糕的用戶體驗(yàn)。

And charging audiences risks driving them to other social platforms that are free.
而且向用戶收費(fèi)可能會(huì)使他們轉(zhuǎn)向其他免費(fèi)的社交平臺(tái)。

As Stephen King, a blue-badged novelist, tweeted in an exchange with Mr Musk: “Fuck that, they should pay me.”
正如藍(lán)V小說家斯蒂芬·金在與馬斯克發(fā)推特交流時(shí)所說：“額，他們應(yīng)該付我錢。”

[Paragraph 7]
Subscriptions may kick off another argument.
訂閱可能引發(fā)另一場(chǎng)爭(zhēng)論。

Among users who subscribe via the Twitter app, a cut of ongoing monthly fees will go to the app store in question: 15% in the case of Google and up to 30% in the case of Apple.
如果用戶通過推特APP付費(fèi)訂閱，他們有一部分月費(fèi)將被相關(guān)應(yīng)用商店抽成：谷歌為15%，蘋果為30%。

Companies that rely on subscriptions, like Spotify, or in-app purchases, like Epic Games, have long complained about this app-store tax.
靠訂閱賺錢的公司如Spotify，或應(yīng)用內(nèi)購買的公司如Epic Games，他們對(duì)這種應(yīng)用商店稅怨氣沖天。

In Mr Musk, Apple and Google face another opponent—one who is armed with the world’s loudest megaphone.
蘋果和谷歌面臨另一個(gè)對(duì)手—馬斯克，他手持?jǐn)U音器，是世界上發(fā)聲最大的人。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量604左右）
原文出自：2022年11月5日《TE》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(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
埃隆·馬斯克以440億美元收購?fù)铺?，各銀行為這筆交易提供130億美元的資金。根據(jù)紐約證券交易所的退市通知，上市9年的推特于當(dāng)?shù)貢r(shí)間10月28日從紐約證券交易所退市。納斯達(dá)克交易所官網(wǎng)顯示，標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾道瓊斯指數(shù)宣布將推特移出標(biāo)普500指數(shù)。當(dāng)前推特股票處于停牌狀態(tài)。

Vine是微軟公司開發(fā)基于地理位置的SNS系統(tǒng)，類似于Twitter服務(wù)。2012年10月10日，Twitter收購了Vine。2016年10月28日，Twitter周四宣布將關(guān)閉該公司旗下視頻分享移動(dòng)應(yīng)用Vine。2022年11月消息，馬斯克已經(jīng)要求推特工程師著手研發(fā) Vine 的全新版本，計(jì)劃在2022年年底重新推出。

《Lords & Peasants》是一款中世紀(jì)的即時(shí)戰(zhàn)略和城市建設(shè)游戲開發(fā)的模擬游戲。領(lǐng)主和農(nóng)民有單人和多人兩種模式，最多支持16名玩家。Lords & Peasants游戲中，玩家開始作為一個(gè)小村莊的主人，并發(fā)展成為一個(gè)繁榮的城市。經(jīng)營你的城市，治理農(nóng)民。結(jié)成聯(lián)盟恐嚇敵人，招募軍隊(duì)征服大地創(chuàng)造你的王國。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3 個(gè)）
Yet the focus of Mr Musk’s first week in charge was not moderation but money.
然而，馬斯克上任第一周的工作重點(diǎn)不是處理審查制度問題，而是處理資金問題。

To cut costs Mr Musk appears to have started a round of lay-offs, which is probably overdue.
為了削減成本，馬斯克已開始了一輪裁員。其實(shí) 早就應(yīng)該裁員了。

The most radical plan, though, is to boost revenues by weaning Twitter partially off ads and onto subscriptions.
盡管如此，最激進(jìn)的計(jì)劃是終止部分推特廣告業(yè)務(wù)，轉(zhuǎn)而通過付費(fèi)訂閱來增加收入。