《经济学人》双语：亚马逊视频业务的商业逻辑？（Part 1）

原文标题：
The shopping channel
Amazon has Hollywood’s worst shows but its best business model
It aims to make video pay by applying the techniques of e-commerce
购物频道

亚马逊的电影质量最差，但它的商业模式却称霸好莱坞
旨在运用电子商务技术推出视频购物

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AS BULLETS FLY around a high-speed train carrying a former Miss World and a gang of spies through the Italian Alps, shopping is surely the last thing on viewers’ minds.

在一列疾驶在意大利阿尔卑斯山的列车上，一名前世界小姐和一群间谍在各自执行任务，看到子弹横飞的场面，观众们肯定不会想到购物这件事。

Yet should they press pause, they will see an option to buy items from the show: the heroine’s gold necklace, her red dress, or the teetering stilettos in which she is improbably running rings around the villains. Only her exploding perfume is not yet for sale.

然而，如果他们按下暂停键，他们会看到一个剧中物品的购物选项：女主角的金项链、她的红色裙子，或者她的高跟鞋--她穿着高跟鞋围着反派们跑来跑去。只有她的爆炸香水尚未出售。

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“Citadel”, a thriller on Amazon Prime Video, shows what happens when the world’s biggest online retailer becomes one of its biggest entertainment producers.

《堡垒》是亚马逊 Prime Video 上的一部惊悚片，从中可以看出全球最大的电商公司进军娱乐制造业会发生什么化学反应。

As well as buying merchandise from the show on Amazon’s e-commerce site, audiences can listen to its soundtrack on Amazon Music, or read about its production on Amazon’s sister site, IMDb.com.

观众不仅可以在亚马逊的电商平台上购买该剧的商品，还可以在亚马逊音乐网站上收听剧中音乐，或在亚马逊的姊妹网站 IMDb.com 上了解该剧的制作花絮。

Its multinational cast and plot, and planned spin-offs in a variety of languages, have been carefully chosen to appeal to shoppers around the world.
为了吸引世界各地的购物者，该剧精心挑选了多国演员阵容且设计了精彩剧情，并计划推出多种语言的衍生剧。

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Hollywood old hands are snooty about Amazon’s video efforts, and understandably so.

好莱坞的老手们对亚马逊的视频业务持傲慢态度，这是可以理解的。

Despite a reported budget of $300m, making it the second-priciest TV series in history (after “The Rings of Power”, another Amazon project), “Citadel” received lukewarm reviews and failed to crack the top ten most-streamed shows in America (Amazon says it has done better internationally).

虽然报道称其预算为3亿美元，使其成为历史上第二昂贵的电视剧（仅次于亚马逊的另一部剧《指环王：力量之戒》），但《城堡》的评价不温不火，未能跻身美国流媒体影视剧前十名（亚马逊声称在国际市场上表现更好）。

Critics see it as emblematic of the company’s high-spending, low-impact record in video.

批评者认为这部剧代表了亚马逊在影视领域是“有钱没品味”的形象。

This year Amazon will blow $12bn on streaming content, second only to Netflix (see chart).It has had some hits, including “Reacher” and “The Boys”.

今年，亚马逊将在流媒体内容上投入 120 亿美元，仅次于网飞公司（见图表）。亚马逊也曾推出过一些热门影片，包括《侠探杰克》和《黑袍纠察队》。

But its 45 streaming nominations at the upcoming Emmy awards—a record for Amazon—is less than half as many as Netflix or Warner-Discovery’s service, Max.

但在即将举行的艾美奖颁奖典礼上，亚马逊获得的 45 项流媒体提名--创下了亚马逊的纪录--但还不到网飞或华纳探索公司的 Max 服务的一半。

“Amazon’s hit rate is not good, nor consistent with its spend,” admits one former executive.

一位前高管坦言：“亚马逊影视剧成功率不高，投入产出比也不高。”

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Yet despite its creative misfires, Amazon is quietly assembling something that has eluded most of its rivals: a model for how to make streaming pay.

然而，尽管亚马逊创意不足，但它正在悄然组建一个大多数竞争对手无法企及的模式：一种如何让流媒体付费的模式。

Its shows may underwhelm, but it is preparing to pair them with its formidable advertising machine, and is turning its streaming app into a high-margin marketplace for third-party sales, along the lines of its all-conquering e-commerce site.

亚马逊的影视剧可能不尽如人意，但它正准备将这些影视剧与它强大的广告机器结合起来，并将其流媒体应用转变成一个高利润的第三方销售市场，就像它所向披靡的电商平台一样。

Hollywood might sometimes snigger at the quality of Amazon’s output. But the Seattle firm may yet have the last laugh.
好莱坞有时可能会对亚马逊影视作品的质量嗤之以鼻。但这家西雅图公司可能会笑到最后。

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Revenue streaming

流媒体收入

Amazon has been in the video business since 2006, when it launched Unbox, an iTunes-like downloading platform.

自2006年推出类似iTunes的下载平台Unbox以来，亚马逊一直涉足视频业务。

Since then the company has deployed its tech-sized chequebook to become one of the biggest forces in Tinseltown.

从那时起，该公司利用其庞大的财务能力成为好莱坞最重要的力量之一。

Its main streaming service, Prime Video ($8.99 a month, or free as part of Amazon’s broader Prime membership), attracts some 156m monthly viewers worldwide—about as many as Disney+ and second only to Netflix.
其主要流媒体服务 Prime Video（每月 8.99 美元，亚马逊的 Prime 会员免费）吸引了全球约1.56亿个月度观看者--数量与 Disney+ 相当，仅次于网飞公司。

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Fire TV, Amazon’s range of internet-connected TV sets and streaming sticks, outsells every brand bar Samsung, with nearly 100m devices in use worldwide, according to TechInsights, a data firm.

根据数据公司 TechInsights 的数据，Fire TV是亚马逊的联网电视系列和流媒体设备，全球使用数量达到近1亿台，仅次于三星，成为除三星之外销量最高的品牌。

Heavy discounting has been deployed to lure people into the Fire ecosystem: earlier this year Amazon offered a 43-inch Fire television for $99.
为了吸引用户进入 Fire 生态系统，亚马逊采用了大幅折扣的策略：今年早些时候，亚马逊以 99 美元的价格推出了 43 英寸 Fire 电视。

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The most obvious motive for Amazon’s video experiments is to increase the value of the Prime bundle, which keeps members coming back to shop on the e-commerce site.

亚马逊试水视频业务的最明显动机是增加Prime会员套餐的价值，吸引会员不断回归电商网站进行购物。

But video also has the potential to become a moneyspinner in its own right, in two ways.
但亚马逊视频本身也有可能成为一种赚钱的方式，在2个方面有潜力。

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First, advertising. In little more than a decade Amazon has created a digital-ads business that has disrupted the old duopoly of Google and Meta.

首先是广告。亚马逊在短短十多年内创建了数字广告业务，打破了谷歌和 Meta 过去的双头垄断局面。

Its ad revenue this year will be around $45bn, making up about 7.5% of worldwide digital advertising, estimates Insider Intelligence, a research company.

据研究公司 Insider Intelligence 估计，亚马逊今年的广告收入将达到 450 亿美元左右，约占全球数字广告营收的 7.5%。

It is already more than a third the size of Meta’s ad business, and growing fast.

亚马逊的广告业务规模已超过 Meta 的1/3，且还在快速增长。

But whereas Google and Meta both have healthy video-advertising operations (through YouTube and Reels, respectively), Amazon’s inventory mainly consists of sponsored search results on its e-commerce site.
但谷歌和 Meta 都拥有健康的视频广告业务（分别通过 YouTube 和 Reels），而亚马逊的视频内容主要由其电子商务网站上的赞助搜索结果组成。

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That seems to be changing. Amazon has kept Prime Video largely ad-free to preserve a “premium” feel, says one senior executive.

情况似乎正在发生变化。一位高管说，亚马逊的 Prime Video 基本上是无广告模式，以保持 "高级 "的感觉。

But the introduction of commercials last year by Netflix and Disney+ has given a green light to others to do the same.

但去年网飞和Disney+引入广告后，让其他公司有效仿的机会。

Amazon has been experimenting with running ads alongside sports shows on Prime, and has shifted more of its back-catalogue to Freevee, its ad-supported streamer.

亚马逊一直在 Prime 上的体育节目旁边试验投放广告，并将更多的旧节目转移到了其广告支持的流媒体平台Freevee上。

Analysts expect to see more commercial breaks on Prime soon.
分析师预计Prime很快将会有更多的商业广告。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量811/1705左右）
原文出自：2023年9月2日《The Economist》Business版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
亚马逊的 Prime Video 是亚马逊公司的流媒体视频服务，它是亚马逊 Prime 会员计划的一部分，Prime 会员在付费订阅后可以无限制地观看 Prime Video 的内容。Prime Video 提供了大量的电影、电视剧、纪录片、原创节目和体育活动的流媒体内容。用户可以通过亚马逊的设备，如亚马逊 Fire TV、Fire平板电脑以及各种支持该应用程序的智能电视、手机和平板电脑上观看这些内容。Prime Video 的内容非常丰富多样，包括来自全球各个角落的电影和电视节目。此外，亚马逊还投入大量资源制作并发行原创节目，如《城堡》，《指环王：力量之戒》，《侠探杰克》和《黑袍纠察队》。

Tinseltown浮华城是“好莱坞”的绰号，它源于电影工业的兴起和荧幕上的光芒。Tinseltown一词意味着金光闪闪的夸张和虚荣，也暗示了电影行业中奢华和炫耀的形象。Tinseltown一词代表了这个地区巨大的影响力和在电影产业中的重要地位。Tinseltown这个词也可以用于描述电影行业的虚幻性质，表达一种对电影制作和明星生活的浪漫化和戏剧性的态度。它强调了电影业的光鲜亮丽和闪耀性质，有时也暗示着这个行业的虚假和劣迹。

【重点句子】（3个）
Critics see it as emblematic of the company’s high-spending, low-impact record in video.
批评者认为这部剧代表了亚马逊在影视领域是“有钱没品味”的形象。

Hollywood might sometimes snigger at the quality of Amazon’s output. But the Seattle firm may yet have the last laugh.
好莱坞有时可能会对亚马逊影视作品的质量嗤之以鼻。但这家西雅图公司可能会笑到最后。

But video also has the potential to become a moneyspinner in its own right, in two ways.
但亚马逊视频本身也有可能成为一种赚钱的方式，在2个方面有潜力。

自由英语之路