TikTok vs Instagram | Codename | 1
发布时间 2020-11-30 18:00:00 来源
摘要
It’s July 2010, and Kevin Systrom is on holiday in Mexico when he has an idea for how to save his failing app: offer filters to make users’ photos more appealing. He gets back to San Francisco and teams up with his friend Mike Krieger. Together they launch Instagram, a platform that will revolutionize how we interact with society.Meanwhile in Beijing, China, Zhang Yiming starts a news aggregator app powered by AI. It learns which stories users like and feeds them more of it, giving people what they want before they know it. This powerful algorithm will become the foundation for TikTok, an app that will become a proxy battleground for the feud between the U.S. and China. Listen to new episodes 1 week early and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/businesswars.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
嘿,亚马逊会员们,你们可以在亚马逊音乐上无需广告地收听 Business Wars 。今天就下载这个应用程序吧。
One, two, three. One, two, three. Here we go, Bob! Team Bob Bob! Let's go, it's on you! Hi, Bob! You guys did a fly!
一、二、三。一、二、三。来了,鲍勃!鲍勃团队,加油!轮到你了,鲍勃!嗨,鲍勃!你们好帅啊!
June 2019, Hong Kong Central Business District. Protesters outside a tall glass government building are chanting and shouting slogans like Hong Kong never give up and waive the evil law. They're a million strong and they are angry. They're wielding umbrellas, a symbol of the pro-democracy movement.
2019年6月,香港中央商务区外的抗议者正高喊口号,比如要为香港不屈不挠、废除恶法加油。他们人数众多,达到了百万级别,怒气冲天。他们手持雨伞,这是亲民主运动的象征。他们站在一座高高的玻璃政府大楼前。
Demonstrators are incensed by a new security law that would allow China to extradite Hong Kong residents to mainland China. Activists fear the law would not only allow Beijing to tighten its grip on Hong Kong, but would also be used to snuff out opposition.
示威者对一项新的安全法感到愤怒,该法案将允许中国将香港居民引渡到中国大陆。活动人士担心这项法律不仅会让北京加强对香港的控制,而且还会被用来扼杀反对派。
The police have cordoned off the government building, but more people crowd the street pushing against the metal barricades. It doesn't take long before all hell breaks loose. Police fire rubber bullets at protesters, an officer dressed in head to toe black riot gear runs forward and lobs a canister of tear gas into the crowd. Another officer yanks back the arms of a young activist and forces him into handcuffs.
警察把政府大楼围起来了,但是更多的人挤在街上,推着金属栅栏。不久后,一切都失控了。警察向抗议者发射橡胶子弹,一个穿着全身黑色防暴装备的警官冲上前去,向人群投掷了一罐催泪瓦斯。另一名警察抓住了一名年轻的活动分子,把他强制戴上手铐。
An onlooker pulls out her phone and records the arrest, then she clicks share. The footage should go live to the world on TikTok, the latest hot social media app. But despite TikTok's 1 billion users, no one will ever see her video. Bite dance, the company that owns the app, seems to have made sure of that.
一个旁观者拿出手机记录了逮捕的场面,然后她点击分享。这个视频应该在最新热门的社交媒体应用TikTok上实时发布给全世界看。但是尽管TikTok拥有10亿用户,也没有人能够看到她的视频。拥有这个应用的字节跳动公司似乎已经确保了这一点。
Journalists alleged the company is set up monitoring of pro-democracy content coming out of Hong Kong, and they're allegedly yanking any content deemed controversial. Suspiciously few videos of Hong Kong's protest show up.
记者声称这家公司正在监视香港的亲民主内容,并将任何被认为具有争议性的内容予以删除。很少出现有关香港抗议的视频,这看起来很可疑。
Bite dance is walking a delicate line. To protect its credibility, the company has to surface some feeds from the protest, but there can't be so many that it might offend Beijing, or the Chinese government could shut down the whole operation.
咬一咬舞正在走一条微妙的路线。为了保护其信誉,公司必须展示一些来自抗议活动的内容,但不能太多,以免冒犯北京,否则中国政府可能会关闭整个运营。
TikTok has become one of the most popular apps around the world, and it was created by a Chinese entrepreneur. But now, it's trapped in no-man's land. Caught between China's anti-democracy politics and a society desperately searching for an outlet for free speech. But despite these constraints, it poses a serious challenge to its American counterpart, Instagram.
TikTok已成为全世界最受欢迎的应用程序之一,由中国企业家创建。但是现在,它陷入了中立地带。受困于中国的反民主政治和社会急于寻找言论自由的出口之间。尽管受到这些限制,TikTok对其美国竞争对手Instagram构成了严峻的挑战。
Hi, I'm Sarah Hagi, co-host of Wondering's podcast, Scample Insurs. In our recent two-part series, Three Weddings and a Funeral, we dive into the story of a German con man who built an entire life on fake names, lies, and schemes, and the unlikely true-kind twist that brought this decades-long charade crashing down. Listen to Scample Insurs on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
嗨,我是Sarah Hagi,Wondering播客《Scample Insurs》的共同主持人。在我们最近的两集系列节目《三场婚礼和一场葬礼》中,我们深入讲述了一个德国骗子用假名字、谎言和计划建立整个生活的故事,以及发生了哪些不可思议的真实事件,终止了这场持续数十年的骗局。欢迎在亚马逊音乐或您获取播客的任何地方收听《Scample Insurs》。
From Wondering, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars. In our new series, we follow the battle between the social media apps TikTok and Instagram, platforms that change the way we live and interact. Where once we only photographed recorded special occasions, now our daily existence is captured and performed from perfectly curated meals to goofy viral dances.
我是大卫·布朗,欢迎收听我的节目《商战》。在我们的新系列中,我们将跟踪抖音和Instagram这两个社交媒体应用程序之间的竞争,这些平台改变了我们生活和互动的方式。曾经我们只会拍照记录特殊场合的事情,而现在我们的日常生活被捕捉并表演,从完美策划的餐点到滑稽的病毒舞蹈。
TikTok will have to keep the Chinese government happy to survive, but a new threat is also on the horizon from Silicon Valley, highly competitive technocrats who have no qualms about copying or acquiring their rivals in order to bury them.
TikTok要想生存下去,就必须让中国政府满意,在硅谷,高竞争的技术专家面临着一个新的威胁,他们毫不犹豫地复制或收购竞争对手,以便淘汰他们。
This is Episode 1, Code Name.
这是第一集,代号为“代码名称”。
July 2010, Toto Santos in Baja California, Mexico. The turquoise sea gently laps at the white sand as Kevin Sistram walks along the shore with his girlfriend Nicole Schewitz. At 6'5", Sistram towers over Schewitz. The 26-year-old software engineer may be on a beach getaway, but like many Silicon Valley techies, he's always working.
2010年7月,在墨西哥下加利福尼亚的托托·桑托斯,珂文·斯特勒姆与女友妮可·舍维茨沿着白沙滩散步,海浪轻蔑地拍打着蔚蓝的海面。高6'5"的斯特勒姆比舍维茨高。虽然这位26岁的软件工程师正在海滩度假,但像许多硅谷的技术人员一样,他总是在工作。
He's pondering his startup, an app called Bourbon. Users check in at whatever coffee shop or bar they're visiting, and the app updates their friends. Then the user can post a photo of the location. Lately, he's barely sleeping, pouring all of his waking life into the app, and yet Bourbon only has 100 users. The app's not taking off, and it's time to move on.
他在思考他的创业公司,这是一种叫做Bourbon的应用。用户在他们光顾的任何咖啡店或酒吧里签到,应用会更新他们的朋友。然后用户可以发布这个地方的照片。最近,他几乎没睡觉,把所有清醒的时间都投入到了这个应用上,但Bourbon只有100个用户。这个应用没有起飞,是时候转移了。
But Sistram and his co-founder Mike Krieger have raised half a million dollars from investors. They've hardly touched that money yet, which means they still have enough cash to pivot to a new idea. He turns to Schewitz.
但Sistram和他的合伙人Mike Krieger已经从投资者那里筹集了50万美元。他们几乎没有动过这些钱,这意味着他们仍然有足够的现金来转型到一个新的想法。他转向Schewitz。
I know I'm not supposed to bring up work right now, but I have to talk this new idea through with you. Man, you really know how to rock a vacation, don't you? Fine, let's hear it.
我知道现在不该谈工作,但我必须跟你讨论这个新想法。哇,你真的知道怎么度假,是吧?好吧,让我们听听你的想法。
Mike and I have been thinking of focusing on photos. Schewitz looks up at her boyfriend, squinting into the sun.
迈克和我一直在考虑专注于照片。施维茨抬头看着男友,眯起眼睛看着太阳。
I think that's a good idea. I love the photos on Bourbon, but I don't know if I'd post any.
我觉得那是个不错的主意。我喜欢Bourbon上的照片,但我不确定我是否会发任何照片。
Oh, why not?
哦,为什么不呢?
Well, my photos aren't that good.
嗯,我的照片不是很好啦。
Oh, come on, they're great! Schewitz laughs.
"噢,拜托,它们很棒的啊!" Schewitz 笑着说。
Thank you. But they're not as good as Greg's. The iPhone 4 camera kind of sucks.
谢谢您。但它们不如Greg的好。iPhone 4的相机有点儿烂。
Greg is a friend of Sistram's and another user of Bourbon. But Sistram knows there's a secret to how Greg gets his pictures to look that way. And it's not his camera. Well, Greg uses a bunch of filter apps to make them look good. Schewitz pauses and cocks her head to the side.
Greg是Sistram的朋友,也是Bourbon的另一个用户。但Sistram知道Greg拍照时有一个秘诀使照片看起来那么棒。这可不是因为他的相机好。实际上,Greg使用了一堆滤镜应用程序来让照片看起来好看。Schewitz停下来,歪着头想了一下。
Maybe you should add filters then. It's an aha moment for Sistram. More people will share their photos if they look cool and eye-catching. And if more people start sharing photos, maybe more people will start using the app.
也许你应该加些过滤器。对Sistram来说,这是个恍然大悟的时刻。如果照片看起来很酷、很吸引人,更多的人会愿意分享他们的照片。如果有更多的人开始分享照片,也许会有更多的人开始使用这个应用程序。
Back at their bed in breakfast, Sistram heads straight for his laptop. In college, Sistram had used a Holga camera, which takes square film photos instead of rectangular ones. This gives Sistram a brainwave. He'll make the pictures on his app square to stand out from the competition. But how can he make the photos look better?
在旅馆的房间里,Sistram径直走向他的笔记本电脑。在大学里,Sistram用过一台Holga相机,它拍摄的照片是方形的,而不是长方形的。这给了Sistram一个好主意。他将让他的应用程序上的照片成为方形的,以突出与竞争对手的区别。但是他如何使这些照片看起来更好呢?
Sistram thinks again about the Holga camera. It often created saturated images with rich colors. Sometimes there were light leaks where sunlight got onto the film. So he starts designing a filter that will mimic the same effects.
Sistram 再次考虑 Holga 相机。它经常会创建出色彩丰富的过度饱和的图像。有时,阳光会进入胶片,导致光泄漏的现象。因此,他开始设计一种滤镜,以模仿相同的效果。
By the end of the day, Sistram has his first filter. He calls it X-Pro 2. It ups the contrast in saturation, making pictures look brighter and more flattering. It also adds a focus to the center of the frame by darkening the edges of the photo. Krieger, his partner, has already made a test out for posting photos. Its catchy code name is, well, code name.
一天结束时,Sistram完成了他的第一个滤镜——X-Pro 2,这个滤镜可以增强对比度和饱和度,让照片看起来更亮丽迷人,并且可以通过在图片边缘加深颜色来突显照片中心的焦点。Sistram的搭档Krieger已经测试了发布照片的功能,这个测试用的代号很吸引人,叫做“代号”。
Sistram and Shuots walk to a taco stand. He snaps a photo of a dog they spot along the way. He applies the X-Pro 2 filter and uploads it to code name. Sistram doesn't know it yet, but he has just taken the very first Instagram.
Sistram 和 Shuots 步行到一个玉米饼摊。他拍下路上看到的一只狗的照片。他使用了 X-Pro 2 滤镜并上传到代号上。Sistram 还不知道,但他刚刚拍下了第一张 Instagram 照片。
What happens next will change the fate of his startup dreams and turn Sistram from a nobody into Silicon Valley's latest vunderkin.
接下来发生的事情将改变他成功创业的命运,让Sistram成为硅谷最新的瑰宝。
October 6, 2010. Sistram and Krieger are sitting in a dimly lit warehouse at an old pier in San Francisco Bay. They're at dog patch labs and industrial co-working space. It's a little after midnight and the desks are empty. Sistram and Krieger are putting the finishing touches on their new app. They've ditched Bourbon altogether. Instead, they're focused solely on a photo sharing platform. They call it Instagram, a mashup of instant camera and telegram.
十月六日,2010年。西斯特拉姆和克里格尔坐在旧金山湾狭暗的码头上的一个仓库里。他们在Dog Patch实验室和工业共同工作空间里。现在是午夜过后,桌子上空无一人。西斯特拉姆和克里格尔正在给他们的新应用程序做最后的润色。他们完全放弃了波旁酒。相反,他们只专注于一个照片分享平台。他们称之为Instagram,即即时相机和电报的混搭。
Krieger is hunched over his laptop, tapping away. On screen is the control panel for the Apple App Store. He pushes his fingers through his dark brown hair and readjusts his glasses. His fingers hover for an instant over the keyboard. Then he presses enter. Okay, it's live in the App Store. Sistram bends over Krieger's shoulder to appear to screen.
Krieger弯着腰坐在他的笔记本电脑前,不停地敲打着键盘。屏幕上显示着苹果应用商店的控制面板。他用手指梳着他的深棕色头发,重新调整了他的眼镜。他的手指停留在键盘上一瞬间,然后按下了回车键。好了,现在在应用商店上线了。Sistram弯下腰,靠在Krieger的肩膀上看着屏幕。
In the corner, a ticking counter lets them see each time the app gets a new download. Both men are too nervous to talk. Suddenly, they get a bite. There's one. A few seconds pass. There's another. They keep watching. The downloads keep coming.
在角落里,一个滴答作响的计数器让他们看到每次应用程序获得新下载的次数。两个人都太紧张了,不敢说话。突然,他们获得了一次下载。有一个了。几秒钟过去了。又来了一个。他们继续观察着。下载量不断增长。
A few days ago, Krieger and Sistram sent out 100 download invitations to tech journalists and influential Silicon Valley people. One of their most avid users is Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. He's also invested in their app. Much of Instagram's functionality is cribbed from Twitter. You can like a photo, follow people and use hashtags to find similarly tagged images. And you don't need anyone's permission to follow them either. It's an open network so you can track celebrities and friends alike. Dorsey's been posting photos from the app to drum up interest. It seems to be paying off.
几天前,克里格和西斯特拉姆向100名科技记者和有影响力的硅谷人士发送了下载邀请。其中他们最狂热的用户之一是Twitter创始人杰克·多西。他也投资了他们的应用程序。Instagram的许多功能都来自于Twitter。您可以点赞照片,关注人们,并使用hashtag查找类似标记的图像。您也不需要任何人的允许就可以关注他们。这是一个开放的网络,所以您可以跟踪名人和朋友。多西一直在发布来自应用程序的照片来吸引人们的兴趣。看起来效果还不错。
As the downloads continue to climb, Krieger and Sistram are amazed. 1,000, 2,000, 5,000. It's way more than the number of people they invited. Where are all these people coming from?
随着下载量的不断增长,克里格和西斯特拉姆感到惊讶。1,000, 2,000, 5,000. 这个数字远远超过他们邀请的人数,这些人都是从哪里来的呢?
Krieger appears at a spreadsheet of the email addresses used to sign up. They're from Germany. Hong Kong. Cities around the globe. Sistram is ecstatic.
Krieger出现在一张电子表格上,上面记录了注册时使用的电子邮件地址。来自德国、香港以及世界各地的城市。Sistram非常兴奋。
Wow, this isn't just a San Francisco thing a few of our friends are downloading. We're reaching the whole world. He and Krieger hug and decide to call it a night. On the subway train home, Sistram sees a guy using Instagram. He's amazed. Someone is actually using their app in the wild.
哇,这不仅仅是我们的一些朋友正在下载的旧金山事情。我们正与全世界接触。他和Krieger拥抱一下,决定回家了。在地铁回家的路上,Sistram看到有个家伙在使用 Instagram。他很惊讶。有人实际在野外使用他们的应用。
The sun is well up by the time he walks through his front door, but then he gets a call from Krieger. Kevin, the system's down. No way. Instagram is running on one database in one computer in Los Angeles. In less than 24 hours, it's been downloaded 25,000 times. Now the system handling all the photos is overloaded.
当他走进自己的前门时,太阳已经升得很高了,但然后他接到了Krieger的电话。“Kevin,系统崩溃了。”“不可能吧。Instagram只在洛杉矶的一台电脑中的一个数据库上运行。在不到24小时的时间内,它已经被下载了25,000次。现在处理所有照片的系统已经超载了。”
Sistram puts Krieger on speakerphone and opens up Twitter to see if anyone has noticed yet. Damn it. There are a bunch of tweets complaining we're just another startup that doesn't know how to scale. They're right. We don't. But Sistram is devastated. We built this awesome thing and completely messed it up. If people can't post because the servers are down, they're never going to come back to Instagram.
Sistram 开启扬声器,让 Krieger 与他一起查看 Twitter,看看有没有人注意到。该死,有许多推文抱怨我们只是另一个不知如何扩展的初创企业。他们是正确的,我们不知道如何扩展。但是,Sistram 感到非常沮丧,因为我们构建了这个令人惊叹的东西,但是却彻底搞砸了。如果人们不能发布内容,因为服务器挂了,他们就永远不会回到 Instagram。
Krieger's size.
Krieger的尺寸 - 对于Krieger的体积大小来说。
We need help.
我们需要帮助。
Sistram hangs up and scrolls through the contacts in his iPhone. Who can he call? His thumb pauses over the name of Adam D'Angelo, a former chief technology officer from Facebook. He met D'Angelo at a party years ago and figures it's worth a shot..
Sistram 掛斷電話,翻滾著 iPhone 聯絡人。他可以打哪個電話?他的拇指停在了 Adam D'Angelo 的名字上,這位前 Facebook 的首席技術官。他多年前在一個派對上遇到過 D'Angelo,覺得這是值得一試的機會。
Sistram gets lucky. D'Angelo spends 30 minutes on the phone with him. He walks Sistram through what Instagram needs to do to get back up and running.
Sistram真是走运啊!D'Angelo花了30分钟给他打电话,详细讲解了Instagram需要做什么才能恢复正常运行。
Krieger and Sistram switch to a different service that makes it easy to buy more server space. Forgiving users return to the platform. But Instagram's problems are far from over.
克里格尔和斯特拉姆转向另一个服务,使得购买更多服务器空间变得容易。宽恕的用户回到了平台。但Instagram的问题远远没有结束。
Fall 2011. Instagram's San Francisco office. Krieger's alarm is going off. Again. Sistram looks up at Krieger. The pair have an alarm on their phones that alerts them whenever the servers are overloaded. Lately, the alarm goes off a lot. They get to work.
2011年秋季,在Instagram旧金山办公室。克里格尔的闹钟响了。史特拉姆抬头看着克里格尔。这对同事的手机上有一个警报器,每当服务器超载时会发出警报。最近,这个警报器响了很多次。他们开始工作。
It's only been a year since launching, but Krieger and Sistram's app has been downloaded 10 million times. They still don't have the headcount or server power to keep up. Sistram insists he only wants to hire people who really care about Instagram, which means he and Krieger are still fixing things themselves. Servers used to go down every four or five hours. Now it happens every 15 minutes. Krieger and Sistram are exhausted.
"它自推出以来仅有一年,但Krieger和Sistram的应用程序已被下载了1000万次。然而,他们仍没有足够的员工和服务器能力来跟上。Sistram坚持只想雇用那些真正关心Instagram的人,这意味着他和Krieger仍在自行修复问题。服务器以前每四五个小时就会崩溃一次,现在每15分钟就会崩溃一次。Krieger和Sistram非常疲惫。"
They haven't had a weekend off in months. They carry their laptops around with them wherever they go. Now Sistram's phone is showing an unknown number with a Menlo Park area code. He picks it up.
他们数月来没有休过周末。他们无论到哪里都带着自己的笔记本电脑。现在,Sistram的手机显示一个来自门洛帕克地区的未知号码。他接起电话。
Hello?
你好吗?
Hi, Kevin. It's Mark. No last name needed.
嗨,凯文。我是马克。不需要姓氏。
It's Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and one of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley. The pair met years before when Sistram was still at Stanford. But he and Zuckerberg are hardly friends. Sistram raises his eyebrows and gestures to Krieger. Krieger looks up from his laptop where he's desperately trying to get the servers back up and running.
这是马克·扎克伯格,Facebook的创始人,也是硅谷最有权势的人之一。这对奇怪的二人早在Sistram还在斯坦福的时候就认识了。但他和扎克伯格并不是真正的朋友。Sistram抬起眉毛,向Krieger做手势。Krieger从他拼命让服务器重新启动的电脑上抬起头来。
Hi, Mark. How are you?
嗨,马克。你好吗?
Krieger's eyes widen. Good, good. I just wanted to see how things were going with Facebook's API. Any issues?
Krieger的眼睛睁大了。很好,很好。我只是想了解一下Facebook的API进展如何。有什么问题吗?
The API is the program that lets Instagram integrate with Facebook. Hardly something Zuckerberg needs to be checking up on himself. Sistram is suspicious, but he keeps talking.
API 是一个程序,让 Instagram 可以与 Facebook 集成。这不是 Zuckerberg 需要亲自检查的东西。Sistram 感到怀疑,但他继续说话。
Oh yeah, everything's great with it. Thanks for asking.
哦,是的,一切都很好。感谢你问候。
Sistram and Zuckerberg make small talk. And after a few minutes, they hang up. Krieger grills Sistram right away.
Sistram和Zuckerberg闲聊了一会儿,几分钟之后他们挂了电话。Krieger马上开始盘问Sistram。
Zuckerberg, what the hell did he want?
扎克伯格到底想干嘛?天哪!
I have no idea. He basically just called to chat.
我不知道。他基本上只是打电话来跟我聊天。
Sistram and Krieger have been getting a lot of calls from prestigious VC firms eager to invest in the company. But no one of Zuckerberg's stature has been ringing. Yet. Sistram is about to get a lot more casual friendly calls from Zuckerberg.
Sistram和Krieger一直收到很多来自知名风险投资公司的电话,他们渴望投资这家公司。但是,像扎克伯格这样的人还没有打电话来。不过,不久之后,Sistram将会接到更多来自扎克伯格的随意友好的电话。
Meanwhile, another entrepreneur is planting the seeds for an app that will one day take the world by storm.
另一位创业者正在播下一种可能有朝一日会席卷全球的应用程序的种子。与此同时,其他的事情也在发生。
2012 Beijing, China. Zhang E-Ming is sitting in his apartment near Beijing's Qinghua University. He's 29 years old with buzzed black hair and half-rime glasses. The smell of braised ribs and rice wafts through the air as he stares at his laptop's black screen. It's filled with strings of code. The cursor blinks expectantly.
2012年,中国北京。张伊明坐在他的公寓里,靠近清华大学。他有29岁,剃着黑色的头发,戴着半框眼镜。卤烧猪肋骨和米饭的香味弥漫在空气中,当他盯着笔记本电脑的黑屏幕时。屏幕上充满了代码。光标不停地闪烁着,等待着什么。
Zhang's been working as an engineer at different tech companies and he's always noticing the same thing. Customers don't know what they want. Well, what if you serve them what they want before they even know they want it? It could be a news article, a travel deal, a meme, doesn't matter. The point is to keep a tight grip on their attention.
张一直在不同的技术公司担任工程师,他总是注意到同样的问题,就是客户不知道他们想要什么。那么,如果你在他们意识到自己想要什么之前就已经为他们提供了这个服务呢?这可能是一篇新闻文章,一份旅游优惠,一个网络梗,都无所谓。关键是牢牢抓住他们的注意力。
So he writes a program using AI to serve up aggregated news articles from different publishers. He calls the company Totiel, which means headlines in Mandarin. The program learns what users want to read by tracking what they click on and how long they spend on each article. Then it customizes news for the user.
他使用人工智能编写了一款程序,从不同的发布者那里提供聚合新闻文章。他把公司命名为"Totiel",这在普通话中意味着"头条新闻"。该程序通过跟踪用户点击的内容和花费在每篇文章上的时间来了解用户想要阅读的内容,然后为用户定制新闻。
It's not serving up cute videos yet, but the way the program learns what users like to feed them more of that juicy content will be the foundation of TikTok. Zhang will go on to start several more companies and each will become a building block for his blockbuster app. But right now, Zhang can't get his mind off something more immediate. Across the Pacific, he's noticed users are fixated on Instagram. An app full of images, not news. He finds that enticing.
虽然该程序尚未提供可爱的视频,但它学习用户喜欢的内容,并给予更多的这类吸引人的内容,这将是TikTok的基础。张一路创办了几家公司,每家公司都成为他的招牌应用的基石。但现在,张却无法把自己的注意力移开。他注意到跨越太平洋的用户着迷于Instagram。这是一个充满了图片而不是新闻的应用程序。他觉得很有吸引力。
April, 2012. It's a Thursday afternoon in Instagram's San Francisco office. Sistram and Krieger are huddled to one side whispering while their 13 employees click away at large open desks. This building used to be Twitter's headquarters. And Twitter has just made Krieger and Sistram a very exciting proposition.
2012年4月。在Instagram旧金山办公室里,这是周四下午。Sistram和Krieger小声耳语,而他们的13名员工在宽敞的开放式办公桌上点击着电脑。这栋楼曾是Twitter的总部。而Twitter刚刚向Krieger和Sistram提出了非常令人兴奋的建议。
Sistram exhales.
Sistram呼出一口气。
500 million. Silicon Valley might be the only place where they'll hand out that kind of cash to dudes in their 20s.
硅谷可能是唯一一个会给20多岁的小伙子们这样大笔钱的地方,大概500亿美元的规模。
Krieger bites his lip. What do you think we should do?
克里格咬了咬嘴唇。“你认为我们该怎么办?”
Before they can even ponder this, Sistram's phone rings. He recognizes the number.
在他们甚至思考这个问题之前,Sistram 的手机响了。他认出了这个号码。
Hi Mark.
你好,马克。
Zuckerberg speaks in his usual measured tone.
扎克伯格用他平常的稳健语气说话。
Kevin, I've been thinking. I want to buy Instagram.
凯文,我一直在思考。我想要购买Instagram。
Sistram has been expecting this call. He takes a deep breath and listens.
Sistram一直在等待这个电话。他深吸一口气并倾听。
"I'll pay double whatever you were valued at this round. Why did you come over?"
我会付你当前估价的两倍。你来干什么了?
Sistram looks around. Even though he's been expecting an offer, he can't believe he's in Mark Zuckerberg's dining room. Zuckerberg's been wooing Instagram for the past six months, calling casually out of the blue to check in. And now, he says exactly what Sistram wants to hear.
锡斯特姆四处张望。虽然他一直期待着这份邀请,但他无法相信自己身处马克·扎克伯格的餐厅中。过去六个月里,扎克伯格一直在努力争取Instagram,突然打来电话询问情况。现在,他说出了锡斯特姆想听到的话。
"If you come to us, you'll get to be fully independent. We won't integrate you into Facebook. You'll get to keep running it just how you want."
如果你来找我们,就可以完全独立。我们不会将你整合到Facebook中。你可以按照自己的喜好继续运行它。
Sistram nods. He's not ready to give up control over Instagram unless...
Sistram点了点头。除非有必要,否则他不愿放弃对Instagram的控制。
...unless the price is right. He cuts to the chase and shoots for the moon.
他会直截了当地讲价,而且还追求极致。除非价钱合适,否则他不会轻易妥协。
"Okay, let's talk numbers. How about two billion?"
好的,让我们来谈谈数字。两百亿怎么样?
Zuckerberg laughs.
扎克伯格笑了。
"Come on Kevin, I said double your current valuation. Not quadruple. Let's do one billion."
"凯文,加油啊。我说的是把你们现在的估值翻倍,不是四倍。我们来达到十亿的目标吧。"
Krieger and Sistram's app is only 18 months old. But it also has 30 million users. A hefty number given how young the company is. On the other hand, Instagram is just a mobile app with no desktop version and no revenue. One billion dollars is a crazy amount, far above the typical Silicon Valley price tag. But to Zuckerberg, Instagram's fast growth could be a lifeline for Facebook.
Krieger和Sistram的应用程序只有18个月的历史。但是,它也拥有3000万用户。这是一个庞大的数字,考虑到公司的年轻。另一方面,Instagram只是一个移动应用程序,没有桌面版本和没有收入。十亿美元是一个疯狂的数额,远高于典型的硅谷价格标签。但对于扎克伯格来说,Instagram的快速增长可能是Facebook的救命稻草。
The Behemoth Company has seen its own user acquisition slow. Plus, Instagram has a young audience that Facebook covets. And Zuckerberg has been eyeing another social media upstart that's attracting young people and droves. Snapchat. Teaming up with Instagram seems like a way to hedge against the competition.
贝西莫斯公司发现自己的用户获取已经减缓,而Instagram拥有Facebook渴望的年轻受众。扎克伯格一直在盯着另一个引起年轻人关注的社交媒体新秀——Snapchat。与Instagram合作似乎是一种对抗竞争的方式。
For Sistram, it feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
对 Sistram 来说,这就像是一生中难得的机会。
"Can I have some time? I need to call Mike?"
我可以用一些时间吗?我需要给Mike打电话。
"Of course."
当然啦。
Zuckerberg retires to the living room to watch Game of Thrones. Meanwhile, Sistram works the phone from the dining room. He calls Krieger, then dials his lawyers and investors. A short while later, he's ready to give Zuckerberg his answer.
扎克伯格退到客厅看《权力的游戏》,与此同时,西斯特拉姆在餐厅打电话。他先给克里格尔打了个电话,接着又联系了自己的律师和投资人。不久之后,他已经准备好向扎克伯格给出答复了。
Zuckerberg pauses the TV and looks up at Sistram.
扎克伯格停下电视,抬头看着西斯特拉姆。
"Mark, we're in?"
马克,我们进去了吗?
Zuckerberg stands up and shakes hands. The Facebook founder is taking no chances. He fast-tracks the process, getting the deal hammered out and signed over the weekend.
扎克伯格站起来握手。这位Facebook创始人没冒任何险。他加快了进程,快速敲定交易,并在周末签字了结。
Zuckerberg thinks he spurred Facebook's momentum and outwitted Snapchat. But he's unaware that over the horizon, another more intoxicating app is incubating its own threat.
扎克伯格认为自己推动了Facebook的势头并且比Snapchat更精明。但是他没有意识到,在地平线的另一侧,还有一款更令人着迷的应用正在孕育自己的威胁。
Hey there, I'm Josh Muccio, host of The Pitch, a show where real-on-pronuers pitch real-tech investors for real money. And this season gets a little saucy.
嘿,大家好,我是Josh Muccio,《The Pitch》的主持人。这个节目是真正的创业者向真正的科技投资者推销他们的项目,争取真正的资金支持。而这季节目会变得有些有趣。
We knew that we were not going to join the same old sauce game. We were going to disrupt $130 billion in the industry. We're coming after Hines.
我们知道我们不会加入那种老套的调味酱游戏,我们将会颠覆行业价值达到1300亿美元的市场。我们要挑战海恩斯。
We meet founders pitching everything from a better catch-up to a solution for one of the biggest problems today. Energy.
我们会见到创始人推销各种各样的事情,从更好的聚会到解决今天最大的问题之一——能源。
In the future, the vehicles in Garage is going to be like a giant power plant that could be used to reinforce a power grid, substitute fossil fuel power plants, and allow more renewable energy on the network.
未来,车库中的车辆将变成一座巨大的发电厂,可以用来加强电网,替代化石燃料发电厂,让更多可再生能源进入网络。
This season, 14 founders with 12 ideas big enough to change the world, if the investors invest. I would like to invest in this round $300,000.
这个季节有14位创始人,他们有12个大到足以改变世界的想法,只要投资者投资。我想在这一轮投资$300,000。
New episodes every Wednesday. See in the Pitch Room.
每逢周三,我们都会推出新的一集。快来到演示室观看吧!
December 2012, Menlo Park, California.
2012年12月,在加利福尼亚州门洛帕克。
Sistram and Krieger are in their office on Facebook's campus. It's a giant room with a large glass garage door. They've been here for three months, but they're still settling in.
Sistram和Krieger在Facebook校园内的办公室里。这是一个巨大的房间,有一扇大玻璃车库门。他们已经在这里待了三个月,但仍在适应中。
Sistram has two different monitors in front of him, one open to Twitter. He spots a tweet from an Instagram user, or rather a former Instagram user. It reads, "I'm deleting Instagram. They now own your photos. Hashtag read the terms of service."
Sistram 前面放着两个不同的显示器,其中一个打开了 Twitter。他看到一条来自 Instagram 用户的推文,或者说是前 Instagram 用户。推文写道,“我要删除 Instagram。他们现在拥有你的照片。话题符号要读条款。”
He mutters under his breath. "Why are they talking about it?"
他喃喃自语道:“他们为什么要谈论这件事呢?”
Sistram quickly scans the photo attached to the tweet. It's a screenshot of Instagram's recently updated terms of service. And it says, people's photos could be used in advertisements. The text makes it sound like Instagram and its parent company Facebook have the right to license people's photos royalty-free and without telling them. It's a detail Sistram breezed over when he approved the amended terms of service. Facebook insisted Instagram update their terms to better match those of their new parent company. But now users are protesting.
西斯特拉姆快速扫描了与推文附加的照片。这是Instagram最近更新的服务条款的屏幕截图。它说,人们的照片可能会用于广告。这篇文章使人们觉得Instagram及其母公司Facebook有权免费许可人们的照片,并且不用告诉他们。当西斯特拉姆批准修订后的服务条款时,他轻描淡写地忽略了这个细节。Facebook坚持要求Instagram更新他们的条款,以更好地符合他们的新母公司的要求。但现在用户正在抗议。
Another tweet calls the new terms "Instagram's suicide note."
另一条推文称这些新条款是“Instagram的自杀笔记”。
Sistram shouts for Krieger. "Mike, we've got a problem."
斯特拉姆对克里格喊道:“迈克,我们有问题。”
He explains the dilemma. As Krieger listens with a furrowed brow, Krieger starts pulling up data on app deletions.
他解释了困境。当克里格听得皱起眉头时,他开始查找有关应用删除的数据。
"Oh no, people are deleting it fast. Really fast."
哦不,人们正在非常快地删掉它。真的非常快。
Sistram squints at the graph, which shows deletions skyrocketing. Krieger looks at him, worried.
西斯特拉姆眯起眼睛看着图表,显示删除急剧上升。克里格看着他,感到担忧。
"What do we do?"
我们该怎么办呢?
Sistram thinks for a second. "We apologize."
Sistram 想了想,“我们道歉。”
He takes a deep breath and sits down at his laptop. He opens up a new tab to Instagram's company blog and pleads for forgiveness for the oversight.
他深吸一口气,坐在笔记本电脑前。他打开一个新的选项卡到 Instagram 公司的博客,并请求宽恕这个疏忽。
Soon after, Instagram reverts to its old terms of service. But Sistram will not quickly forget how Facebook encouraged him to make a change that infuriated his users. He and Krieger will need to pay closer attention.
很快,Instagram又回到了旧的服务条款。但是Sistram不会很快忘记Facebook鼓励他做出令用户愤怒的改变。他和Krieger需要更加关注。
By now, Instagram has more than 150 million monthly users and many of them are young people. It's one of the most popular apps in the world. But just as it's asserting its dominance, a Quarkier app is gaining traction. Vine. Rather than just the still photos Instagram specializes in, Vine loops six second videos. It's full of jackass style goofy pranks and quick cuts of teenagers having a good time. In other words, the complete opposite of the polished filtered aesthetics on Instagram.
现在,Instagram拥有超过1.5亿月度用户,其中许多是年轻人。它是世界上最受欢迎的应用程序之一。但就在其巨大影响力得到确认之际,一个更炫酷的应用程序开始崭露头角。这就是Vine。Vine不仅仅是Instagram所擅长的静态照片,而是允许循环播放长达六秒的视频。它充满了鲁莽愚蠢的恶作剧和年轻人玩得开心的快速剪辑。换句话说,这与Instagram上上传的经过色彩抠图后的“完美”图片截然不同。
There's also incoming competition from Snapchat where people send direct messages back and forth to each other. Instagram responds by adding their own 15 second videos. They follow that up by introducing direct messages. But Instagram is not the only one paying attention to the ascend to video.
Instagram还面临着来自Snapchat的竞争,那里的人们会彼此发送直接消息。Instagram回应这种情况,添加了自己的15秒视频。他们随后推出了直接消息功能。但Instagram并非唯一一个关注视频崛起的平台。
Spring 2014, California. A Chinese developer named Alex Zhu is sitting on a train. He's traveling from San Francisco to Mountain View, California. At 35, he's way older than the high school students who fill the car. Zhu is currently working at a software company, but he's been trying his hand at his own education startup. It's not going anywhere. He's looking for something new.
春季2014年,一个名叫Alex Zhu的中国开发者坐在火车上,他正在从旧金山前往加州的Mountain View。他已经35岁了,比车厢里充满高中生的年轻人要年长得多。Zhu目前在一家软件公司工作,但他一直在尝试创办自己的教育创业公司,但一事无成。他正在寻找一些新的事物。
Zhu watches the teenagers with interest. Some of them are listening to music. Some are taking selfies. Some are on Snapchat and Vine. Then it hits him. What if he could combine the selfie and music with social media and roll it all into one? Zhu likes Vine, but he thinks its videos are too brief. At six seconds, they're just too short for advertising or sponsored content to stick. Zhu opens up his laptop. He starts writing the code for a 15 second video app featuring clips that loop and can be set to songs.
朱很感兴趣地观察这些青少年。其中一些在听音乐,一些在自拍,一些在使用Snapchat和Vine。突然间,他有了一个想法。如果他能够将自拍、音乐和社交媒体结合起来,然后打包成一个产品呢?朱喜欢Vine,但他认为其视频太短了。六秒钟的时间对于广告或赞助内容来说太短了。朱打开了他的笔记本电脑。他开始编写15秒循环播放视频并能够设置背景音乐的应用程序的代码。
In April 2014, musically launches. It's the precursor to TikTok. And it will become one of the fastest spreading apps of all time.
在2014年4月,Musically开启了。它是TikTok的前身。并且它将成为有史以来传播最快的应用之一。
On the next episode, we go back to System and Krieger's fateful meeting on Stanford's campus and the move that earns them both millions. At the same time, TikTok's founder launches software that gets his Chinese customers clicking.
下一集,我们将回顾System和Krieger在斯坦福校园的命运相遇,以及让他们都赚了数百万的举动。与此同时,TikTok的创始人推出了能让他的中国客户点击的软件。
Hey, prime members, you can binge every episode of Business Wars, Add Free, on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus, an Apple Podcast. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com-survey.
嘿,亲爱的Prime会员们,你们可以在亚马逊音乐上 binge 每一集《商业战争》无广告版。赶快下载亚马逊音乐的应用程序吧!或者你也可以在苹果播客收听无广告版的《商业战争》Wondery Plus版本。在你离开之前,请通过在Wondery.com-survey上完成一份简短的调查来告诉我们你的故事。
From Wondery, this is episode one of TikTok vs Instagram for Business Wars.
这是Wondery推出的《商业大战:TikTok vs Instagram》第一集。
A quick note about recreations you've been hearing, in most cases we can't know exactly what was said. Those scenes are dramatizations. But they are based on historical research.
关于你听到的重现场景,需要注意的是,我们通常无法确切知道当时发生了什么。这些场景是戏剧化呈现的,但它们是基于历史研究的。
I'm your host, David Brown. Natalie Roba-Med wrote this story. Karen Lo is our senior producer and editor, edited and produced by Emily Frost. Sound designed by Kyle Randall. Kate Young is our associate producer.
大家好,我是您的主持人David Brown。这个故事是由Natalie Roba-Med撰写的。我们的高级制片人和编辑是Karen Lo,而编译和制作则是由Emily Frost负责。音效设计由Kyle Randall完成。Kate Young是我们的副制片人。
Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman and Marshal Louis, created by Ernan Lopez. For Wondery.
我们的执行制片人是珍妮·劳尔·贝克曼和马歇尔·路易斯,由埃南·洛佩兹创造,出品方为Wondery。