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2022考研英语经济学人:为什么说网约车的未来在中国?

To glimpse the future of the ride-hailing business, look east

想要一窥网约车的未来，请看向东方

“We invest a lot of money here in China,” proclaimed Travis Kalanick, founder and then boss of Uber, at a confab in Tianjin in June 2016. But, he added with foreboding, “we have a competitor who is investing even more.” Two months later the American ride-hailing giant threw in the towel, selling its Chinese operations to its Beijing-based rival, Didi.

2016年6月，优步创始人、时任老板特拉维斯·卡兰尼克在天津举行的一次会议上宣称：“我们在中国投入了大量资金。”同时，他带着不祥的预感补充道，“我们有个投入比我们更多的竞争对手。”两个月后，这家美国网约车巨头选择认输，将其中国区业务卖给了总部位于北京的竞争对手滴滴出行。

Uber lost some $2bn over two years in China. Its retreat paved the way for Didi to grow into China’s undisputed ride-hailing champion, which today processes over four-fifths of all domestic orders. The Chinese titan is widely expected to go public in the next few months, eight years after its launch. It could fetch a valuation of $60bn.

两年间，优步在中国亏损近20亿美元。它的退出为滴滴成长为中国无可争议的网约车霸主铺平了道路。如今，中国超过80%的网约车订单都来自于滴滴。外界普遍预计，这家已创立8年的中国巨头将在未来几个月上市。届时，其估值或将达到600亿美元。

That Uber was willing to burn through so much cash, at least for a time, is a testamentto the size of the prize. China boasts the world’s biggest ride-hailing market.

优步愿意烧这么多钱(至少一度如此)足以证明网约车行业回报之大。中国拥有全球最大的网约车市场。

According to its transport ministry, 21m trips were booked on ride-hailing platforms each day, on average, last October. That is double the figure in pre-pandemic America, when travel was safer.

据中国交通运输部门的数据，去年10月，中国网约车平台的日均订单量达2100万单。这是疫情爆发前(那会打车还很安全)美国日均订单量的两倍。

Until it sold its Chinese business, Uber received more orders in China than in any other country, including its home market. The gross transaction value of China’s ride-hailers reached 221bn yuan ($32bn) last year, up by more than half since 2017, reckons Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy.

在卖掉中国区业务之前，优步在中国的订单量比在其他任何国家(包括美国本土市场)都要多。咨询公司Frost and Sullivan估计，去年，中国网约车市场交易总额或达2210亿元(约合320亿美元)，相比2017年增长超过50%。

America may have invented ride-hailing. But it is in China where the conditions are most fertile for it to flourish. The reasons go deeper than the size of the market. Didi has the most to gain. But its dominance will increasingly be contested.

网约车或许诞生于美国，但它的繁荣发展却是在中国。其缘由不仅仅在于市场规模。虽然滴滴的规模最大，但其统治地位却面临着越来越多的挑战。

Ride-hailing firms depend disproportionately on customers in big cities, where population density is highest. Around a quarter of Uber’s gross bookings by value in 2019 came from just five metropolises: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and London. China has 14 metropolitan areas with a population of over 10m, more than any other country.

网约车公司在很大程度上依赖于人口密度最高的大城市里的顾客。2019年，优步近25%的订单都来自于五大城市：芝加哥、洛杉矶、纽约、旧金山和伦敦。中国拥有14个人口超过千万的大城市，比其他任何国家都要多。

Most of these cities, keen to reduce rage-inducing congestion, discourage private car ownership by restricting the supply of licence plates. In Beijing’s most recent bi-monthly lottery 3.6m applicants competed for 6,370 number plates. Shanghai, China’s most populous city, puts a small number of plates up for auction each month.

这些大城市中的大多数都亟待解决令人烦恼的交通拥堵问题，它们往往会通过限制发放车牌来控制私家车的保有量。北京每两个月都会进行一次车牌摇号，在最近一次摇号中，360万申请者争夺6370个车牌。中国人口最多的城市上海每个月都会放出少量车牌进行竞拍。

The average winning bid at the auction in January was 91,863 yuan, more than double what it was a decade ago and costlier than many mid-range cars. The southern boomtowns of Guangzhou and Shenzhen have hybrid models whereby some plates are allocated via lottery and the rest sold to bidders. All that leaves millions of disappointed wannabe motorists for ride-hailing firms to cater to.

在今年1月的竞拍中，一个车牌的平均中标价为91863元，比十年前高出一倍多，甚至比许多中档汽车还要贵。南部新兴城市广州和深圳则采取混合模式，一些车牌通过摇号分配，其余进行竞拍。所有这些都让成千上万潜在购车者感到沮丧，他们便成为了网约车公司的目标客户。

Moreover, high urban density and the absence of American-style suburban sprawl turn parking space into a prized (and pricey) commodity. The number of public parking spaces per car in Beijing, China’s second-most populous city, is a fifth of that in its American opposite number, Los Angeles.

此外，中国城市人口密度高，且不像美国城市那样向郊区扩张，因此，停车位就成了一种珍贵(且昂贵)的商品。在中国人口第二多的城市北京，平均每辆车的公共车位数量仅为美国洛杉矶的五分之一。

China’s extensive high-speed rail network, the world’s longest, blunts the benefits of car ownership for long-distance travel. And cheaper labour means rides can be offered at low prices, making them accessible to a wider group of customers. More than 340m Chinese booked a ride-hailing service at least once in the first half of 2020, notes the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

中国拥有庞大的高速铁路网，线路总长居世界首位，因此汽车对长途出行没有太大优势。更廉价的劳动力意味着公司可以提供价格更低的网约车服务，使得更多的顾客能叫得起车。工业和信息化部指出，2020年上半年，超过3.4亿中国人至少叫过一次网约车。

 

重难点词汇：

confab [ˈkɑːnfæb] n. 交谈;会议

foreboding [fɔːrˈboʊdɪŋ] n. 预感;先兆 adj. 不祥之兆的

testament [ˈtestəmənt] n. 遗嘱;证明

wannabe [ˈwɑːnəbi] n. 想达到目标的人 adj. 想要成为的

sprawl [sprɔːl] v. 蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展

      以上是-2022考研英语经济学人:为什么说网约车的未来在中国?希望对2022考研考生们，在英语阅读上面有所帮助!祝2022考研顺利!

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