《经济学人》双语：韩国科技公司也染上财阀的坏习惯了吗？

时间：2023-06-01

Para2&3&4&5官方的措施：担心随着科技公司Naver和Kakao等业务扩展到生活各个方面，染上了财阀的坏习惯

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《经济学人》双语：韩国科技公司也染上财阀的坏习惯了吗？

文/Irene-自由英语之路

【本篇内容简述】

【Para1】引入：从科技公司Kakao的亿万富翁创始人讲起，3月他承诺一半财富捐给慈善事业，现在他因为一些不利的原因而占据头条新闻。

【Para2&3&4&5】官方的措施：担心随着科技公司Naver和Kakao等业务扩展到生活各个方面，染上了财阀的坏习惯。且官方言辞越强烈，如找到一种方法来阻止它的快速扩张等言辞。裁定这2家公司违反了消费者保护法，导致股价下跌。电子商务公司Coupang被罚款33亿韩元。

【Para6】不仅限国内公司：国外公司也受影响，如谷歌被罚1.77亿美元，对苹果公司的要求。

【Para7&8&9&10】各方观点：收益公司表示赞同这些举措；风投资本家称赞，但也不是长远来作用不大；不利一方的科技公司Kakao表示配合，承诺做出部分业务让步；但是Coupang公司表示不服，提出上诉。

（文末的补充材料对理解本文有帮助）

标题：

South Korean business

The other techlash

Are tech firms picking up the chaebol’s bad habits?

韩国企业

又一个科技抵制潮

科技公司是不是也染上了财阀的坏习惯？

South Korea’s government sees tech firms as the new chaebol

It accuses online darlings like Coupang and Naver of picking up the old conglomerates’ bad habits

韩国政府将科技公司视为新的财阀

它指责Coupang和Naver（见文末补充资料）等网络宠儿染上了旧集团的坏习惯

Paragraph 1：

A FEW MONTHS ago Kim Beom-su looked like the face of responsible capitalism in South Korea.

几个月前，金敬洙看起来像是韩国负责任的资本主义的面孔。

In March the billionaire founder of Kakao, which runs the country’s most successful messaging app and a slew of other digital services, promised to give away half his wealth for charitable causes, the second Korean tycoon to make that pledge.

今年3月，运营着韩国最成功的短信应用程序和一系列其他数字服务的Kakao公司的亿万富翁创始人承诺将把他的一半财富捐给慈善事业，这是第二位做出这一承诺的韩国大亨。

Now he is making headlines for some less salubrious reasons. Antitrust officials have reportedly set their sights on his private holding company for allegedly failing to report properly on its shareholders and affiliates.

现在他因为一些不利的原因而占据头条新闻。据报道，反垄断官员将目光投向了他的私人控股公司，因为据称该公司未能如实正确报告其股东和附属公司的情况。

Paragraph 2:

The apparent move against Kakao’s founder is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle. Like their counterparts in America, South Korea’s technology giants have come under scrutiny.

针对卡考创始人的这一明显举动是一场持续战斗中的最新攻势。与在美国的同行一样，韩国的科技巨头也受到了密切关注。

Officials worry that as firms such as Naver, which began life as a search engine, and Kakao have expanded into anything from ride-hailing to personal finance, they have picked up the bad habits of the chaebol.

官方担心，随着Naver（最初是搜索引擎）和Kakao等公司的业务扩展到从打车到个人金融支付等任何领域，它们已经染上了财阀的坏习惯。

These sprawling conglomerates were instrumental in making South Korea rich and continue to dominate its economy.

这些庞大的企业集团帮助韩国致富，并继续主导其经济。

But they are notorious for murky governance structures, oligopolisticbusiness practices and close ties with the political elite.

但他们因治理结构模糊、寡头垄断的商业行为以及与政治精英的密切关系而臭名昭著。

Paragraph 3:

Over the past few weeks politicians have ramped up the rhetoric.

在过去的几周里，政客们加大了言辞的力度。

“Kakao has turned from a symbol of growth and innovation into a symbol of old greed,” Song Young-gil, a leader of the ruling Minjoo party, told the National Assembly this month.

执政党民约党领袖宋英吉本月在国民议会上表示：“Kakao已经从增长和创新的象征变成了旧贪婪的象征”。

“We will find a way to stop its rapid expansion and help it coexist with small-business owners,” he warned.

他警告说：“我们将找到一种方法来阻止它的快速扩张，并帮助它与小企业主共存。”。

Paragraph 4:

The same day regulators ruled that some financial services offered by Kakao and Naver violated consumer-protection laws because the platforms were not registered as intermediaries. The two companies will now be required to abide by brokerage regulations.

同一天，监管机构裁定，Kakao和Naver提供的一些金融服务违反了消费者保护法，因为这些平台未注册为中介机构。这两家公司现在将被要求遵守经纪规定。

Spooked investors dumped Kakao and Naver shares, shaving a tenth, or $11bn, off their combined stockmarket value.

受惊的的投资者抛售了Kakao和Naver的股票，使其股票市值减少了十分之一，即110亿美元。

Paragraph 5:

Korean trustbusters, for their part, are investigating allegations that Kakao’s taxi-hailing service favours its own pricier cabs.

韩国反垄断机构官员们则正在调查有关Kakao打出租车服务偏向其价格更高的出租车的指控。

They want e-commerce platforms to draw up proper contracts with third-party sellers, and specify what commissions they earn.

他们希望电子商务平台与第三方卖家签订合理的合同，并明确他们赚取的佣金。

In August Coupang, the country’s biggest e-commerce firm, was fined 3.3bn won ($2.8m) for pressing suppliers to lower prices.

今年8月，韩国最大的电子商务公司Coupang因迫使供应商降低价格而被罚款33亿韩元（280万美元）。

South Korea’s largely unregulated crypto-exchanges will have to register as legal trading platforms.

韩国基本上不受监管的加密交易所将不得不注册为合法交易平台。

Paragraph 6：

The techlash is not limited to domestic tech darlings. On September 14th regulators fined Google $177m for not allowing versions of its Android operating system to be installed on locally made smartphones.

限制抵制科技潮不仅限于国内的技术宠儿。9月14日，监管机构对谷歌处以1.77亿美元的罚款，原因是谷歌不允许在本地生产的智能手机上安装其安卓操作系统版本。

And last month South Korea became the first country to oblige Apple and Google to accept alternative payments systems in their app stores.

上个月，韩国成为第一个要求苹果和谷歌在其应用商店中接受替代支付系统的国家。

Paragraph 7:

App developers like Epic Games, which suffered a courtroom defeat against Apple in America on September 10th, welcomed the move.

像Epic Games的应用程序对这一举措表示欢迎。Epic Games于9月10日在美国法庭上败给了苹果。

The maker of “Fortnite” invoked the South Korean law to try to get its app reinstated on Apple’s app store, from which it had been booted for breaching rules that barred such in-app payments. Apple has refused.

“Fortnite”的制造商援引韩国法律，试图在苹果的应用商店上恢复其应用程序，该程序因违反禁止此类应用内支付的规定而被禁止。苹果拒绝了。

Paragraph 8:

Lim Jung-wook, a venture capitalist, applauds the government’s instincts to protect consumers and small suppliers.

风投资本家林荣旭称赞这举措是政府保护消费者和小供应商的本能反应。

But he reckons stricter rules will do little to curb the tech companies’ power in the long run.

但他认为，从长远来看，更严格的规定对遏制科技公司的权力作用不大。

“These firms’ services are too convenient for them not to keep growing.”

“这些公司的服务太方便了，而无法抑制他们的增长。”

Paragraph 9:

Nonetheless, faced with sinking stock prices, the Korean firms have begun to respond.

尽管如此，面对不断下跌的股价，韩国公司已经开始做出反应。

On September 14th Kakao announced a new 300bn-won fund to help small suppliers and promised to scrap new services such as flower delivery that compete with mom-and-pop businesses.

9月14日，Kakao宣布了一项投入3000亿韩元的资金，以帮助小型供应商，并承诺放弃与夫妻企业竞争的鲜花递送等新服务。

Mr Kim promised that the company would “throw away” its old growth model and replace it with one that fostered “social responsibility”.

金先生承诺，该公司将“抛弃”旧的增长模式，代之以培养“社会责任感”的增长模式。

Paragraph 10:

Coupang has chosen a more combative approach. It insists that its platform has made it easier for small firms to get their products to consumers.

Coupang选择了一种更具战斗性的方式。它坚持认为，它的平台使小公司更容易将产品提供给消费者。

And it is appealing against the antitrust fine, claiming that the penalty serves to protect chaebol such as LG, which brought the complaint.

该公司正在就反垄断罚款提出上诉，声称该处罚是为了保护LG等财阀，而LG正是这类财阀提出了申诉。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量686个左右）

原文出自2021年9月18日《The Economist》Business版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路，仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】

文章中的Coupang、Naver 分别是什么？（来源于百度百科）

Coupang：是一家总部位于韩国首都首尔的电子商务企业，创始人为Bom Kim，公司成立于2010年。2015年5月，该公司的融资总额已经达到了14亿美元，Coupang的估值已经超过了一万亿韩元，约合9.13亿美元。2020年8月4日，《2020胡润全球独角兽榜》发布，Coupang排名第26位。类似于中国的美团。

NAVER：是著名社交软件LINE的母公司，世界第五大（仅次于谷歌、雅虎、百度和必应）搜索引擎网站，也是韩国最大的搜索引擎和门户网站、韩国股票市场上市值最大的互联网公司。其Logo为一顶草帽，于1999年6月正式投入使用。Naver拥有数千名研发工程师，掌握着世界领先的搜索引擎技术，也使韩国成为美国、中国和俄罗斯之外，全球仅有的4个拥有搜索引擎核心技术的国家之一。

【重点词汇】（11个）

techlash

n. 科技抵制潮：科技潮基于科技公司日益增长的影响力，而生成的一种强烈和广泛的负面情绪。（《经济学人》中出现的合成词）

salubrious/slubris/pleasant to live in; clean and healthy.

adj. 清爽的；气候有益健康的

antitrust/ntitrst/

adj. 反垄断的；反托拉斯的

salvo/slv/

n.猛烈抨击

oligopolistic /lɡplstik/

adj. 寡占的；由少数垄断的

ramp up