2020年经济学人 平安--变形计(1)

Ping An

平安

Metamorphosis

变形计

The world's most valuable insurer has transformed itself into a fintech super-app. Could others follow its lead?

这家全球最具价值的保险公司已转型为金融科技超级应用。其他国家能效仿吗？

A job interview at Ping An is a strange experience. To become an agent at the insurance group, the world's largest by market capitalisation, candidates must take questions from an intelligent machine. As they respond, their voice, choice of words and gestures are scrutinised for the qualities of the most productive salespeople¹. After accruing² data from millions of such interviews, the firm believes its artificial-intelligence (AI) system can quickly pluck talent and weed out the duds. Judged by the company's agent-productivity scores, it is working.

在平安进行工作面试是一种奇怪的经历。要成为这家全球市值最大的保险集团的代理，候选人必须接受一台智能机器的提问。当他们做出回应时，他们的声音、措辞和手势都会被仔细检查，以确定他们是否具备最高效的销售人员的品质。在从数百万次这样的面试中收集数据后，该公司相信它的人工智能(AI)系统能够迅速挖出人才，剔除无用之人。从该公司的代理生产力得分来看，它正在发挥作用。

Just as the recruitment tool offers a glimpse into the future of hiring, Ping An itself may offer a window on to the future of finance. The tool is just one of thousands of applications built by the group's army of engineers. They support a sprawling³ array of services, from insurance and banking⁴ to health care and education, which this year alone have been used by close to 600m people. No other traditional financial-services group in the world comes close to rivalling Ping An's ability to develop technologies and deploy⁵ them at such a scale.

正如招聘工具提供了一窥未来招聘的机会一样，平安本身可能也提供了一扇了解金融业未来的窗口。该工具只是该集团工程师大军开发的数千个应用程序之一。它们支撑着一系列庞大的服务，从保险和银行到医疗保健和教育，仅今年就有近6亿人使用这些服务。在如此大规模的技术开发和应用方面，世界上没有其他任何一家传统金融服务集团能与平安匹敌。

The firm, set up by Peter Ma, began life as a small unit at a state-owned enterprise in Shenzhen, selling bosses insurance against worker-compensation claims. It was eventually spun⁶ out in 1988. By the mid-2000s it had become one of China's largest life and property insurers, and attracted investment from HSBC, a bank. Today it is worth 1.5trn yuan ($236bn; see chart 1), and has redefined itself as a technology conglomerate⁷ built around an insurance business. It is now the largest investor⁸ in HSBC.

这家公司由马彼得创立，最初是深圳一家国有企业的一个小单位，向老板推销工人赔偿保险。该公司最终于1988年解散。到2000年代中期，它已经成为中国最大的人寿和财产保险公司之一，同时吸引了汇丰银行的投资。如今，它的价值为人民币1.5万亿元(2360亿美元)，并重新定义自己为一家以保险业务为基础的科技集团。它现在是汇丰最大的投资者。

1 salespeople   

n.售货员，店员；售货员( salesperson的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The shop usually employs additional salespeople for the Christmas toy trade. 这家商店通常雇一些临时售货员来做圣诞节玩具生意。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Under our new system, salespeople sit down with each of our dealers. 根据新的制度，销售人员应逐个地同承销商洽商。 来自辞典例句

2 accruing   

v.增加( accrue的现在分词 )；（通过自然增长）产生；获得；（使钱款、债务）积累

参考例句：

• economic benefits accruing to the country from tourism 旅游业为该国带来的经济效益
• The accruing on a security since the previous coupon date. 指证券自上次付息日以来所累积的利息。 来自互联网

3 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

4 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

5 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

6 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。

7 conglomerate   

n.综合商社，多元化集团公司

参考例句：

• The firm has been taken over by an American conglomerate.该公司已被美国一企业集团接管。
• An American conglomerate holds a major share in the company.一家美国的大联合企业持有该公司的大部分股份。

8 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。