经济学人:脸书的未来:下一个雅虎？(2)

 Executive turnover¹ was a leading indicator² of its decline; before Ms Mayer was hired it went through four chief executives in three years. 高管更换是其衰败的先行指标；在聘请梅耶尔之前，公司在三年内换了四位首席执行官。

Mr Zuckerberg, who controls the majority of Facebook's voting shares, is not leaving, but many top executives are. 掌控脸书绝大投票权的扎克伯格没有离开，但很多高管都离职了。

This year several have announced their departures, including Instagram's founders³; 今年有几位也宣布离职，包括Instagram的创始人；

the boss of Oculus, a virtual-reality acquisition; a co-founder of WhatsApp; and Facebook's general counsel and its chief security officer. 虚拟现实公司Oculus的老板；WhatsApp的联合创始人以脸书法律总顾问及其首席安全官。

"The number of senior people who have left publicly and denounced the company going out the door is unprecedented⁴. “公然离职并在离开公司后谴责公司的高管人数之多是史无前例的。

This is Yahoo pre-Marissa Mayer," says a senior digital-advertising⁵ executive. 这就是玛丽莎·梅耶尔任职之前的雅虎，”一位高级数字广告经理表示。

In another echo, the run of negative headlines is harming employee morale⁶. 另一个相似之处是，负面头条打击了员工的士气。

"Horrible" is how one employee describes the atmosphere at Facebook on Blind, an app where people discuss work. That raises two risks. 一名员工在工作讨论应用Blind中用“可怕”这个词来形容脸书的氛围。两个风险因此而来。

Star performers may leave to work at less controversial companies, 明星员工可能会离职去那些争议较小的公司工作，

and Facebook could end up paying dearly for mediocre⁷ employees to stay on (as its share price falls, it has to hand out more in stockbased compensation to keep people). 脸书最终可能要用高薪挽留中等员工（由于其股价下跌，它不得不用更多的股权收入挽留员工）。

How might things play out? Facebook is still strong but it is precariously⁸ balanced at the top of the industry, facing several big challenges in the coming year. 事情会如何发展？脸书依然强大，但却在行业顶端摇摇欲坠，未来还将面临更大的挑战。

Above all, it must grapple with the changing ways that people use its products, which could have a huge impact on its profits. 最重要的是，它必须应对人们使用公司产品的方式的变化，这种变化对公司利润有着巨大的影响。

Adults over the age of 18 are spending 31% less time on Facebook's core social network compared with two years ago, which will translate into fewer opportunities to sell ads. 与两年前相比，18岁以上的成年人花在脸书核心社交网络上的时间减少了31%，即意味着销售广告的机会更少。

A big part of Facebook's answer to this is Instagram, which executives see as a saviour⁹. It is quickly ramping¹⁰ up the number of adverts¹¹ users see there. 脸书应对此局面的答案是Instagram，高管们将其视为他们的救世主。公司正在迅速增加用户在Ins看到的广告数量。

Disagreements about how strongly to push advertising on Instagram are part of the reason that the photo app's founders unexpectedly departed in October. 对向Instagram投放广告强度的分歧也是该拍照应用创始人10月意外离职的部分原因。

Now ads are around one- fifth of all posts that users see on Instagram, which is probably double what it was a year ago. 现在用户们所看到的帖子中约有五分之一是广告，大概是一年前的两倍。

This could irk people, who may choose to spend less time on Instagram in future, just as they have done with Facebook itself. 这样会让人们感到恼怒，将来他们可能会选择花更少的时间玩Instagram，就像他们当初减少使用脸书一样。

Already users are spending more time on products that do not offer the same opportunities for advertising. 已经有用户花更多的时间在那些没那么多广告的产品上了。

"Stories", the concept of posting sequential photos and videos of users' days and experiences that Snap, a messaging app, pioneered and Facebook copied, 脸书从信息应用Snap抄袭过来的“故事”功能在Instagram和脸书上都很受欢迎，该功能的概念是将用户每天的时光和经历

are popular both on Instagram and on Facebook. 拍成连续性照片和视频发在网上。

But there is less space for advertising within people's personal "stories" than there is on the conventional landing pages (called "newsfeeds") 但在用户个人“故事”中的广告投放空间没有传统登陆页（新闻推送）的广告那些多

where people scroll¹² through posts and ads are interspersed¹³. 人们在登录页浏览帖子时，会有广告穿插其中。

Messaging apps such as WhatsApp are also growing in popularity but currently lose money. 信息应用，比如WhatsApp也越来越受欢迎，但目前还是在亏钱。

 

1 turnover   

n.人员流动率，人事变动率；营业额，成交量

参考例句：

• The store greatly reduced the prices to make a quick turnover.这家商店实行大减价以迅速周转资金。
• Our turnover actually increased last year.去年我们的营业额竟然增加了。

2 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

3 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

4 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

7 mediocre   

adj.平常的，普通的

参考例句：

• The student tried hard,but his work is mediocre. 该生学习刻苦，但学业平庸。
• Only lazybones and mediocre persons could hanker after the days of messing together.只有懒汉庸才才会留恋那大锅饭的年代。

8 precariously   

adv.不安全地；危险地；碰机会地；不稳定地

参考例句：

• The hotel was perched precariously on a steep hillside. 旅馆危险地坐落在陡峭的山坡上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The phone was perched precariously on the window ledge. 电话放在窗台上，摇摇欲坠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 saviour   

n.拯救者，救星

参考例句：

• I saw myself as the saviour of my country.我幻想自己为国家的救星。
• The people clearly saw her as their saviour.人们显然把她看成了救星。

10 ramping   

土堤斜坡( ramp的现在分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• The children love ramping about in the garden. 孩子们喜欢在花园里追逐嬉戏，闹着玩。
• Have you ever seen a lion ramping around? 你看到过狮子暴跳吗？

11 adverts   

advertisements 广告，做广告

参考例句：

• the adverts on television 电视广告
• The adverts are not very informative. 这些广告并没有包含太多有用信息。

12 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

13 interspersed   

adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The grass was interspersed with beds of flowers. 草地上点缀着许多花坛。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》