美国国家公共电台 NPR Verizon's Metamorphosis: Can You See Me As A Tech Giant Now?

Verizon's Metamorphosis: Can You See Me As A Tech Giant Now?

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's follow a company trying to buy its way into the future. Verizon is a descendant of the old Bell monopoly phone system. Lately, the company has been acquiring tech firms like AOL and Yahoo. NPR's Alina Selyukh reports on the next steps for a firm so linked to the past you can see it beneath your feet.

ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE¹: If you walk around your city or town and keep your eye to the ground, you'll start noticing round, metal lids embedded² in the street. That means underneath³ is an important utility. It's usually marked water or sewer⁴. But some, like this one in Washington, carry the relic⁵ logo of a bell.

These mark the backbone⁶ of America's telecommunications. And much of it belongs to Verizon. It's the country's largest phone company. At least that's how you may think of Verizon, a child of a 20th-century phone monopoly. But here's what else belongs to Verizon.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED HOST #1: Hello, and welcome to TechCrunch.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED HOST #2: Now with HuffPost live, you're invited to...

SELYUKH: TechCrunch, Engadget, Huffington Post - and then there's this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: From executive producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon...

SELYUKH: It's a reality show, "The Runner" on Verizon's mobile video app, go90. Verizon has been slowly sprawling⁷ into digital media. It bought several video streaming companies, AOL - now Yahoo. It's also a co-owner of Complex Media, which started as a skater and sneaker culture outfit⁸ and is now big on hip-hop coverage⁹.

It has a stake in Seriously.TV, which is a politics and comedy kind of site, in RatedRed, which has a youth-in-the-heartland demographic, and in AwesomenessTV, which makes series like "Royal Crush" and other videos for young women.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "20 WAYS TO DEAL WITH YOUR BOOBS")

ALYX WEISS: This is 20 ways to deal with your boobs.

ALEXIS G. ZALL: These guys right here.

SELYUKH: All this is Verizon's effort to become a top global media company, as CEO Lowell McAdam recently told investors¹⁰.

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LOWELL MCADAM: We see tremendous opportunity in the digital video marketplace, which has an estimated addressable market of $180 billion by 2020.

SELYUKH: And the reason for this expansion is actually pretty pragmatic.

CRAIG MOFFETT: Wireless¹¹ in the United States is now a shrinking business.

SELYUKH: Craig Moffett is an analyst¹² at MoffettNathanson.

MOFFETT: Verizon is, I think, rightly recognizing that trying to constantly extract more from the consumer for their service is pushing on a string.

SELYUKH: For years, Verizon and other wireless carriers had a growing stream of income as they charged more for our increasing use of data. But now that just about everyone has a smartphone, we keep using more data, but its price is falling. Moffett says bills are going down - not up. In July, for the first time in six years, Verizon reported a decline in revenue. So the company needs more sources of income.

MOFFETT: If you're going to get more revenue per user, it's not going to come from the user him or herself. It's going to have to come from someone else. Well, who is that someone else? That someone else is almost certainly going to have to be advertisers.

SELYUKH: Verizon's $5 billion bargain purchase of Yahoo will instantly make it the third-largest player in digital advertising¹³. But the wireless carrier is breaking into a market completely dominated by Facebook and Google. And they're in a different league. They have bigger piles of cash, less regulation and don't deal that much with physical things like maintenance of cables or leases on cell towers.

MOFFETT: Fundamentally, Verizon is not a Silicon¹⁴ Valley startup. And you can't pretend that it is.

SELYUKH: Verizon of 2016 is not your father's phone company. But its DNA¹⁵ still runs through the wires beneath those metal lids. Alina Selyukh, NPR News, Washington.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

3 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

4 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

5 relic   

n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物

参考例句：

• This stone axe is a relic of ancient times.这石斧是古代的遗物。
• He found himself thinking of the man as a relic from the past.他把这个男人看成是过去时代的人物。

6 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

7 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

8 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

11 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

12 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

13 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。

14 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

15 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。