经济学人214:德国的数字化未来 谷歌恐惧症

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　　德国的数字化未来

　　Googlephobia

　　谷歌恐惧症

　　Germany's opposition¹ to American technology firms is short-sighted and self-defeating

　　德国对美国技术公司的排斥，显得它目光短线，最后弄巧成拙。

　　VERBOTEN! This seems to be Germany's default reaction to digital disrupters. A court in Frankfurt has just imposed a temporary injunction on Uber, the popular ride-sharing service founded in Silicon² Valley. The case was brought by the German taxi industry, which argues that the service poses safety risks and flouts³ the country's passenger-transport laws.

　　绝对禁止！这似乎是德国对数字化破坏的默认态度。法兰克福法院刚刚在有关UBER方面强加的临时禁令，这是一款由硅谷开发的受欢迎的打车软件。此案是由德国出租车行业挑起，认为该服务带来的安全风险并蔑视国家的旅客运输法。

　　By itself, the ban of Uber would be no big deal. The company is enraging⁴ incumbent⁵ taxi drivers in plenty of other countries. But it is another sign of Germany's growing hostility⁶ to American technology firms. Google (whose executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, is a member of the board of The Economist's parent company) has been a particular focus for increasingly hysterical⁷ criticism. Mathias D?pfner, the head of Axel Springer, Germany's biggest newspaper publisher, has compared Google to the giant Fafner in Wagner's “Ring of the Nibelungen”. Newspaper articles refer to it as an “octopus” that keeps adding tentacles⁸. When it emerged late last year that Google was operating a fleet of barges⁹ mounted with containers, speculation¹⁰ abounded¹¹ over whether it was building a floating empire beyond the control of national states.

　　就其本身而言，Uber的禁令也没什么大不了的。该公司的行为引起了其他国家大量出租车司机的愤怒。但这也是德国日益增长的对美国技术公司敌意的另一个迹象。谷歌（其执行董事长，埃里克·施密特是经济学家母公司董事会的成员）特别关注越来越歇斯底里的批评。马蒂亚斯·劳瑞森，施普林格总裁，德国最大的报纸出版商，把谷歌比作在瓦格纳的“尼伯龙根的指环”中的巨人法夫纳。报纸上的文章称它为不断增加其触角的“章鱼”。去年年底，当它出现的时候，谷歌正在经营一个装载集装箱驳船的舰队。许多人猜测是否它正建设一个超越国家控制的悬浮帝国。

　　谷歌恐惧症.jpg

　　German fears may have political consequences. Sigmar Gabriel, the economy minister, has suggested the company should be broken up. And Germany is putting pressure on Joaquín Almunia, Europe's outgoing competition commissioner¹², to reopen an agreement his team negotiated with the online giant in February that is supposed to make Google's competitors more visible in its search service.

　　德国的恐惧可能会带来政治方面的影响。经济部长西格玛尔·加布里尔，建议应该让这家公司解散。德国不停对欧洲即将离任的竞争委员会专员joaquín Almunia施加压力，要求二月份重拟与网络巨头谷歌的协议，这可能使其竞争对手在其搜索服务中更可见。

　　It is perfectly¹³ reasonable to worry about the abuse of monopoly power by digital giants that rule their markets in the way Amazon, Facebook and Google do. Powerful network effects make it hard for competitors to keep up. If Google abuses that power, it should be punished. Mr Almunia has found it guilty of some specific abuses and reached a settlement. But there is no reason to believe that the more dramatic remedies that German politicians want—that Google should be treated as an “essential facility” like gas and electricity networks, or that it should be broken up—would benefit consumers.

　　德国有足够的理由担心数字化巨头滥用垄断权以亚马逊，，facebook和谷歌的方式统占他们的市场。强大的网络效应使其竞争对手难以跟进。如果谷歌滥用权力，它应该被惩罚。阿尔穆尼亚发现其某些特有的滥用罪但达成和解。但没有理由认为，德国政治家希望把谷歌当做像天然气和电力网络一样的“基本设施”，或者说它应该被解散，这些更戏剧性的补救措施会让消费者受益。

　　Silicon Valley to Silicon villain¹⁴

　　硅谷与电子恶棍的斗争

　　Similarly it is legitimate¹⁵ to worry about privacy—this paper has criticised both Facebook and Google on that score. It is understandable that a society scarred by state surveillance under the Nazis¹⁶ and the Stasi should be particularly wary¹⁷, but it should also accept that consumers hand over their data freely and get something back. And Germany's digital phobia is driven not just by cultural memory, but also by firms that want the state to protect their business models and keep competitors out. Springer has more political clout¹⁸ in Berlin than any American mogul enjoys in Washington, and it has lobbied for Mr Almunia's settlement with Google to be renegotiated.

　　类似的是，担心隐私是合法的，本文批评了facebook和谷歌在这一点上的行为。我们可以理解在由纳粹党和秘密警察组成的国家监管下的社会应该格外谨慎，但它也应该接受消费者有交出他们数据的自由并得到某种回报。德国的数字恐惧不仅仅是文化记忆导致的，也是因为企业希望国家保护他们的商业模式，并赶出竞争对手。斯普林格在柏林比任何美国大亨在华盛顿更具有政治影响力，并帮助游说阿尔穆尼亚与谷歌重新谈判达成协议。

　　Instead of trying to put Google in a straitjacket, German politicians would do better to raze¹⁹ the barriers that make it so hard for startups on the old continent to grow as fast as they do in America. Rather than lobby the European Commission to clamp down on Google, they should push Jean-Claude Juncker, the new president of the commission, to make good on his promise to create, at last, a single market for digital services. Cutting regulations at home would be a better way of securing Germany's digital future than decrying²⁰ innovators from abroad, just because they are big and American.

　　不要试图给谷歌穿上紧身衣，在这块古老的土地上新创立的公司会很艰难运营，但是德国的政治家们将会做的越来越好，扫除障碍，让他们如在美国一样发展迅速。相较于游说欧盟委员会打击谷歌，他们应该不断推进该委员会的新主席让－克洛德·容克兑现自己的承诺——最后，创造数字服务的单一市场。相比谴责大型的，美国的改革公司而言，削减国内法规将会是一个更好的保护德国数字化未来的方式。

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