跟《经济学人》学英文：2024年08月10日这期 A court says Google is a monopolist. Now what?

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A court says Google is a monopolist. Now what?

The ruling could lead to a big-tech showdown

monopolist：美 [məˈnɑpələst] 垄断者 注意发音

ruling：裁决

showdown：摊牌；最后的决战；最终的较量

原文：

Amid the 286-page judgment, issued after nearly four years of trial

proceedings and petabytes of evidence, four words stand out. “Google is a

monopolist,” wrote Amit Mehta, the judge of a district court in America,

adding that “it has acted as one”. His ruling, handed down on August 5th,

could lead to big changes for the multi-billion-dollar search market—and for

the wider tech industry.

经过近四年的审判程序和数十亿字节的证据，这份长达286页的判决中，有四个词非常突出。“谷歌是一个垄断者，”美国一个地区法院的法官Amit Mehta写道，并补充说“它已经像垄断者一样做了”。他的裁决于8月5日宣布，可能会给价值数十亿美元的搜索市场带来巨大变化——以及更广泛的科技行业。

学习：

hand down：宣布（判决等）

原文：

Google handles around 90% of search queries in America (including 95% of

those on mobile phones), forming the foundation of the world’s largest

advertising business. People use it partly because it is good at finding things,

but also because it is usually the default search engine on their phone or

browser. Google maintains this privileged position by paying colossal sums

to phone-makers and browser-developers. In 2021 these payments came to

$26bn, the trial revealed.

谷歌处理美国约90%的搜索查询(包括95%的手机查询)，形成了全球最大广告业务的基础。人们使用它，部分是因为它擅长查找东西，但也因为它通常是他们手机或浏览器上的默认搜索引擎。谷歌通过向手机制造商和浏览器开发商支付巨额费用来维持其特权地位。审判显示，2021年，这些支出达到260亿美元。

学习：
colossal: 美 [kəˈlɑːsl] 巨大的；庞大的；极大的；

原文：

Google’s rivals, backed by America’s Department of Justice (DOJ), have long

complained that such deals give the company a stranglehold on search. They

make it hard for competitors to reach new users (why navigate to another

search engine when you can type a query directly into your browser’s

address bar?). They also entrench Google’s superior performance, by

sending it billions of search queries a day that train its algorithms to be even

better. Mr Mehta’s ruling finds that these deals are indeed in breach of

antitrust law.

谷歌的竞争对手在美国司法部(DOJ)的支持下，长期以来一直抱怨这样的交易给了公司对搜索的垄断。它们使得竞争对手很难接触到新用户(当你可以直接在浏览器的地址栏中输入查询时，为什么要导航到另一个搜索引擎呢？).它们还巩固了谷歌的卓越性能，每天向它发送数十亿次搜索查询，训练它的算法变得更好。梅塔先生的裁决发现这些交易确实违反了反垄断法。

学习：

stranglehold：美 [ˈstræŋɡəlˌhoʊld] 束缚；压制；控制手段；绝对控制；垄断；

entrench：牢固确立；巩固（地位、权力等）；

in breach of：违反

原文：

The case is a victory for American regulators in their long-running crusade

against big tech. The DOJ, which has also sued Apple, has a second case

against Google, concerning its advertising business, which is due to start

next month. The Federal Trade Commission, another trustbusting watchdog,

has filed claims against Meta and Amazon. The DOJ’s victory over Google

was hailed by pundits as the most important verdict in tech regulation since

Microsoft was found guilty of monopolistic practices in 2001.

这个案件是美国监管者对大型科技公司长期讨伐的一个胜利。DOJ也起诉了苹果，并针对谷歌的广告业务提起了第二起诉讼，该诉讼将于下月开始。另一个反垄断监管机构美国联邦贸易委员会已经对Meta和亚马逊提起诉讼。DOJ对谷歌的胜利被专家们誉为自2001年微软被判垄断行为有罪以来，科技监管领域最重要的判决。

学习：

crusade：美 [kruːˈseɪd] （长期而坚定的） 努力奋斗；奋斗；（Crusade）十字军东征

long-running：长时间持续的

hailed：招呼；致敬；（hail的过去式）

pundits：专家；评论员；（pundit的复数）

verdict：裁决；判决

原文：

Markets were less fussed: the share price of Alphabet, Google’s parent

company, fell by only about 2% on the news. Investors are right to withhold

judgment, for two things are uncertain. First, Google’s inevitable appeal

could take years. Second, the court has yet to propose remedies to the

problem it has identified. That will happen in a separate trial, which is

expected to conclude no earlier than next year.

市场没那么大惊小怪:谷歌母公司Alphabet的股价在消息传出后仅下跌了约2%。投资者保留判断是正确的，因为有两件事是不确定的。首先，谷歌不可避免的吸引力可能需要数年时间。第二，法院还没有对它所发现的问题提出补救措施。这将发生在一个单独的审判中，预计不会早于明年结束。

原文：

Most observers think a big structural prescription, such as separating

Google’s Android operating system from the rest of the company, is

unlikely. Another potential remedy would be to force Google to share its

search data with rivals, to help them train their own algorithms. The

company is already obliged to do this in the European Union under the

Digital Markets Act, passed in 2022. But under American law imposing

such an obligation is trickier. Such data-sharing also raises privacy concerns

(now even more companies will know your search history) and would

require ongoing monitoring, something courts try to avoid.

大多数观察人士认为，不太可能出台大的结构性方案，比如将谷歌的安卓操作系统与公司其他部分分离。另一个潜在的补救措施是迫使谷歌与竞争对手分享其搜索数据，以帮助他们训练自己的算法。根据2022年通过的《数字市场法案》，该公司已经有义务在欧盟这样做。但是根据美国法律，强加这样的义务是比较棘手的。这种数据共享还会引发隐私问题(现在会有更多的公司知道你的搜索历史)，并且需要持续监控，这是法院试图避免的。

学习：

prescription：处方；药方；方法

原文：

Perhaps most likely is that Google will be banned from paying for the right

to be the default search engine on platforms like the iPhone. Consumers

could instead be presented with a choice of search tools. Something similar

already happens in the EU, where Google was ordered to offer consumers a

choice over their default search engine on Android phones in 2018 (Apple

has recently been forced to do the same with browsers on its iPhones). So

far, it seems that consumers faced with these choices mostly opt for brands

they already know. Google’s share of search requests in the EU had not

budged by 2021, according to Search Engine Land, a news site.

或许最有可能的是，谷歌将被禁止付费成为iPhone等平台上的默认搜索引擎。相反，消费者可以选择搜索工具。类似的事情已经在欧盟发生，谷歌被要求在2018年为消费者提供安卓手机默认搜索引擎的选择(苹果最近被迫对其iPhones上的浏览器采取同样的做法)。到目前为止，面对这些选择的消费者似乎大多选择他们已经知道的品牌。根据新闻网站Search Engine Land的数据，截至2021年，谷歌在欧盟搜索请求中的份额没有变化。

学习：

budge：（使）微微移动

原文：

If Google was forced to end the arrangements in question, the main

immediate loser might be Apple. Google pays it around $20bn a year to be

the iPhone’s default search engine, the trial revealed. That is equivalent to

18% of Apple’s operating profit last year. Banning such deals would deprive

Apple of a big chunk of cash. Many consumers are likely to stick with

Google anyway—at least for now.

如果谷歌被迫终止上述协议，最大的直接输家可能是苹果。审判显示，谷歌每年向其支付约200亿美元，作为iPhone的默认搜索引擎。这相当于苹果去年营业利润的18%。禁止此类交易将剥夺苹果的一大笔现金。无论如何，许多消费者可能会继续使用谷歌——至少目前是这样。

Bowled a googly

googly：美 [ˈɡuɡli] 曲线球；变向曲线球

bowled：投球；玩（打）保龄球；（bowl的过去式和过去分词）

原文：

In the long term, though, the effects for Google may be worse. So far Apple

has had little commercial motive to launch a search engine of its own, as Mr

Mehta noted in his ruling: doing so would take away the profit Google hands

it every year. If that cosy arrangement were banned, Apple would have a

much bigger incentive to pursue the iPhone search business for itself—along

with the advertising revenue that would come with it. In recent years it has

started building an ad business around its app store; media analysts expect to

see ads soon on its streaming service, Apple TV+. Search would be a tempting

addition.

然而，从长远来看，对谷歌的影响可能会更糟。迄今为止，苹果几乎没有推出自己的搜索引擎的商业动机，正如梅塔先生在他的裁决中指出的:这样做会拿走谷歌每年交给它的利润。如果这种舒适的安排被禁止，苹果将有更大的动力为自己发展iPhone搜索业务——以及随之而来的广告收入。近年来，它已经开始围绕其应用商店建立广告业务；媒体分析师预计很快会在其流媒体服务Apple TV+上看到广告。搜索将是一个诱人的附加功能。

原文：

Consumers prompted by their browser or phone to rethink their search

engine might also be more willing than in the past to try out intriguing new

formats powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Search engines that use the

technology, such as Perplexity, claim to offer better results than Google. On

July 25th OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, launched SearchGPT, its own AI-powered

search engine. Apple is also leaning heavily towards AI-based alternatives.

Siri, its dimwitted voice assistant, currently functions as little more than a

glorified egg-timer. But in the next few months it is due to get an AI-powered

makeover designed to help users with the kinds of tasks for which they

might previously have scoured the web. In time, innovative new ways of

accessing the world’s information may disrupt Google’s business in ways

trustbusters could only dream of. ■

消费者在浏览器或手机的提示下重新思考他们的搜索引擎，也可能比过去更愿意尝试人工智能(AI)驱动的有趣的新格式。使用这种技术的搜索引擎，比如Perplexity，声称能提供比谷歌更好的结果。7月25日，ChatGPT的开发者OpenAI发布了自己的人工智能搜索引擎SearchGPT。苹果也非常倾向于基于人工智能的替代品。它的愚蠢的语音助手Siri，目前的功能只不过是一个美化了的煮蛋计时器。但在接下来的几个月里，它将获得人工智能驱动的改造，旨在帮助用户完成他们以前可能会在网络上搜索的各种任务。假以时日，获取全球信息的创新方式可能会以反垄断者做梦也想不到的方式颠覆谷歌的业务。■

学习：

dimwitted： 美 [dimˌwitid] 愚蠢的; 笨的

glorified：被拔高了的；被美化了的；被赞美的

makeover：彻底改造；改头换面；

scour：美 [ˈskaʊər] （彻底地）搜寻；搜查

后记

2024年8月14日13点28分于上海。

本文标签： 英文学人经济monopolistcourt