Tech and Privacy: Facebook’s Third Act
技術(shù)和隱私：Facebook的第三幕
A New Business Model Could Make the Company Harder to Break up
一種新的商業(yè)模式可能會使這家公司更難被分拆
The first big overhaul for Facebook came in 2012-14. Internet users were carrying out ever more tasks on smartphones rather than desktop or laptop computers. Mark Zuckerberg opted to follow them, concentrating on Facebook’s mobile app ahead of its website, and buying up two fast-growing communication apps, WhatsApp and Instagram. It worked. Facebook increased its market valuation from around $60bn at the end of 2012 to – for a brief period in 2018 – more than $600bn.
Facebook的第一次重大變革發(fā)生在2012至2014年間。那時互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶越來越多地在智能手機(jī)上執(zhí)行任務(wù)，而不是在臺式機(jī)或筆記本電腦上。馬克·扎克伯格選擇順勢而動，把注意力從網(wǎng)站轉(zhuǎn)移到手機(jī)應(yīng)用上，并收購了兩個快速發(fā)展的通信應(yīng)用WhatsApp和Instagram。這種做法成功了。Facebook的市值從2012年底的約600億美元增加到2018年的6000多億美元(盡管只維持了很短一段時間)。
On March 6th Mr Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s next pivot. As well as its existing moneymaking enterprise, selling targeted ads on its public social networks, it is building a “privacy-focused platform” around WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. The apps will be integrated, he said, and messages sent through them encrypted end-to-end, so that even Facebook cannot read them. While it was not made explicit, it is clear what the business model will be. Mr Zuckerberg wants all manner of businesses to use its messaging networks to provide services and accept payments. Facebook will take a cut.
本月6日，扎克伯格宣布了Facebook的下一個發(fā)展重點(diǎn)。除了在其公共社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)上銷售定向廣告這項(xiàng)現(xiàn)有的盈利業(yè)務(wù)之外，公司正在圍繞WhatsApp、Instagram和Messenger建立一個“專注隱私安全的平臺”。扎克伯格說，F(xiàn)acebook將整合這三個應(yīng)用，并為三方之間發(fā)送的消息提供端到端加密，就連Facebook自己也無法讀取。雖然沒有明確說明，但這個大平臺將采用的商業(yè)模式顯而易見。扎克伯格希望各類企業(yè)都能利用Facebook的消息傳遞網(wǎng)絡(luò)來提供服務(wù)并接受付款，F(xiàn)acebook則從中抽成。
A big shift was overdue at Facebook given the privacy and political scandals that have battered the firm. Even Mr Zuckerberg, who often appears incapable of seeing the gravity of Facebook’s situation, seemed to grasp the irony of it putting privacy first. “Frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services,” he noted.
鑒于隱私和政治丑聞的沉重打擊，F(xiàn)acebook早就該推動一場重大的轉(zhuǎn)變了。即使是看似常常無法認(rèn)識到Facebook嚴(yán)峻處境的扎克伯格，似乎也領(lǐng)會到公司將隱私放在第一位透出的諷刺意味�！疤孤实卣f，目前我們在建立保護(hù)隱私的服務(wù)方面聲望不高�！彼赋�。 Still, he intends to do it. Mr Zuckerberg claims that users will benefit from his plan to integrate its messaging apps into a single, encrypted network. The content of messages will be safe from prying eyes of authoritarian snoops and criminals, as well as from Facebook itself. It will make messaging more convenient, and make profitable new services possible. But caution is warranted for three reasons.
不過，他還是打算做出改變。扎克伯格稱，把多個消息應(yīng)用整合成單一加密網(wǎng)絡(luò)的計劃將讓用戶受益。威權(quán)政府的密探、犯罪分子以及Facebook本身都將無法窺探消息的內(nèi)容。消息發(fā)送會變得更加方便，有利可圖的新服務(wù)也將成為可能。但對此需持謹(jǐn)慎態(tài)度，理由有三。
The first is that Facebook has long been accused of misleading the public on privacy and security, so the potential benefits Mr Zuckerberg touts deserve to be treated sceptically. He is also probably underselling the benefits that running integrated messaging networks brings to his firm, even if they are encrypted so that Facebook cannot see the content. The metadata alone, ie, who is talking to whom, when and for how long, will still allow Facebook to target advertisements precisely, meaning its ad model will still function.
首先，鑒于Facebook長期被指斥在隱私和安全方面誤導(dǎo)公眾，對于扎克伯格大力宣揚(yáng)的潛在益處我們理應(yīng)抱持懷疑觀望的態(tài)度。扎克伯格也有可能在淡化運(yùn)營集成消息網(wǎng)絡(luò)給他的公司帶來的好處，即使Facebook無法看到加密的內(nèi)容。單是誰和誰在何時交流了多久的元數(shù)據(jù)就能讓Facebook精準(zhǔn)地投放廣告，這意味著其廣告業(yè)務(wù)模式仍能正常運(yùn)作。
End-to-end encryption will also make Facebook’s business cheaper to run. Because it will be mathematically impossible to moderate encrypted communications, the firm will have an excuse to take less responsibility for content running through its apps, limiting its moderation costs.
端到端加密還會降低Facebook的業(yè)務(wù)運(yùn)營成本。確切來講加密信息是無法審核的，公司也就會有借口對通過其應(yīng)用發(fā)出的內(nèi)容負(fù)更少的責(zé)任，從而控制其審核成本。
If it can make the changes, Facebook’s dominance over messaging would probably increase. The newfound user-benefits of a more integrated Facebook might make it harder for regulators to argue that Mr Zuckerberg’s firm should be broken up.
如果計劃中的改變能夠落實(shí)，F(xiàn)acebook在消息應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域的主導(dǎo)地位可能會增強(qiáng)。一個更集成的Facebook新帶來的用戶利益可能會讓監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)更難主張將Facebook分拆。
Facebook’s plans in India provide some insight into the new model. It has built a payment system into WhatsApp, the country’s most-used messaging app. The system is waiting for regulatory approval. The market is huge. In the rest of the world, too, users are likely to be drawn in by the convenience of Facebook’s new networks. Mr Zuckerberg’s latest strategy is ingenious but may contain twists.
從Facebook在印度的計劃可以一窺其新模式。它已在印度最流行的消息應(yīng)用WhatsApp中創(chuàng)建了支付系統(tǒng)，正在等待監(jiān)管部門批準(zhǔn)。這個市場非常龐大。在世界其他地方，用戶也可能被Facebook的新網(wǎng)絡(luò)帶來的便利所吸引。扎克伯格最新的策略很有創(chuàng)意，但也可能隱藏了花招。
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