優(yōu)步狂妄的是與非

Uber may be one of the most formidable businesses of our times but it is also something of an ideological piñata, which everyone with a grievance loves to whack. Those wielding the sticks include taxi drivers who have had their livelihoods undercut; Uber drivers who claim to be exploited; and politicians who complain the ride-hailing company is shirking its social responsibilities and outsourcing its obligations.

優(yōu)步(Uber)可能是當(dāng)今時(shí)代最令人敬畏的企業(yè)之一，但它也是有怨氣的人都喜歡抨擊的某種意識(shí)形態(tài)公敵。那些掄起大棒的人包括生計(jì)受到影響的出租車司機(jī);宣稱被剝削的優(yōu)步司機(jī);以及抱怨這家叫車應(yīng)用公司逃避社會(huì)責(zé)任、“外包”自身義務(wù)的政客們。

Judges, too, have joined the fray in several jurisdictions. Last month a UK tribunal dismissed Uber’s claims that it did not employ its drivers as ridiculous.

多個(gè)司法管轄地的法官們也加入了抨擊行列。上月，英國一家法庭駁斥了優(yōu)步關(guān)于其與司機(jī)不存在雇傭關(guān)系的主張，稱其荒謬可笑。

That gnarly mood is captured by James O’Brien, a London-based talk radio presenter, who says Uber is “like the Frankenstein’s monster of everything that’s gone wrong with modern capitalism”.

倫敦談話類電臺(tái)主持人詹姆斯•奧布萊恩(James O'Brien)捕捉到了這種不友好的情緒，他說，優(yōu)步就像是“展現(xiàn)現(xiàn)代資本主義所有不對(duì)勁之處的‘弗蘭肯斯坦的怪物’”。

It must count as some kind of perverse achievement for a company to arouse so much anger when it delivers such a popular service around the world every day. Then again Travis Kalanick, Uber’s combative founder, has always loved a good scrap. “I like pissing people off,” he once told Fortune.

對(duì)一家招致如此普遍憤怒的公司而言，每天在世界各地提供如此受人歡迎的服務(wù)肯定算得上是某種反常的成就。但話說回來，優(yōu)步好斗的創(chuàng)始人特拉維斯•卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)一直喜歡吵架。他曾經(jīng)向《財(cái)富》(Fortune)表示：“我就喜歡惹人生氣。”

In spite of — or perhaps partly because of — the controversy it stirs, Uber has developed at astonishing speed since its creation in 2009. By June Uber’s drivers completed a total of 2bn rides in 450 cities around the world. Having attracted funding of about $10bn to finance its expansion, Uber’s implied valuation is close to $70bn, making it the most valuable privately owned start-up.

盡管(或者說在一定程度上正是因?yàn)?引起了極大的爭(zhēng)議，優(yōu)步自2009年成立以來以令人震驚的速度發(fā)展壯大。到今年6月，優(yōu)步司機(jī)在全球的450座城市完成了總計(jì)20億單生意。優(yōu)步吸引了大約100億美元的融資以支持其擴(kuò)張，隱含估值接近700億美元，使其成為最有價(jià)值的私有初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。

Uber offers plenty of lessons, both good and bad, for how our sharing economy works in practice.

優(yōu)步為共享經(jīng)濟(jì)在實(shí)踐中如何運(yùn)行提供了許多啟示，既有好的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，也有壞的教訓(xùn)。

In its defence, the company argues it is providing exactly what the market wants by satisfying a deep consumer need. Its app is the means for connecting willing drivers and willing passengers, delivering a seamless service at the lowest cost.

如果要為優(yōu)步辯護(hù)，正如該公司所辯稱的，它提供了市場(chǎng)恰恰想要的東西，滿足了消費(fèi)者的深層次需求。其APP是在愿意提供服務(wù)的司機(jī)和愿意購買服務(wù)的乘客之間牽線搭橋的手段，以最低成本提供了無縫服務(wù)。

How Uber has been so successful in expanding around the world will remain the stuff of business school case studies for years, even if the service stumbled in China. Just think for a minute how diabolically tricky it is to create harmonious two-sided markets from scratch in cities you do not know and in business environments that are often hostile.

至于優(yōu)步是怎么會(huì)如此成功地在世界各地?cái)U(kuò)張的，這在今后多年里將是商學(xué)院案例研究的課題，即便它在中國遭遇了挫折。你只要想一下，在你不熟悉的城市和往往不友好的商業(yè)環(huán)境從零開始創(chuàng)建和諧的雙邊市場(chǎng)，該是多么的錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜。

Sign up too many drivers too early and they will quickly grow disillusioned because of a lack of demand. Entice too many passengers to use your service before you have enough drivers on the road and they will wait too long and never come back.

過早與太多司機(jī)簽約，他們將會(huì)很快因缺乏需求而倍感失望。在你有足夠司機(jī)上路之前吸引太多乘客使用你的服務(wù)，他們將會(huì)因等待時(shí)間太長(zhǎng)而永遠(yuǎn)不再使用你的服務(wù)。

For sure, Uber has been ruthless in competing with rivals such as Lyft, skirted the law and exploited regulatory arbitrage. Its company philosophy has always been to seek forgiveness rather than permission. But it has championed consumer demands and eroded the power of vested interests in ways that few politicians have dared to do.

沒錯(cuò)，優(yōu)步與Lyft等對(duì)手展開無情競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，與法律打擦邊球，還鉆了監(jiān)管差異的空子。其公司哲學(xué)始終是尋求原諒而非許可。但它捍衛(wèi)消費(fèi)者需求，撼動(dòng)既得利益的實(shí)力，很少有政客敢這么做。

Uber offers some other societal benefits. It has drawn drivers into the workforce who have previously been socially marginalised, providing a route out of the banlieues in France, for example. It provides its many part-time drivers with the flexibility they crave in the gig economy. It argues that its carpooling services reduce the total number of trips made, thereby cutting congestion and pollution.

優(yōu)步還提供了其他社會(huì)效益。它讓本來被社會(huì)邊緣化的司機(jī)進(jìn)入職場(chǎng)，例如在法國為人們提供了離開貧困的郊區(qū)(banlieues)的途徑。它讓許多兼職司機(jī)擁有了他們渴望的“零工經(jīng)濟(jì)”的靈活性。它辯稱，拼車服務(wù)降低了出行總量，從而緩解了交通擁堵和污染。

The unnerving thing is that Uber may have only just begun. It is now pioneering driverless car rides in Pittsburgh and is even investing in flying cars. It has always stressed that it is a technology platform rather than a transport company, a real-time logistics network that can apply its expertise to many new market opportunities.

令人不安的是，優(yōu)步可能只是剛剛起步。它正在匹茲堡試運(yùn)行無人駕駛汽車載客，甚至還投資于飛天車。優(yōu)步總是強(qiáng)調(diào)，它是一個(gè)技術(shù)平臺(tái)而非一家運(yùn)輸公司，是一個(gè)實(shí)時(shí)物流網(wǎng)絡(luò)，能夠?qū)⑵浼夹g(shù)專長(zhǎng)應(yīng)用于許多新的市場(chǎng)機(jī)遇。

The company is moving so fast that it is likely to outpace pursuing politicians and regulators. Its greatest threat may yet come from the market that its founders so revere. So long as humans remain useful to its business model, Uber could be vulnerable to a competitive backlash.

優(yōu)步行動(dòng)迅速，政客和監(jiān)管者很可能趕不上它的步伐。該公司面臨的最大威脅可能還是來自其創(chuàng)始人尊崇的市場(chǎng)。只要人類依然對(duì)其商業(yè)模式有用，優(yōu)步就容易遭受競(jìng)爭(zhēng)反彈。

For the moment, Uber’s low-cost structure and flexibility results from its arm’s-length relationship with its drivers. But that strength may one day prove a flaw. There is little to stop those drivers defecting to rivals who offer them a better deal. One such company, the New York-based Juno, is building its business model around being an anti-Uber, promising its drivers a bigger slice of the take and quasi-equity. At present, it is a speck in Uber’s rear mirror but it could presage the intensification of some real competition.

就目前而言，優(yōu)步的低成本結(jié)構(gòu)和靈活性源于與司機(jī)保持距離。但這種優(yōu)勢(shì)有朝一日可能被證明是個(gè)缺陷。優(yōu)步?jīng)]什么辦法阻止那些司機(jī)投奔提供更好待遇的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。總部位于紐約的Juno就是這樣的一家公司，該公司正在圍繞“反優(yōu)步”理念打造自己的業(yè)務(wù)模式，向司機(jī)們承諾更大提成比例并提供準(zhǔn)股權(quán)。就目前而言，該公司是優(yōu)步后視鏡上的小斑點(diǎn)，但它可能預(yù)示著某種真正競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的加劇。

If Uber is abusing its market dominance, as its critics contend, rivals can take advantage. The insolent mindset that has served Uber so well as an insurgent may yet fail it as an incumbent.

如果優(yōu)步像批評(píng)者說的那樣濫用其市場(chǎng)主導(dǎo)地位，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手就會(huì)有機(jī)可乘。當(dāng)優(yōu)步還是挑戰(zhàn)者的時(shí)候，狂妄一些會(huì)有很好的效果，然而在該公司已經(jīng)是老牌企業(yè)的情況下，狂妄心態(tài)可能導(dǎo)致它走向失敗。