蓝绿工厂的病毒式营销——我爱英语第八期：Smartphones in China: Upstarts on top

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智能手机，20年前只是一个虚拟概念，现今已经变成我们身体的一部分。而智能手机的生产厂家，从苹果的一家独大到三星、小米、华为的市场争夺，这一产业可谓硝烟弥漫。

但就在大家追捧苹果的高贵、赞美华为的质量、喜欢小米的高性价比时，却有一匹原本不被看好的黑马杀出重围，一夜之间占领全球第一大份额。

它，就是网友常常调侃的“蓝绿大军”——vivo, oppo

你是否现在才回想起来，不知何时开始，蓝绿广告牌已如病毒般迅速蔓延至大街小巷？

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Smartphones in China: Upstarts on top

How OPPO and Vivo are beating Apple, Xiaomi and the gang

DONGGUAN, a southerly Chinese city near Hong Kong, is better known for cranking out cheap trinkets than for producing high-end equipment of any kind.And yet, amid the grit and grime is a gleaming low-rise factory producing some 50m smartphones a year for OPPO, a firm started by China’s BBK Electronics but which is now run independently.

Upstarts on top：后来者居上。这里upstart ：one that has risen suddenly (as from a low position to wealth or power) 新秀，新贵，这个词我们可以常用。on top：表面意思是在上面，引申是占据优势的，其中top还可以作动词用。例：在硅谷新秀会不会领先？Can the Upstarts Top Silicon?在这个句子里top被当作动词用的，意思是：处于……的最前头。

gang：一群；一帮；一伙（经常聚在一起的朋友）。这里指其他智能手机的玩家：苹果，小米，锤子，金立，华为，乐视……。相当于and so on，但是so on不要用在书面语中。

Sb／sth is better known for… than for….：相比……，某人/某物更出名的是……。

Crank out：制作

Trinket：小饰品

High-end: higher in price and of better quality than most others高端的。类似于Premium-end。

low rise：not tall : having few floors低层，反义词就是high-rise： very tall : having many floors高层，比如高层建筑直接就是high-rise building！

东莞，是一个靠近香港的南方城市，相比于小饰品制作，这个城市更出名的却是各种高端设备产业。在东莞的沙砾和污垢中，有一个闪闪发光的低矮的工厂，每年为OPPO生产差不多5000万台智能手机，OPPO是中国的步步高电子创立现在单独运营的一家公司。

Inside, as well as the usual assembly lines and serried workers, the factory has dozens of staff in quality engineering and testing, conducting 130 different tests on OPPO’s phones before they are released to the market. Such zealous pursuit of quality would be expected of factories that produce phones for Apple—the world-class facilities run by Taiwan’s Foxconn in nearby Shenzhen house similar teams. But it is unusual at a firm that makes relatively inexpensive handsets for the local market.

as well as＝besides：除了……之外

assembly lines：流水线，

conduct：执行，进行。也可以作名词，表示“行为”。例：Are you ashamed of your conduct? 你对自己的行为感到害臊吗？

Release：释放，放出，这里做“投放市场”。场景记忆：关门，放狗！ release the dog！情感释放也可用这个词：Exercise is a good way to release stress. 运动是释放压力的好办法

除了常见的流水线和操作工人，厂房里还有数十名质量测试人员在进行着OPPO手机上市前的130多项测试工作。类似对品质的簇拥通常发生在苹果手机的代工厂--比如富士康公司开在深圳的拥有世界一流设备的工作团队里。但是像OPPO这样针对本土市场生产更廉价的手机的公司里，这种级别的加工厂并不常见。

第一段从东莞，讲到东莞的工厂，第二段进入工厂内部，工厂内部很特别，对于廉价手机制造商不常见。当然我们也可以思考嘛：正常来说只有苹果这么干，现在oppo这么干了，那么接下来第三段要干嘛啦，一定要讲这么干了之后oppo的结果是跟不这么干的机构是不一样的哈。

OPPO, and its sister firm, Vivo, also a child of BBK, started out in 2004 and 2009 respectively, making cheap and cheerful phones like plenty of other obscure Chinese manufacturers. They probably didn’t even register on Apple’s radar. Xiaomi was the Chinese handset-maker to watch; urban sophisticates, enticed by viral marketing, flocked to its slick devices. But in June 2016 OPPO’s R9, which costs around $400, overtook the iPhone, which is priced at twice that, as China’s best-selling handset. Vivo, which targets younger consumers with lower prices, is also surging.

sister firm：姊妹公司

a child of：起源于

start out：成立于

obscure：不著名的，默默无闻的……。比如：I was born in an obscure little Chinese town. 

我出生在一个不知名的18线小城里。

Didn’t even register on sb’s radar：没有入某人的眼，比如我们暗恋某人很久，结果发现某人对我们根本看都没看一眼，直接可以说I didn’t even register on his radar!

Entice: 引诱，例如I enticed him with more money. 我用更多的钱引诱他。

Viral marketing：病毒营销。All the snacks seem to be specifically designed to entice me from my diet. 所有的美食似乎都是特意为了引诱我放弃节食的。

flock：聚集，群拥 Birds of a feather flock together. 物以类聚，人以群分。

Best-selling：畅销。

Overtake：超越了，打败了，= beat，top。

Surge：激增

OPPO和其姊妹公司——同是起源于步步高的Vivo，分别成立于2004年和2009年，它们和中国许多默默无闻的制造商一样都生产着便宜受欢迎的手机。这样的公司甚至在苹果的眼里都挂不上号。小米才是中国手机市场上需要注意的家伙，在病毒营销的诱惑下，城市人成群结队的去购买它漂亮的手机。但是2016年6月，售价只有400美元左右的OPPO R9一举超越了价格是其两倍的iPhone,成为中国最受欢迎智能手机。靠着更低的定价把目标客户锁定在年轻消费者群体的Vivo销量也出现飙涨。

果然跟我们预测的一样，第三段开始讲这样做的oppo和姐妹vivo虽然一开始很不起眼，人家瞅都不瞅一眼，现在爆发了。好既然爆发了，那么接下来内容肯定要讲讲爆发的状况呗。来看第四段。

The two brands’ achievements are remarkable. Two years ago they were struggling to join China’s top five smartphone makers; now they are among the biggest five globally. One out of every three smartphones sold in China in the third quarter of 2016 carried one of their brands; in 2012 their combined share was below 3%.

Achievements：成就

Struggling：做某事力不从心，he is struggling to deliver on his existing promises.

The biggest five：注意这种表达，五大。

这俩品牌的成就非常显著。两年前进入中国前五都困难，现在他们是全球五大。每三个卖出去的手机里就有一个是oppo或者vivo。而2012年的时候他们的市场份额加起来还不足3%。

这里连续两次通过新旧对比的方式来展现其成就之大。好接下来看第五段要干啥？

That should give Apple pause. Tim Cook, its boss, predicted in 2013 that China would become his firm’s biggest market. But iPhone sales there have stagnated (see chart). In the third quarter its market share fell to 7.1%, down from 11.4% a year earlier.

stagnated：停滞，整个词的名词形式stagnation。

在经济里用的比较多，表示“经济滞胀”。The pricking of the bubble led to 20 years of economic stagnation. 泡沫被戳破后，日本陷入了长达20年的经济停滞。

oppo和vivo的成绩，必须让苹果愣一下（言外之意就是apple你得慌啊！）Cook在2013年预测中国将成为苹果最大的市场，但是iphone的销量从预言之后停滞了。第三季度iPhone市场份额从之前的11.4%降到了7.1%。

这一段通过对手的下降来暗示对手应该开始惧怕oppo和vivo了。

Xiaomi has even more reason to fret. About six years ago it bet on an “asset light” strategy, meaning it relied almost entirely on selling its phones online. This worked brilliantly when the overall market for smartphones was growing, and the richest cities, with the largest number of tech-aware consumers, were booming. Xiaomi was once valued at some $46bn, but its fortunes in China have plunged.

fret：我们之前课程中学过fret about＝worry about。 这里对应上一段give apple a pause。所以这里give sb a pause类似于fret或者worry就是让某人担忧。

bet on sth：下注某件事……

asset light：轻资产

growing，booming = surging都表示“增长”，所以以后说增长的时候不要老盯着increasing不放过。

some 在这里等于about，大约。

Plunge：缩水，例The government's political and economic reforms threaten to plunge the country into chaos. 政府的政治和经济改革可能会使国家陷入混乱局面

小米更应该担忧，六年前，小米赌“轻资产”战略，几乎全部依赖线上渠道销售手机。这一招极为有效，正当智能手机市场迅速扩张的时候，拥有众多科技品消费者的大城市也蓬勃发展，小米曾一度估值460亿美元，但是如今这家公司的财富已经开始缩水。

That is chiefly due to the fact that growth has shifted sharply to the rising middle classes in smaller cities. Consumers there are less experienced with smartphones than their fancier cousins in Beijing and Shanghai, and are wary of buying them online. They want to touch and compare handsets. OPPO and Vivo spotted this difference early. OPPO in particular shot to the top because it invested heavily in bricks-and-mortar retail distribution in lower-tier cities. Today the firm’s phones are sold at some 200,000 retail outlets across the mainland, which gives its salesmen the chance to coddle customers and nudge them to buy pricier phones.

Chiefly = mainly

the rising middle class：崛起的中产阶层

Spot：发现，在现场on spot。

bricks-and-mortar：实体，例Already we've seen internet shopping become a competitor to bricks-and-mortar stores.我们已经看到网上购物成为一个砖块和水泥商店的竞争对手。

Give sb the chance to do sth：给某人作某事的机会。

主要是因为， 市场发展势头快速切换到了小城市正在崛起的中产阶层。在小城市的消费者相对北京上海的消费者来说对于智能手机的经验更少，并且很戒备在线购买智能手机。他们更愿意亲手触摸到实物。OPPO和Vivo更早地摸到了这一差异。尤其是OPPO销量直接冲顶，因为它之前在三四线城市下重金铺开了大量实体零售店。如今，这家公司的手机出现在全国约20万家零售网点，里面的销售人员可以笑脸迎客，甜言蜜语说服消费者买下这些价格上占优势的手机。

第五段，第六段都在讲标题中的两个对手害怕oppo和vivo，第七段讲了一下为什么oppo会打败他的对手们。我们继续看看第八段要干嘛啦：

At first, OPPO’s strategy was masterminded by Duan Yongping, founder of BBK, who began by selling basic electronics. He is known in China as “Duanfett”, a play on Warren Buffett, because of his financial acumen and also his admiration for MrBuffett (he paid over $600,000 at an auction to have lunch with him in 2007). Mr Duan has since retired, but still influences the firms’ cultures.

Masterminded：神机妙算，策划

financial acumen：比如business acumen 商业嗅觉，例His sharp business acumen made him to the top.他精明的商业头脑令其青云直上。

Auction：拍卖，拍卖会

起初，OPPO的操盘都掌握在步步高的创始人段永平手中，因其对在财务上的敏锐以及对巴菲特的推崇，被称为中国的“段菲特”（段永平在2007年曾经花60万美元拍下了与巴菲特共进午餐的机会。）现在虽然段已经退休，但他依然在影响着这家公司的文化。

哦，第八段在爆夸oppo牛逼是因为背后有个牛逼的人，那后面必须要展开说说这神来之大脑了呗。

It took discipline not to be waylaid by the striking (though short-lived) success of Xiaomi’s hype-fuelled internet strategy. Many other companies tried to copy it. From 2011 to 2013, insiders say, OPPO looked hard at expanding its online sales channels, but decided against it. Sky Li, managing director of OPPO’s international mobile business, says the reason lies in her firm’s long-held adherence to the philosophy of ben fen—loosely translated, sticking to one’s knitting.

It took discipline not to do sth：不做某件事是需要定力的。

the striking success：劈头盖脸的成功

short-lived：短命

不被小米当时吹得天花乱坠的带来惊人成功的互联网策略带偏需要很强的定力。当时很多公司都在跟风模仿小米。据内部人透露，2011年到2013年间，OPPO也曾努力扩张其在线销售渠道，但最终决定封死这一路径。OPPO国际移动手机部的总裁Sky Li说，原因在于公司长久坚持的“本分”理念，也就是说坚持自己的原则。

第九段讲完坚持自己不容易，既然坚持自己，那到底是怎么个坚持法啊，第十段是不是该讲讲了呢？

Instead, OPPO became still more expert at incentivizing its physical retailers. It has shown itself willing to share some of its profits with local stores. It uses a sophisticated system of subsidies that vary by model and season. One retailer in a small town in Sichuan says that although he sells many brands of smartphones, OPPO’s generous subsidies make him extra-eager to peddle its wares.

Expert at＝good at 擅长

Extra-eager：格外想要

（与小米）相反，OPPO更专于激励实体零售商。它更愿意与本地零售店分羹，它建立了一个复杂的补贴制度，根据不同的季节和机型来作出调整。四川一个零售商就表示，虽然自己店里卖很多品牌的智能手机，但OPPO的慷慨的补贴让他更愿意去兜售它们家的产品。

嗯读完第十段明白了，oppo更愿意和实体店做朋友。

That has its costs, of course: OPPO does not disclose the size of its total subsidies nor its profit margin, which may be low compared with other smartphone makers. Fat profits are hard to come by in China’s giant smartphone market. Because it is simple for firms to outsource almost every aspect of phonemaking, from designing components and chipsets to contract manufacturing, the barrier to entry is low (the physical networks that OPPO and Vivo have built will be far harder to replicate than an online presence). Teeming firms means vicious price competition, especially for cheaper phones. The price of a Chinese smartphone may drop to as little as $50, analysts reckon.

the barrier to entry：门槛

Replicate＝copy 复制

当然，这也会有代价：OPPO没有披露其总的补贴规模也没有提及其利润率，据猜测这会比其他智能机生产商要低。中国巨大的手机市场总是很难得到丰厚的利润。因为在这里几乎手机生产线上的所有流程，从设计到芯片再到合约组装，都可以外包出去，进入门槛非常的低（OPPO，VIVO打造的实体零售网相比起来比线上渠道更难复制）。公司多就意味着恶性的价格竞争，尤其是对廉价的智能机而言。分析师称，中国智能手机的价格能低至50美元。

第十一段讲了一下这种模式不好的地方，既然又不好的地方，那是不是大家都在想办法克服呢？看第十二段这么说？

Pressures at home explain why Chinese firms are also looking abroad. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Xiaomi and Vivo were vying with each other behind Samsung in the race for second place in India’s smartphone market. Huawei, a local telecoms- equipment giant that ranks third in the domestic market, already makes two fifths of its sales outside China; Shao Yang of its consumer-business group says this share will rise to three-fifths within five years. OPPO is already a force in India, and is in second place in South-East Asia behind Samsung. It has opened a new marketing centre in Cairo to spearhead expansion in Africa and the Middle East.

Vie：竞争，激烈争夺

国内的激烈竞争解释了为何中国的公司都把目光投向了海外。2016年第四季度，小米和Vivo紧随三星之后，彼此轮替着成为在印度智能手机市场上的榜眼。中国本土的电信设备巨头华为，中国本土排名第三的手机品牌，有五分之二的销售额是在海外完成，公司的消费者业务部负责人表示，五年内海外市场份额的占比将提升至五分之三。OPPO已经在印度展露头角，同样在东南亚市场也只落后三星位居第二。同时，它还在开罗开辟了新的营销中心，意图开辟非洲和中东市场。

看来大家的办法就是目光投向海外了呗……

Kevin Wang of IHS Markit, a research firm, nonetheless reckons that a round of consolidation must be on its way. Within five years, he reckons, most of the 50 or so local Chinese phone manufacturers will be gone. If OPPO and Vivo can stay at the summit, that would be nearly as surprising as the dizzying speed of their ascent.

Must be on its way：势在必行。

Summit＝top 顶峰

最后一段，作者当然要提高到另外一个层面了，从更高的层面来看中国智能手机行业：

研究公司IHS Markit的Kevin Wang 认为，一轮并购势在必行。他认为，五年之内中国国内现有的50家左右的手机制造商会消失。如果OPPO和Vivo仍然可以待在顶端，那和它们将以惊人炫目的速度崛起一样令人惊讶。（言外之意就是OPPO和VIVO有可能会消亡在这一轮并购中）

其实，我们说商场如战场，每个品牌的崛起离不开大环境，以及他根据环境选择的战略。任何一个公司都很难是永远的王者，时代在变迁，顺者昌，逆者亡。因此，只有不断求变，走在时代前面的公司才能长久存活发展下去。

英文原文：

http://www.economist.com/news/business/

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