​约会应用企业Match Group开拓亚洲市场

Online dating app expands in Asia hiring spree

 《金融时报》汉娜•墨菲 旧金山报道

Match Group, which owns dating apps such as Tinder and Hinge, is planning to expand headcount in Asia by 40 per cent this year and overhaul its executive team, as part of a push into the region's flourishing online dating market. 

旗下拥有Tinder和Hinge等约会应用的Match Group计划今年将亚洲员工人数增加40%，并对其管理团队进行大洗牌，以进军亚洲地区蓬勃发展的在线约会市场。

headcount

顾名思义就是“人头数”，表示“某一处（或某公司）的人数”，英文解释为“the number of people who are in a place, at an event, or employed by a company”举个🌰：

The company was unwilling to increase the headcount (= employ more people).

公司不愿意增加雇员。

overhaul

表示“全面改革，修订”，英文解释为“to change a system or method in order to improve it”举个🌰：

All the community’s decision-making institutions need to be overhauled.

社区的所有决策机构都需要进行彻底改革。

Mandy Ginsberg, chief executive, told the Financial Times that the Dallas-based company planned to invest “tens of millions of dollars” a year on a hiring spree as well as additional marketing in the region. 

Match Group的总部位于美国达拉斯(Dallas)，其首席执行官曼迪•金斯伯格(Mandy Ginsberg)向英国《金融时报》表示，该企业计划每年在亚洲地区投入“数千万美元”来招聘大量员工，并开展更多营销活动。

on a hiring spree

spree本身表示“作乐，狂欢（尤指花钱或喝酒）”，英文解释为“a short period of time when you do a lot of one activity, especially spending money or drinking alcohol”，如：a shopping spree 疯狂购物，a drinking spree 狂喝一通，此处on a hiring spree即疯狂招人的意思。

The bet on Asia comes as Match, which has a market capitalisation of $15.9bn and about 8m subscribers across its digital dating brands, faces competition from social media group Facebook, which announced its own dating service last year. 

在Match Group押注亚洲市场之际，该企业正面临来自社交媒体集团Facebook的竞争，Facebook去年宣布将推出自己的约会服务。Match Group的市值为159亿美元，旗下在线约会品牌共拥有约800万订户。

But the company reported better than expected quarterly results in February, driven by strong growth in subscriptions on Tinder, the app that popularised the swipe-right, swipe-left method of sorting potential matches. 

但在Tinder订用量强劲增长的推动下，今年2月份Match Group公布了好于预期的季度业绩。Tinder推广了在屏幕上左右滑动以接受或拒绝潜在配对对象的模式。

The dating app market in Asia has grown rapidly in recent years, spawning Tinder clones such as Singapore-based Paktor. Last year, Tantan, China's most popular dating service, was bought by Nasdaq-listed social media app Momo for $760m.

近年来，亚洲的约会应用市场发展迅速，催生了许多类似Tinder的产品，如新加坡的Paktor。去年，在纳斯达克(Nasdaq)上市的社交媒体应用“陌陌”(Momo)以7.6亿美元收购了中国最受欢迎的约会服务“探探”(Tantan)。

spawn

表示“引发；使大量出现，使大量产生；酿成”，英文解释为“If something spawns something else, it causes it to happen or to be created.”举个🌰：

New technology has spawned new business opportunities.

新技术创造了大量新的商机。

spawn还可以指鱼或蛙“大量产卵”（if a fish or frog spawns, it produces eggs in large quantities at the same time）。

But Ms Ginsberg said there were still untapped opportunities in the region: there were about 400m singles outside of North America and Europe, two-thirds of which have never used a dating app, she said.

但金斯伯格表示，亚洲还有尚待发掘的机遇：北美和欧洲以外约有4亿单身人士，其中三分之二的人从未使用过约会应用。

untapped

表示“（资源、市场或天赋）未开发的，未利用的”，英文解释为“an untapped supply, market, or talent is available but has not yet been used”举个🌰：

We believe there is untapped potential.

我们相信还有潜力没有挖掘出来。

Growing mobile usage and cultural changes — such as a shift in India away from arranged marriage — mean dating apps are becoming more mainstream in the region. 

不断提高的手机普及率与文化的变迁（例如印度逐渐摒弃包办婚姻）使约会应用日益成为亚洲地区的主流。

“Initially there was a personal embarrassment around it . . . [But] it's the stigma — the stigma's really eroding,” she said. 

金斯伯格表示：“起初说起约会应用，人们会感到尴尬……（但是）这是一种污名，而这种污名正在真正褪去。”

stigma

表示“耻辱，羞辱，见不得人的感觉”，英文解释为“a strong feeling in society that being in a particular situation or having a particular illness is something to be ashamed of”举个🌰：

In the US, smoking carries a stigma.

在美国，吸烟是不光彩的。

erode

表示“降低，削弱”，英文解释为“If the value of something erodes or is eroded by something such as inflation or age, its value decreases.”举个🌰：

Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.

金融市场的竞争降低了利润。

还可以指“（气候）侵蚀，腐蚀；（岩石、土壤）风化”等（if the weather erodes rock or soil, or if rock or soil erodes, its surface is gradually destroyed），如：soil erosion 水土流失。

The company is shaking up its leadership team, she added. In particular, several directors for individual brands in Asia will now become general managers across all the Match apps, in a move that will cement the company's portfolio of apps further together, for example. 

她补充称，Match Group的领导层正在变动。特别是，原本负责Match Group在亚洲的几个品牌的经理将成为主管Match Group全线应用的总经理，此举将使该企业的多个应用更紧密地联系在一起。

shake up

替换了上文的overhaul一词，此处shake up表示“整顿，重组”，英文解释为“If someone shakes up something such as an organization, an institution, or a profession, they make major changes to it.”

cement

作名词表示“水泥”，如：a cement floor 水泥地板，也可以指“胶合剂；胶接剂；黏固剂”（a soft substance that becomes hard when dry and is used for sticking things together or filling in holes），作动词可引申为表示“加强，巩固（关系）”，英文解释为“to make a relationship between people, countries, or organizations firm and strong”，如：cement a relationship/alliance，举个🌰：

The President's visit was intended to cement the alliance between the two countries.

总统的访问是为了加强两国的联盟。

portfolio

portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊliəʊ/表示“（公司或机构提供的）系列产品，系列服务”，英文解释为“the range of products or services offered by a particular company or organization”，如：a portfolio of wines 系列葡萄酒。

此外，portfolio还有多个不同含义：

1) 表示“公事包，文件夹；画夹”（a large flat case used especially for carrying pictures, documents etc）

2) 表示“（艺术家、摄影师等的）作品选集”（a set of pictures or other pieces of work that an artist, photographer etc has done）

3) 表示“（某人或某公司持有的）有价证券组合，投资组合”（a group of stock s owned by a particular person or compan），如：an investment portfolio 投资组合；

4) 表示“部长（大臣）的职责”（the work that a particular government official is responsible for），如：the foreign affairs portfolio 外交部长职责。

“We are making jobs broader. We're going from a brand perspective to a regional perspective,” Ms Ginsberg said. 

金斯伯格称：“我们正在扩大工作范围。我们正从品牌视角转向区域视角。”

Match shares fell more than 25 per cent last year after Facebook said it was launching its own dating service, but have since rallied more than 60 per cent. Ms Ginsberg said the group had not seen any impact on its user base so far, arguing that people tended to use multiple dating apps at once. 

去年，在Facebook宣布将推出自己的约会服务后，Match Group的股价下跌逾25%。但自那以来已回升逾60%。金斯伯格表示，到目前为止，Match Group还没有发现其用户基础受到任何影响。她认为这是因为人们倾向于同时使用多款约会应用。

rally

熟词僻义，尤指股票价格或货币“价格回升；跌后回升”，英文解释为“( especially of share prices or a country's money  to increase in value after falling in value”举个🌰：

The company's shares had rallied slightly by the close of trading.

这家公司的股票价格在收盘前略有回升。

Revenues, coming largely from premium subscriptions rather than advertising, grew 21 per cent in the final quarter of 2018 to $457m, while earnings per share stood at 39 cents, compared with losses per share of 3 cents in the same quarter in 2017. 

Match Group的收入主要来自付费订用而非广告。2018年第四季度，该企业收入增长21%，至4.57亿美元，每股盈利为39美分，而2017年同期每股亏损3美分。

stand at

stand at表示“达特定水平（或数量、高度等）”，英文解释为“to be at a particular level, amount, height, etc.”举个🌰：

Interest rates stand at 5%.

利率为5%。

The world record then stood at 13.14 metres.

当时的世界纪录是13.14米。

In the past two years, the company has opened offices in South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, and continued to expand its presence in India. Ms Ginsberg said the company also had plans to open an office in Singapore in the coming months.

过去两年间，Match Group在韩国、日本和印度尼西亚都开设了办事处，并继续扩大其在印度的业务。金斯伯格表示，该企业还计划未来数月在新加坡开设一家办事处。

But it does not operate in China. Ms Ginsberg said the company was hunting for opportunities for either “incubating or buying” a Chinese dating app.

但Match Group没有在中国开展业务。金斯伯格表示，Match Group正在找机会“孵化或收购”一款中国的约会应用。

incubate

作动词，本义是指“ 孵（卵），孵化”，英文解释为“When a bird, etc. incubates its eggs, it keeps them warm until the young come out, and when eggs incubate, they develop to the stage at which the young come out.”

百度百科：企业孵化器，英文为incubator，本义指人工孵化禽蛋的专门设备。后来引入经济服务，指导这些企业能够不用或很少借用其它帮助将他们的产品或服务成功地打入市场。

译者/何黎

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