原文标题：
The killer smile
How ruthless is Amazon, really?
It is too simplistic to portray business as a battle of might versus right
致命微笑
亚马逊到底有多狠？
将商业描述为强权与正义之战未免过于简单化了
The Everything War. By Dana Mattioli.
《万物之战》作者：达纳·马蒂奥利
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IN 2009-10 AMAZON went to war over nappies. The e-commerce giant, then worth about $50bn, identified a startup, Diapers.com, that had a devoted following among young mums.
在2009-2010年间，亚马逊对尿布发起了一场商战。当时价值约500亿美元的电商巨头发现了一家名为Diapers.com的初创公司，该公司在年轻妈妈中拥有一批忠实粉丝。
First it stalked it. Then it pounced, reaching out to buy the company on the same day that it slashed the price of its own baby products by 30%.
亚马逊先是悄悄跟踪了这家公司，然后迅速出手，在同一天自家婴儿产品大幅降价30%，并同时向Diapers.com提出了收购要约。
Amazon’s price cuts almost crushed Diapers.com, forcing it to sell itself to its nemesis. Marc Lore, Diapers’ founder, has not forgiven Amazon.
亚马逊的价格战几乎让Diapers.com陷入绝境，最终不得不将公司卖给了亚马逊。Diapers.com的创始人马克·洛尔对此事一直耿耿于怀。
He later went on to lead the e-commerce division of Walmart, its biggest rival, partly to get his own back.
后来，他转而领导了沃尔玛的电商部门，成为亚马逊的最大竞争对手，部分原因也是为了报复亚马逊。
“It’s still triggering,” he admitted at a recent event attended by your reviewer.
他在最近的一次活动中坦言：“这仍然让我难以释怀。”
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The story of Diapers.com is one of many damning narratives about Amazon that run through “The Everything War”, which relates how other well-known brands have felt its hot breath on their necks, from Allbirds, a shoemaker, to Trader Joe’s, a supermarket chain.
Diapers.com 的故事是 《万物之战 》中关于亚马逊的许多令人震惊的叙述之一，该书详细叙述了制鞋公司Allbirds和连锁超市Trader Joe's等其他知名品牌受亚马逊打压的过程。
At the Wall Street Journal, Dana Mattioli, the author, has doggedly pursued Amazon; her stories on its misuse of sellers’ data have caught Congress’s eye.
本书作者达纳·马蒂奥利在《华尔街日报》对亚马逊穷追猛打。她写的关于亚马逊滥用卖家数据的报道引起了国会的注意。
She is on the antitrust warpath, and the book tries to portray the company’s supposed misuse of power.
她在反垄断的道路上越战越勇，这本书试图揭露亚马逊滥用权力的行为。
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The book starts by quoting an article in the Yale Law Journal in 2017 called “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox”, written by a 27-year-old law student called Lina Khan.
本书开头引用了2017年《耶鲁法学杂志》上的一篇文章，名为《亚马逊的反垄断悖论》，作者是一位名叫莉娜·可汗的27岁法学院学生。
It ends with Ms Khan, now chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a trustbusting and consumer-welfare agency, throwing the book at Amazon.
本书以现任联邦贸易委员会（FTC）主席的可汗女士向亚马逊发起猛烈抨击为结尾，FTC是一个反垄断和保护消费者权益的机构。
Last September the FTC and 17 state attorneys-general sued Amazon, accusing it of operating an illegal monopoly by using its power to raise prices and degrade service for shoppers and vendors, while stifling competition. Amazon calls the lawsuit misguided.
去年 9 月，FTC和17个州总检察长起诉了亚马逊，指控亚马逊利用自身权力提高价格、降低购物者和供应商的服务质量，同时扼杀竞争，从而实现非法垄断。亚马逊反驳说这场诉讼毫无根据。
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Such subject matter and scope, just as Ms Khan is attempting to turn decades of antitrust enforcement on its head, should make for gripping reading. But it does not.
这样的主题和范围，正如可汗女士试图颠覆数十年来的反垄断执法一样，应该读来扣人心弦。但事实并非如此。
For all the shoe leather the author treads in pursuit of Amazon, her story is rambling, and there is no “gotcha” moment.
尽管作者在追捕亚马逊的过程中煞费苦心，但她的故事却语焉不详，没有任何 "恍然大悟的瞬间"。
Unexpectedly, Ms Khan has focused the FTC’s case against Amazon on different behaviour than the sort Ms Mattioli chronicles.
出乎意料的是，马蒂奥利女士记录的故事，与可汗女士领导FTC针对亚马逊的诉讼焦点不同。
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To make up for that, Ms Mattioli yells. Her tone is, at times, so one-sided it makes you sympathise with Amazon.
为了弥补这一点，马蒂奥利高举高打。她的语气有时过于片面，以至于让人开始同情亚马逊。
Jeff Bezos, its founder, does not just have a rapacious hunger to win, he has a “killer instinct” that he tries to impose on his staff.
亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝索斯不仅有着强烈的求胜欲望，他还试图将“杀手本能”强加给员工。
It leaves rivals’ “corpses in its wake”. It has a “cut-throat culture”.
这导致竞争对手“尸横遍野”。亚马逊有着“残酷竞争的文化”。
Its customer obsession, which she says is a guiding principle, is cover for “unethical behaviour”.
马蒂奥利认为，亚马逊所谓的以客户为中心的经营理念，实际上只是为其“不道德行为”提供掩护。
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Sadly, this is a feature of too many books trying to tear down prominent firms or business people.
遗憾的是，这是许多试图摧毁知名企业或企业家的书籍的共同特点。
Occasionally, works of investigative reporting are so incisive that they bring down a company.
有时候，调查报道的内容过于尖锐，以至于能击垮一家公司。
Think “Bad Blood”, by John Carreyrou, which helped expose the fraud of Theranos, a blood-testing startup.
比如约翰·卡雷鲁的《坏血》，该书揭露了血液检测初创公司Theranos的欺诈行为。
But others that lack sufficient incriminatory evidence tend to resort to rabble-rousing rhetoric.
但那些缺乏足够定罪证据的书籍往往只能诉诸于煽动性的言辞。
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Amazon highlights many of the contradictions of corporate concentration; it is not a simple tale of might versus right. Sometimes crushing rivals is essential for businesses to survive and thrive.
亚马逊凸显了企业集中化所带来的诸多矛盾；这不是一个简单的强权与正义的故事。有时，为了企业的生存和繁荣，打败竞争对手是必经之路。
Even Warren Buffett, America’s investing guru, likes companies with “moats” to keep the competition at bay.
就连美国投资大师沃伦·巴菲特也偏爱那些拥有“护城河”的公司，因为能够抵御竞争对手的侵袭。
No doubt it has treated some rivals, clients and employees harshly in the course of establishing its empire.
在建立商业帝国的过程中，亚马逊无疑对一些竞争对手、客户和员工采取了严厉的手段。
But customers and vendors are so loyal, they spring to its defence when it faces any regulatory onslaught that could deprive them of their beloved Prime membership.
然而，客户和供应商却异常忠诚，当亚马逊面临任何可能剥夺他们心爱的Prime会员资格的监管攻击时，他们会纷纷站出来为它辩护。
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Ms Mattioli hints at one of the deepest problems of antitrust in America.
马蒂奥利指出了美国反垄断法中的一个深层次问题。
Politicians have failed to tighten up competition law to make it fit for an era of entrenched oligopolies, and congressional attempts to hold Amazon and other tech giants to account have fizzled out amid a barrage of lobbying.
政客们未能加强竞争法以适应根深蒂固的寡头垄断时代，而国会试图让亚马逊和其他科技巨头承担责任的尝试也在一连串的游说下化为泡影。
Probably the wisest description of Amazon in the book comes from Ms Khan herself: “It is as if Bezos charted the company’s growth by first drawing a map of antitrust laws, and then devising routes to smoothly bypass them.”
书中对亚马逊最明智的描述可能来自可汗女士本人： "就好像贝索斯在绘制公司发展蓝图时，首先绘制了一张反垄断法地图，然后设计了一条可以顺利绕过这些法律的路线"。
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量750左右）
原文出自：2024年4月20日《The Economist》Culture版块
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】（来自于网络）
2005年马克·洛尔Marc Lore和维尼特·巴哈拉拉在新泽西州创立了一家名为Quidsi的电商公司，这个公司名称结合了两个拉丁语单词—「quid」和「si」，意思是「如果」。这家公司旗下的Diapers.com承诺免费为手忙脚乱的父母在夜间配送尿片和婴儿用品，还获得了风投资本公司5000万美元的投资。新晋的爸爸妈妈们喜欢Diapers.com，2008年Quidsi的年营收增长到3亿美元。根据布拉德·斯通的《一网打尽》，贝佐斯留意到了Quidsi，亚马逊开始大幅降低尿片的价格来打压Diapers.com。2010年，洛尔和他的合伙人投降了，以5.5亿美元的价格将Quidsi卖给了亚马逊。
洛尔在亚马逊的任职时间并不长。作为协议的一部分，Quidsi会成为亚马逊的一个独立事业部，但亚马逊最终把这项业务吸纳到自己的运营体系后，Diapers.com的名字就消失了。在沃尔玛收购Jet.com之后，沃尔玛的CEO董明伦让洛尔管理美国的电商业务，他既负责沃尔玛的网站，也负责Jet.com，沃尔玛给予他充分的自由，去建立一项可以追赶亚马逊物流的具有创业精神且快速增长的线上业务。
【重点句子】（3个）
For all the shoe leather the author treads in pursuit of Amazon, her story is rambling, and there is no “gotcha” moment.
尽管作者在追捕亚马逊的过程中煞费苦心，但她的故事却语焉不详，没有任何 "恍然大悟的瞬间"。
It leaves rivals’ “corpses in its wake”. It has a “cut-throat culture”.
这导致竞争对手“尸横遍野”。亚马逊有着“残酷竞争的文化”。
Amazon highlights many of the contradictions of corporate concentration; it is not a simple tale of might versus right. Sometimes crushing rivals is essential for businesses to survive and thrive.
亚马逊凸显了企业集中化所带来的诸多矛盾；这不是一个简单的强权与正义的故事。有时，为了企业的生存和繁荣，打败竞争对手是必经之路。
自由英语之路
