本文选自Economist《经济学人》，毕老师诚意推荐

But before they tread this path, they should consider a few caveats.

但在他们涉足前，还是要考虑一些注意事项。

tread   踏，走

caveat   n.   注意事项 ['kæviæt] 

First, most products and services are not substantial enough to make a good platform.

首先，大部分产品和服务都没有大到能撑起一个平台的量。

Substantial   adj.   大量的 

Substance   n.   物质

And even if they are, it is not always a good idea to turn them into one, says Ms Gawer, who is co-authoring a book to debunk myths about the concept.

正与人合著一本揭示平台概念的书的加威尔女士表示，即使他们足够大，转型为平台也并不一定是一个很好的选择

Debunk    揭穿

V-T If you debunk a widely held belief, you show that it is false. If you debunk something that is widely admired, you show that it is not as good as people 

think it is. 曝光; 揭露...的真相

Eg. to debunk the claims of an advertiser

驳斥一名广告商的谎言

The late Steve Jobs, for instance, long resisted opening Apple’s app store to others for fear of losing control.

例如，已故的乔布斯就因为担心失控而一直抵触开放苹果应用商店。

Late   adj.  已故的

Resist   反对，抵抗   vt. + v ing

Second, network effects often fizzle.

其次，网络效应往往虎头蛇尾。

fizzle /ˈfɪzəl/

V-I If something fizzles, it ends in a weak or disappointing way after starting off strongly. 

虎头蛇尾地结束

eg. Our relationship fizzled into nothing.

我们的关系无果而终了。

All sides of an online marketplace have to be nurtured in parallel to avoid imbalances, such as having far more sellers than buyers.

在线市场的方方面面一定要平行发展才能避免出现例如卖家远远超过买家的不平衡的场面。

in parallel    并行，平行

nurture   培养   v. =nourish

During the dotcom bubble most business-to-business marketplaces failed because their pursuit of growth led to such lopsidedness.

在互联网泡沫时代，大部分B2B电子商务的失败就是因为单方面追求增长而导致失衡。

Lopsidedness    n.   不均衡，不对称

Lopsided   adj.   不平衡的，不对称的 

Even firms that had a head start, such as MySpace and Nokia, a social network and a mobile-phone maker respectively, didn’t manage to turn them- selves into fully fledged platforms.

即使像社交网络我的空间和手机制造商诺基亚这样有先发优势的公司，也没有成长为一个成熟完整的平台。

had a head start    有起步优势

respectively   各自地

fully fledged   全面发展的

Most successful ones are the product of specific circumstances and even chance, reckons Peter Evans of CGE.

法国通用电气公司的皮特·埃文斯回想，其实成功的平台都是某些特定环境甚至是机遇下的产物。

Amazon, for example, took off in part because its customers did not have to pay sales tax if they were outside the firm’s home state, Washington.

例如亚马逊，能够迅速取得成功的而部分原因就是因为如果用户本人不在公司所在地华盛顿购物，通过其平台购买就不用缴付营业税。

Third, it is not always easy to make money from platforms.

再次，通过平台赚钱并不容易。

Misjudge how much to charge each group of customers, and the flywheel can come to ajuddering halt.

对不同客户群的定价策略判断失误，利润的飞轮就戛然而止了。

judder ['dʒʌdɚ]

V to shake or vibrate 震颤

halt  v.  停止

What is more, for a platform to make good money, switching to a rival has to be costly, argues Andrei Hagiu of Harvard Business School.

更何况哈佛商学院的安德烈·哈邱也表示，平台要赚很多钱的话，竞争战非常消耗成本。

Rival 

n.   竞争者，对手

vt   比得上，与…相匹敌

No one can rival him in this respect.

在这方面没有人能比得上他

This risk even hangs over Uber, the fast-expanding taxi-hailing service: using a competitor is easy for both passengers and drivers.

这种风险也困扰着扩张最迅速的租车服务公司Uber：无论对于司机还是乘客来说，转换到其竞争对手门下极其容易。

Platforms with a leg in the physical world are likely to take more time to emerge than the purely digital sort.

较纯数字平台而言，立足于现实的平台想获得生存的话，很可能需要付出更多的时间。

And firms have some alternatives: those with outstanding products and a strong brand can try to forgo others’ platforms, hoping that they succeed on their own.

公司也不是没有选择：产品出众且品牌能力强的公司，即使不依靠平台也可以凭借自身成功。

But ultimately most firms will have no choice but to do business on somebody else’s digital property, and to agitate for better terms if the owner gets too greedy.

但最终大多数公司都没得选择，只能和其他人的数字资产交易，并且在资产所有者太过贪婪时焦虑的争取更好的交易条款。

have no choice but to do   别无选择只好           

greedy  贪婪的

agitate

to do 和to agitate 平行

Call it the class struggle of platform capitalism.

我们姑且称之为平台资本主义的阶级斗争好了。