British Council 播客——eBay 易趣
Lecturer: Welcome everybody to today’s seminar. If I remember correctly, David, you’ll be leading the seminar
講師：歡迎大家來到今天的研討會。 如果我沒記錯的話，大衛，這個研討會是你領導的。
David: Yes, that’s right ...
大衛： 是的，沒錯。
Presenter: Fine and how about questions – shall we keep these to the end or would you like people to interrupt during your presentation?
主持人： 好的，那關於提問，我們是到最後才問問題還是在講解的過程中就可以打斷提問題呢？
David: Thanks, ehm , if anyone has a question just ask straight away ..
大衛： 謝謝，我想如果誰有問題就直接問好了。
Lecturer: Fine, let’s go then ..
講師： 好了，那我們開始了。
David: Right, ehm ..... eBay is an enormously successful company, it’s a household word in several countries, in 2005 it had a turnover of $4.55 billion and it employed 11,600 people – it’s achieved all of this in just 11 years. What’s the secret of eBay’s success? I think the key issue here is that eBay couldn’t exist without the Internet – you know there aren’t many examples of companies like this – take Amazon, for example if you don’t feel like switching your computer on you can always go round to the nearest book shop. But if you want to sell your old magazines to somebody in Germany eBay’s the only way to do it. Without the Net’s ability to bring buyers and sellers together from different locations there would be no eBay. So this is big point number one. Now, let’s move on to point two, the founders of eBay – Meg Whitman, the CEO , like all of the senior staff already had a successful business background – she brought in an experienced management team.
大衛： 是的……易趣是一個相當成功的公司，它的名字在很多國家都是家喻戶曉的。在2005年，易趣達到了4，550，000，000美元的收益，在短短的十一年裏就擁有11,600名員工。那易趣的成功祕訣是什麼呢？我認爲關鍵是互聯網成就了易趣。你知道嗎，沒有多少公司是這樣子的。以亞馬遜爲例，就算你不想開電腦，你也可以去最近的書店；但是如果你想出售你的舊雜誌給德國的顧客，易趣是你唯一的選擇。網絡能把不同地方買家和賣家聯繫在一起，如果沒有它，就沒有易趣。所以這就是第一個重點。現在，讓我們繼續第二個要點。梅格•惠特曼是易趣的創辦人，也是首席執行官。像所有高級職員一樣，他有很成功的商業工作背景，並且引進了一個經驗豐富的管理團隊。
They had a great idea but it had to be a great profitable idea – around this – the importance of profitability they built their business model. Let’s move on to point three, sound business management – did you hear of eBay during the dotcom boom years? Not a lot – they were busy building their customer base and making money, they didn’t feature in stories headlining the excesses of the dotcom boom years ... Actually I’ll add another point, point four, eBay doesn’t produce, sell or ship anything itself, it provides the online marketplace for other people to do this – this gives it enormous financial power ....
他們有很好的想法，但必須是好的，並且能獲利的。根據獲利的重要性這一點，他們建立了自己的經營模式。接下來我們進入下一個要點----完善的企業管理。在互聯網繁華時期，你有聽說過易趣嗎？估計不是很多吧。他們當時忙於建立客戶羣和賺錢，他們並沒有在這個互聯網繁華時期過多地展現自己。在這裏，我增加要點四：易趣本身並沒有生產，銷售或者推出任何產品，只是提供一個在線市場供其他人做此類交易，正因爲這樣，使得易趣擁有巨大的財政力量。
Student: David, can I ask a question?
學生：大衛，我可以問一個問題嗎？
David: Sure ...
大衛：當然。
Student: What difference does that make – the point about eBay not making anything itself ..
學生：易趣本身沒有進行任何產品交易，這個有什麼具體的意義嗎？
David: Well, this means that they can use their capital very effectively – you know their capital isn’t tied up in buildings, factories, warehouses that sort of thing, again their capital isn’t tied up in things that are waiting to be sold, they haven’t got shops all over the world with sales assistants in them – all this costs – see what I mean ...
大衛：這種做法能夠使他們有效地使用資金。你要知道，他們的資金並不會擱死在建築，工廠，倉庫這些東西上，再之，也不會在待售的東西上。他們也沒有需要銷售助理的實體店。所有的這些費用——你明白我所說的吧。
Student: Sure, I get it now ..
學生：當然，明白了。
David: Great, now .... The only problem they’ve run into, actually that’s not true they’ve had a couple of major problems – anyway the first problem – they arrived in a couple of key markets too late – this happened in Japan and Hong Kong where Yahoo’s online marketplace had a head start. The other problem – well it’s the sort of thing we’ve all heard about – buyers receiving stolen goods or a product different from the one they thought they’d bought or no product at all, sellers putting in false bids to increase the price just before an auction finishes. eBay admits this happens but says that this sort of thing accounts for a very small percentage of all sales. OK , now I’d like to have a look at just how the company has expanded over the last 11 years ...
大衛：很好。傳聞易趣面臨幾個重要問題並不是真的，它面臨的唯一問題，不管怎樣，第一個問題是有幾個重要市場他們進入得太晚，比如說雅虎在線市場領先起步的日本和香港。另一個問題是我們之前聽說過的：買家收到贓物或者不同於之前想買到的產品，又或者根本就沒收到任何產品，而賣家在拍賣結束前，錯誤提高出價進行投標。易趣承認這件事並且解釋這種錯誤只是銷售中的一小部分。好的，現在我們看看這個公司在過去的十一年裏是怎樣擴張的。
