滴滴打車走紅 滴滴打人跟風

At first, it seemed like a brilliant marketing plan. Perhaps it still is.

起初，這看上去是一個非常棒的營銷方案。或許現在依然如此。

The popularity of the Chinese ride-sharing app Didi Dache (滴滴打車), which translates as “Honk Honk Hail a Cab,” inspired a simple pun. With the change of one character, the name became Didi Daren (滴滴打人), or “Honk Honk Beat a Person.”

中國的招車應用軟件滴滴打車（意思是嘀嘀兩聲打輛車）風靡一時，爲一句簡單的俏皮話提供了靈感。只消換掉一個字，“滴滴打車”就變成了“滴滴打人”（意思是嘀嘀兩聲打個人）。

And in such a joke, one tech company in Hunan Province in the south saw an opportunity. The company, Changsha Zhang Kong Information Technology Limited, whose English name is Joke, decided to develop just such an app.

中國南方省份湖南省的一家科技企業從上述笑話中看到了機會。這家名爲長沙掌控信息科技有限公司(Joke)的企業，決定開發一款跟這句俏皮話同名的應用軟件。

“We heard about Didi Dache every day in the news, so we wanted to sort of take a free ride on its fame,” said the head of Joke’s business department, who would give only his surname, Yuan.

“滴滴打車天天上新聞，所以我們就想搭個便車，”掌控公司營業部的袁姓負責人說。

The result illustrates the turbulent world of technology in China. From abroad, the common image of the Chinese Internet is one of censorship and tight control. But outside the realm of activism and political speech, the online world in China is fiercely competitive and anarchic at times.

這件事說明了中國科技行業嘈雜紛擾的現狀。外界普遍認爲，中國的互聯網是受到審查和嚴格控制的。但除去跟行動主義和政治言論有關的部分，中國的網絡世界其實充滿激烈的競爭，有時甚至處於無政府狀態。

That is particularly true of apps for smartphones, which come out too quickly to track and are available for download on Android app stores that, unlike in the rest of the world, are not dominated by Google. As a result, products are not closely vetted before release, and companies seek any advantage to grab the attention of potential users. Sometimes the results can backfire, but sometimes it pays to be audacious.

智能手機應用軟件領域尤爲如此：層出不窮的應用軟件令人目不暇接，在安卓(Android)應用商店裏即可下載，而且跟其他地方不同，這裏的安卓應用商店並非由谷歌(Google)主導。因此，產品無需經過嚴格的審覈就可以發佈出去，企業紛紛投機取巧，以吸引潛在用戶的眼球。這樣做有時會產生適得其反的效果，但有時大膽而爲帶來了相應的回報。

Now that it has gotten some attention, Didi Daren does have a chance at achieving some success. China’s smartphone users have proved to be relatively comfortable with social networks that connect them to strangers nearby. One successful application, called Momo, connected strangers looking for dates, love — and more — well before similar apps like Tinder became popular in the United States.

即然滴滴打人已經受到了關注，它很有可能獲得一定程度的成功。事實證明，中國的智能手機用戶並不排斥能夠把他們和附近的陌生人聯繫起來的社交網絡。早在Tinder等陌生人交友應用紅遍美國之前，幫助渴望約會、愛情以及更多東西的陌生人建立聯繫的陌陌就已在中國大獲成功。

Rather than create an “Uber for Assault,” Joke said it had intended to create a concierge service, much like the app Magic, which allows users to negotiate for services like deliveries and housecleaning.

掌控公司稱，他們要打造的並不是“用來召集打手的優步(Uber)”，而是一款跟Magic很像的禮賓服務應用軟件，用戶可以通過它跟提供快遞、保潔等服務的人員接洽。

Just as Dache means “to hail a cab,” one could, with a little creativity, take Daren to mean “hail a person.” But after the release in January, some users understandably took the name at its literal meaning. Chinese news outlets said that people were using the app to offer themselves as thugs for hire, though it was unclear if any such transactions were actually completed. The Yunnan Information News reported on Saturday that it had used the app to contact a man in Shanghai who offered, for 200 to 500 renminbi, or about $30 to $80, to put someone in the hospital.

正如“打車”的意思是“叫車”，你也可以有點兒創意，把“打人”理解成“叫人”。但滴滴打人1月份上線後，一些用戶卻在按照字面意思來解讀“打人”二字，他們這樣想也是可以理解的。中國媒體稱，有自稱打手的人在滴滴打人上招攬生意，但目前尚不清楚他們是否真的跟人達成了交易。《雲南信息報》週六報道稱，該報已經通過這款應用軟件聯繫到了一個身在上海的男人，他說只要200至500元人民幣（約合30至80美元），他就可以讓某個人躺進醫院。

It did not help that “Baozou Big News,” an online comedy show, broadcast a skit in February about an app that did just that, with a bullied nurse and a schoolgirl being pursued by a lecherous teacher ordering beatdowns of their tormentors.

網絡搞笑脫口秀《暴走大事件》今年2月播放的滑稽短劇對事情並沒有什麼幫助。劇中，一個遭受欺凌的護士和一個受到好色老師騷擾的女學生用一款應用軟件找到打手，把欺負他們的人暴揍了一頓。

Mr. Yuan said that Joke was aware that users might take the name literally, and that it included warnings in the app against criminal activity. Still, he said the company was surprised that the app was seen as a service for hiring thugs. “We didn’t anticipate this,” he said.

袁姓主管稱，掌控公司察覺到用戶可能會按照字面意思來理解“滴滴打人”4個字，於是在這款應用軟件中加入了反對犯罪行爲的警示語。但他表示，該公司還是驚訝於滴滴打人竟被視爲一款幫人僱傭打手的服務。“我們沒料到這種情況，”他說。

Over three months, the app was downloaded about 200,000 times. But to the likely disappointment of high-tech hoodlums, the company and several app stores pulled Didi Daren on Monday after several critical reports emerged in the Chinese news media. Mr. Yuan said Joke planned to release a new version of the app in a few weeks that would include a “secretary,” a function to vet requests that were previously negotiated directly between users. And the app will have a new name, he said. The company also plans to ask users to submit their suggestions.

在3個月時間裏，滴滴打人被下載了20萬次。但讓通曉高科技的流氓失望的是，中國媒體刊發了幾篇批評性報道之後，週一，掌控公司和多家應用商店將滴滴打人下架處理。袁姓主管稱，掌控公司計劃在幾周之內推出帶有“祕書”功能的新版應用軟件，用戶發佈的請求會受到審查，而在以前，用戶間都是直接接洽的。另外，他說，這款應用軟件會有一個新名字。該公司還打算讓用戶給出建議。