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Social-media firms see champagne; others see bubbles
社交媒体的香槟酒，业外人士的泡沫沫

Jun 9th 2011 | SAN FRANCISCO | from the print edition

INITIAL public offerings (IPOs) of internet start-ups are like buses: you wait ages for one to arrive, then several turn up at once. After years in the doldrums, the IPO market for technology firms has suddenly sprung to life again in America.

网络创业公司的首次公开募股(IPO)就像等公车一样：等半天不来一辆，突然一来就是好几辆。正如美国技术企业的IPO市场, 历经多年的死水微澜之后，突然重焕生机。

LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, kicked things off last month with a flotation on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that valued it at $8.8 billion—572 times its profits last year—at the end of the first day of trading. Now a number of web outfits, including Groupon, which offers online coupons, and Pandora Media, an internet-radio firm, are queuing to join the party. Other start-ups could soon add themselves to the crowd, notably Zynga, the creator of addictive online games such as FarmVille, in which players grow turnips and breed pigs.

人脉网（LinkedIn）是一个职业人士专用的社交网络，上个月，在纽约证劵交易所（NYSE）举行了首次公开募股，当天便筹集到88亿美元资金——这可是该网站去年利润的572倍。如今包括高朋网（Groupon,团购网站）和潘多拉传媒（网络广播公司）在内的多家网络企业也对此趋之若鹜，希望能分一杯羹。其余新兴网络创业公司也可能会迅速加入其中，辛加（Zynga）便是个中典型，推出了一系列引人上瘾的网络游戏，例如“美版开心农场（FarmVille）”，玩家可以在游戏中种萝卜、养猪等等。