经济学人下载:facebook大转变(2)

Facebook’s new, mature face plays well with investors. After a year of scandal and abysmal press, its share price is just shy of record highs. It gained more than 1% on the news of the latest fine, which had already been priced in thanks to astute telegraphing earlier this year—a sign, perhaps, of a good working relationship with the American regulator. A Facebook which works with governments rather than around them appeals to shareholders. So does Facebook’s ability to rake in money. The growth of its core social network is slowing down. But revenues from Instagram, its popular photo-sharing app, are growing apace.
Facebook成熟的新面孔很受投资者欢迎。在经历了一年的丑闻和糟糕的媒体报道之后，该公司的股价刚刚接近历史高点。在最新的罚款消息公布后，该公司股价上涨了1%以上。由于今年早些时候的精明电报，罚款已经被反映在股价中。一个与政府合作而不是围绕政府工作的Facebook对股东很有吸引力。Facebook赚钱的能力也是如此。其核心社交网络的增长正在放缓。但其广受欢迎的照片分享应用Instagram的收入正在快速增长。

It has yet to realise the money-spinning potential of WhatsApp, its messaging service. Analysts expect Facebook’s second-quarter results, due out on July 24th, to show revenues up by 25% from last year, to $16.3bn. Unlike profits at some other technology firms, its net income is expected to rise, by 6% to $5.4bn—more than enough to cover the fine. Facebook is not out of the woods. Other regulators and politicians are lining up to take a swipe at Big Tech, and not just in America. Financial authorities are leery of Libra, worrying that it could become a vehicle for fraud and money laundering, as happened with some other cryptocurrencies. Central bankers fear that if adopted widely enough it could threaten financial stability. On July 16th Ursula von der Leyen, president-elect of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said she wants the tech giants to pay more taxes. The next day the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, announced a probe into Amazon’s use of merchant data. In some countries data-protection regulators want to order non-compliant companies to stop processing data altogether. That would hurt considerably more than a fine.
该公司尚未意识到其即时通讯服务WhatsApp的赚钱潜力。分析人士预计，Facebook将于7月24日公布的第二季度业绩将显示，其营收同比增长25%，达到163亿美元。与其他一些科技公司的利润不同，它的净收入预计将增长6%，达到54亿美元，足以支付罚款。Facebook并没有走出困境。其他的监管机构和政客们正排着队准备抨击大型科技公司，而且不仅仅是在美国。金融当局对天秤座持怀疑态度，担心它可能成为欺诈和洗钱的工具，就像其他一些加密货币一样。央行官员担心，如果广泛采用，可能会威胁到金融稳定。7月16日，欧盟执行机构欧盟委员会候任主席乌苏拉•冯•德莱恩表示，希望科技巨头缴纳更多的税款。第二天，欧盟竞争事务负责人玛格丽特·维斯塔格宣布对亚马逊使用商户数据的行为展开调查。在一些国家，数据保护监管机构希望命令不合规的公司完全停止处理数据。这比罚款要严重得多。