How long will Google's magic last?
谷歌魔力会持续多久？
It flourished during the first phase of the internet. The next one may be tougher
互联网初级阶段，谷歌蓬勃发展如日中天，但下一阶段，日子或许就不那么好过了
Dec 2nd 2010 | SAN FRANCISCO | from PRINT EDITION
Eurocops（注1） say: “Don’t be evil.”
《欧洲警察》游戏说到：“别作恶。”
“GOOGLE is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one,” wrote Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the search firm’s founders, in a letter to investors ahead of its stockmarket flotation in 2004. Since then, Google has burnished its reputation as one of the quirkiest companies on the planet. This year alone it has raised eyebrows by taking a stake in a wind-energy project off the east coast of America and by testing self-driving cars, which
have already covered over 140,000 miles (225,000km) on the country’s roads.
“谷歌不是一家传统企业。我们也不打算变成传统企业，”谷歌两位创始人Larry Page与Sergey Brin，在2004公司上市前写给投资者的一封信里，如此表示。打那以后，谷歌被誉为“地球上最难捉摸的公司”，而它一直在为这一美名增光添彩。单是今年，谷歌就干了一连串引人侧目的事，譬如，入股美国东海岸的一个风能项目，测试自动驾驶汽车，这种车已在美国公路上跑了14万英里（22.5万公里）。
Google has been able to afford such flights of fancy thanks to its amazingly successful online-search business. This has produced handsome returns for the firm’s investors, who have seen the company transform itself in the space of a mere 12 years from a tiny start-up into a behemoth with a $180 billion market capitalisation that sprawls across a vast headquarters in Silicon Valley known as the Googleplex. Google also stretches across the web like a giant spider, with a leg in everything from online search and e-mail to social networking and web-based software applications, or apps.
谷歌之所以能部署如此异想天开的项目，得益于其网络搜索业务的巨大成功。该业务已为
投资者带来了丰厚回报。短短12年间，投资者就目睹谷歌从一家小型创业企业，成长为一个市值达1800亿美元的庞然大物，还在硅谷建立了名为Googleplex、占地巨大的总部。谷歌也在互联网上大举扩张，就像一只巨型蜘蛛，触脚遍及网络搜索、、社交网络及网络软件应用。
Much of its growth has been organic, but Google has also splashed out on some sizeable acquisitions. In 2006 it paid $1.7 billion for YouTube, a website that lets people post videos of their children, kittens and Lady Gaga impersonations. The following year it snapped up DoubleClick, an online-advertising network, for $3.1 billion. More deals are likely. Google is bidding for Groupon, a trendy e-commerce business, using some of the $33 billion sitting in its coffers.
其发展大部分是内生的，但谷歌也投入重金展开巨额收购。2006年，该公司斥资17亿美元收购了视频分享网站YouTube，用户可在该网站上发布自个孩子、宠物的录像和Lady Gaga的模仿视频。次年，谷歌又花31亿美元抢购了在线广告网络DoubleClick。今后很可能会出现更多并购交易。谷歌正利用330亿美元现金储备，竞购一家流行的电子商务企业——团购网站Groupon。
All this has turned Google into a force to be reckoned with. But now the champion of the unorthodox is faced with two conventional business challenges. The first involves placating regulators, who fret that it may be abusing its considerable power. On November 30th the European Union announced a formal investigation into claims that Google has been manipulating search results to give an unfair advantage to its own services—a charge the firm vigorously denies. In America, Google faces a similar investigation in Texas and is also battling with a bunch of online-travel companies who have been lobbying the government to veto its recent purchase of ITA Software, a company that provides data about flights.
这一切，都让谷歌变成了一支不容小觑的力量。但如今，这家不走寻常路的成功企业，却面临两个传统的商业挑战。首先是安抚那些担心谷歌滥用权力的监管者。11月30日，欧盟宣布对谷歌展开正式调查，以确定谷歌是否操纵搜索结果，为其自身服务提供不公平的优势——谷歌严词否认了这项指控。在美国，谷歌在德克萨斯州面临类似调查。此外，在最近对航班数据提供商ITA Software的收购中，谷歌还要应对一大帮游说政府反对这笔交易的企业。
The other challenge facing Google is how to find new sources of growth. In spite of all the experiments it has launched, the firm is still heavily dependent on search-related advertising. Last year this accounted for almost all of its $24 billion of revenue and $6.5 billion of profit. Acquisitions such as YouTube have deepened rather than reduced the firm’s dependence on advertising. Steve Ballmer, the boss of Google’s arch-rival Microsoft, has derided the search company for being “a one-trick pony”.
lady.gaga谷歌面临的另一大挑战，是如何到新的增长来源。尽管其开展了多项实验，但依然十分依赖搜索广告业务。谷歌去年240亿美元收入与65亿美元利润，几乎全部来源于此。诸如YouTube之类的并购案，非但没有降低谷歌对广告的依赖，反而加深了这一趋势。作为谷歌的劲敌，微软老板Steve Ballmer，甚至嘲笑这家搜索公司“一招鲜，吃遍天”。
Ironically, investors’ biggest worry is that Google will end up like Microsoft, which has failed to find big new sources of revenue and profit to replace those from its two ageing ponies, the Windows operating system and the Office suite of business software. That explains why Google’s share price has stagnated. “The market seems to believe this coul
d be like Microsoft version two,” says Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Citigroup. News of the formal EU antitrust enquiry will no doubt invite further comparisons with Mr Ballmer’s firm, which fought a long and bruising battle with European regulators.
颇具讽刺意味的是，投资者最大的担忧在于，谷歌最终会落得跟微软一样，无法到新的重要收入与利润来源，代替Windows操作系统与Office办公软件套装这个日益陈旧的招数。这也解释了谷歌股价停滞不前的原因。花旗集团分析师Mark Mahaney称，“市场似乎认为这家公司会成为微软第二。”欧盟就反垄断正式质询谷歌的消息，无疑会导致人们进一步将其与微软对比，Ballmer先生的公司就曾与欧洲监管者展开过一场旷日持久的殊死斗争。