?

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(huì)。 如果我沒記錯(cuò)的話，大衛(wèi)，這個(gè)研討會(huì)是你領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的。

David: Yes, that’s right ...
大衛(wèi)： 是的，沒錯(cuò)。

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(guān)于提問，我們是到最后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(wèi)： 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(wèi)： 是的……易趣是一個(gè)相當(dāng)成功的公司，它的名字在很多國(guó)家都是家喻戶曉的。在2005年，易趣達(dá)到了4，550，000，000美元的收益，在短短的十一年里就擁有11,600名員工。那易趣的成功秘訣是什么呢？我認(rèn)為關(guān)鍵是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)成就了易趣。你知道嗎，沒有多少公司是這樣子的。以亞馬遜為例，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志給德國(guó)的顧客，易趣是你唯一的選擇。網(wǎng)絡(luò)能把不同地方買家和賣家聯(lián)系在一起，如果沒有它，就沒有易趣。所以這就是第一個(gè)重點(diǎn)。現(xiàn)在，讓我們繼續(xù)第二個(gè)要點(diǎn)。梅格?惠特曼是易趣的創(chuàng)辦人，也是首席執(zhí)行官。像所有高級(jí)職員一樣，他有很成功的商業(yè)工作背景，并且引進(jìn)了一個(gè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的管理團(tuán)隊(duì)。

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，并且能獲利的。根據(jù)獲利的重要性這一點(diǎn)，他們建立了自己的經(jīng)營(yíng)模式。接下來我們進(jìn)入下一個(gè)要點(diǎn)----完善的企業(yè)管理。在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)繁華時(shí)期，你有聽說過易趣嗎？估計(jì)不是很多吧。他們當(dāng)時(shí)忙于建立客戶群和賺錢，他們并沒有在這個(gè)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)繁華時(shí)期過多地展現(xiàn)自己。在這里，我增加要點(diǎn)四：易趣本身并沒有生產(chǎn)，銷售或者推出任何產(chǎn)品，只是提供一個(gè)在線市場(chǎng)供其他人做此類交易，正因?yàn)檫@樣，使得易趣擁有巨大的財(cái)政力量。

Student: David, can I ask a question?
學(xué)生：大衛(wèi)，我可以問一個(gè)問題嗎？

David: Sure ...
大衛(wèi)：當(dāng)然。

Student: What difference does that make – the point about eBay not making anything itself ..
學(xué)生：易趣本身沒有進(jìn)行任何產(chǎn)品交易，這個(gè)有什么具體的意義嗎？

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(wèi)：這種做法能夠使他們有效地使用資金。你要知道，他們的資金并不會(huì)擱死在建筑，工廠，倉庫這些東西上，再之，也不會(huì)在待售的東西上。他們也沒有需要銷售助理的實(shí)體店。所有的這些費(fèi)用——你明白我所說的吧。

Student: Sure, I get it now ..

學(xué)生：當(dāng)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(wèi)：很好。傳聞易趣面臨幾個(gè)重要問題并不是真的，它面臨的唯一問題，不管怎樣，第一個(gè)問題是有幾個(gè)重要市場(chǎng)他們進(jìn)入得太晚，比如說雅虎在線市場(chǎng)領(lǐng)先起步的日本和香港。另一個(gè)問題是我們之前聽說過的：買家收到贓物或者不同于之前想買到的產(chǎn)品，又或者根本就沒收到任何產(chǎn)品，而賣家在拍賣結(jié)束前，錯(cuò)誤提高出價(jià)進(jìn)行投標(biāo)。易趣承認(rèn)這件事并且解釋這種錯(cuò)誤只是銷售中的一小部分。好的，現(xiàn)在我們看看這個(gè)公司在過去的十一年里是怎樣擴(kuò)張的。