讓世界更美好的手機應用

In every episode of “Silicon Valley,” the terrific HBO comedy series created by Mike Judge, there is always a moment, rendered utterly deadpan, that both mocks and explains the current, are-we-in-a-bubble-yet state of play in, well, Silicon Valley.

在邁克爾·賈奇(Mike Judge)爲HBO創作的出色喜劇《硅谷》(Silicon Valley)中，每一集都會有那麼一個時刻，用一本正經的口吻，在詮釋硅谷那種“說不定已是泡沫”的現狀同時，又對它進行了嘲諷。

In one episode this season, for instance, the show’s hero, Richard Hendricks, the nerdy founder of Pied Piper, mentions the plans he has “once we have a subscription-revenue model.” His backer, an obnoxious billionaire, leaps out of his seat. “No, no, no!” he exclaims. “Why would you go after revenue?”

比方說，本季有一集裏，片中主角、推出了“花衣吹笛人”(Pied Piper)應用的技術宅理查德·亨德里克斯(Richard Hendricks)提到，“一旦我們有了一個基於註冊用戶的收入模式”，他就計劃如何行事。聽聞此言，資助亨德里克斯的那名招人嫌的大富豪馬上從椅子上蹦了起來。“別、別、別！”他大喊。“你要收入幹什麼？”

“To make money?” Richard answers meekly. “If you have no revenue, you can say you are prerevenue,” explains the billionaire. “You’re a potential pure play. It’s not about how much you earn; it’s about what you’re worth. And who’s worth the most? Companies that lose money!”

“爲了賺錢啊？”理查德乖乖地回答。“如果沒有收入，你就可以說自己處於即將有收入的階段，”富豪解釋道。“那麼你就是純粹的潛力股。你掙多少根本無所謂，關鍵是你的估值。那誰的估值最高？當然是虧損的公司啊！”

In other episodes this season, we’ve been introduced to an app called “Bro” — its only function is to allow someone to send the word “bro”’ to someone else — and the coming of “datageddon,” thanks to all the “selfies and useless files people refuse to delete.”

這一季的另一集裏，我們聽說了一款叫做“兄弟”(Bro)的應用，唯一的功能就是讓用戶發送“兄弟”二字來給別人打個招呼。我們還聽說，因爲“人們不願刪除自拍照和無用資料”，“數據末日”恐將來臨。

And, of course, there is the way all the young, scruffy entrepreneurs on “Silicon Valley” profess to be in business to “make the world a better place” rather than get rich. “We’re making the world a better place through Paxos algorithms for consensus protocols,” says one company founder at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

當然了，更別提《硅谷》裏頭那些邋里邋遢的創業年輕人都在掏心窩，之所以做這些事，不是爲了一夜暴富，而是“要讓世界變得更美好呀”。某公司的創始人在TechCrunch Disrupt大會上表示，“通過一致性協議的Paxos算法，我們正在讓世界變得更美好。”

“And we’re making the world a better place through software-defying data centers for cloud computing,” says another.

“通過面向雲計算的軟件定義的數據中心，我們正在讓世界變得更美好，”另一個人說道。

Which perhaps explains why I immediately thought of Judge’s parody of life in techland as I read the real-life news last week that the social app Secret was shutting down after only 16 months. Like many of the fake companies on “Silicon Valley,” Secret was based on a truly ridiculous idea: that an app that allowed people to send anonymous messages would not only be a hit, but would “reduce the barrier to communication” and make it possible to convey the “raw truth” without that annoying filter of identity. Anonymity was going to be the next big thing in “social,” according to its founders, David Byttow, 33, and Chrys Bader-Wechseler, 31.

這或許能解釋，當上周讀到社交應用Secret在推出僅16個月後即將關門大吉的真實消息後，我立即想到了賈奇對技術圈生活的滑稽再現。跟《硅谷》裏頭許許多多的虛構公司一樣，Secret建立在一個荒謬透頂的理念之上：能發匿名訊息的應用不僅會大熱，還能“減少溝通障礙”，使得繞過身份限制，表達“赤裸真相”成爲可能。創辦這家公司的33歲的戴維·拜陶(David Byttow)和31歲的克里斯·巴德-維切斯勒(Chrys Bader-Wechseler)表示，匿名將是“社交”領域的下一個引爆點。

“It helps you become a better person if you want to be a better person,” Byttow told the audience at — where else? — a TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

“如果你想成爲一個更出色的人，它就能幫你成爲一個更出色的人，”拜陶告訴聽衆。至於他說出這番話的場合？還能是哪裏，當然是在TechCrunch Disrupt大會上。

Internet anonymity can make you a better person? Since when? Hadn’t we learned long ago that cyberbullying, gossip of the rankest sort, and the spreading of false rumors were the usual results of web anonymity, crowding out other, more ennobling responses.

匿名上網能讓你更出色？這是打哪兒來的說法？我們不是老早就聽說，匿名上網通常會導致網絡霸凌行爲、最爲惡毒的八卦，以及謠言的散佈，從而排擠較爲理性的其他聲音嗎？

But Byttow — who only wears black in public, to judge by his various YouTube appearances — and Bader-Wechseler were convinced that making it easy for people to post anonymous messages — to their friends, no less — would, indeed, make the world a better place. Or at least they convinced enough gullible venture capitalists of this that they were able to raise some $35 million during their company’s short life, giving it a valuation at one point of $100 million.

從YouTube網站上展示的拜陶的多次活動來看，他在公共場合只穿黑衣。他和巴德-維切斯勒堅信，讓用戶可以發送匿名訊息——而且還是發給友人噢——真的可以讓世界變得更美好。或者至少是，他們讓足夠人數的天真的風險投資人信了這一套，使得Secret在這短短的存活期裏籌到了3500萬美元（約合2.2億元人民幣）的資金，公司估值一度達到1億美元。

As for revenue, it pretty much followed the “Silicon Valley” model. Any interviewer who asked how a completely anonymous “community” could serve as the foundation for a money-making business was told, quite matter of factly, that it was far too early to contemplate such mundane matters. Searching for a revenue model “would be a distraction at this point,” Byttow explained to the technology journalist Kara Swisher, who occasionally plays her sardonic, all-knowing self on “Silicon Valley.” “You have to build liquidity in your users,” added Bader-Wechseler.

至於收入嘛，基本就是《硅谷》裏描繪的那套模式。要是有人問，一個完全匿名的“社區”怎麼能爲賺錢打下基礎？此人會得到一個相當實誠的答案：思考這樣的俗氣問題，實在還爲時尚早。尋找收入模式“在目前這個階段將使我們分心，”拜陶曾向報道技術領域的記者卡拉·斯威舍(Kara Swisher)這樣解釋。“你得先在用戶當中製造流動性，”巴德-維切斯勒補充道。斯威捨本人會偶爾在《硅谷》裏出鏡，扮演冷嘲熱諷、無所不知的自己。

So what happened to Secret? Cyberbullying was a problem from the start, which seemed to surprise the founders, who were in a constant struggle to keep control of the posts. Security and privacy were also issues. (“We have learned a lot!” Bader-Wechseler told an interviewer five months in.) Brazil ordered it shut down. Marc Andreessen criticized it. As the app’s novelty wore off, people stopped using it. Byttow and Bader-Wechseler responded by redesigning the site so that it more closely resembled Yik Yak, a more successful competitor.

那麼，Secret身上經歷了些什麼呢？網絡霸凌的問題打一開始就存在，而這一點似乎還在兩名創始人的意料之外。他們總是在控制發帖的事情上遭遇麻煩。此外，還存在安全與隱私的問題。（推出應用5個月後，巴德-維切斯勒告訴記者，“我們學了很多東西！”）巴西勒令它關閉；馬克·安德雷森(Marc Andreessen)對它進行了批評。隨着這款應用的新鮮感逐漸消退，人們便不再使用。拜陶和巴德-維切斯勒的應對辦法是，重新設計網站，讓它更接近成功一些的競爭對手Yik Yak。

Employees started leaving, including Bader-Wechseler in January. Meanwhile, as The Times reported, the founders had each taken $3 million off the table in the second round of financing, and Byttow had bought himself a red Ferrari (which, it’s been reported, he has since gotten rid of). Most new tech companies that realize their business model is doomed spend the rest of their money “pivoting” to something more promising. Byttow instead decided to return the leftover money to his investors. A classy touch.

員工開始離職，就連巴德-維切斯勒也於今年1月抽身而去。與此同時，《紐約時報》撰文指出，兩名創始人在第二輪融資的時候各拿走了300萬美元，而拜陶給自己買了輛紅色法拉利（據報道，他後來把這輛車處理掉了）。在意識到自己的商業模式必將失敗的新科技公司中，多數會把剩餘的錢花在“轉向”更有前途的東西上。拜陶倒是決定把餘下的資金返還給投資者。挺有品。

In the blog post in which he announced that he was shutting down the Secret app, Byttow promised that he would “publish postmortems so that others can learn from the unique mistakes and challenges we faced and the wisdom gained from such an incredible 16 months.”

在宣佈即將關閉Secret應用的博客文章中，拜陶承諾，他將“把事後反思寫出來，讓其他人可以從我們獨特的錯誤和面臨過的挑戰中吸取教訓，從我們這難以置信的16個月經歷中汲取智慧。”

No doubt Mike Judge will be taking notes for future episodes.

毫無疑問，邁克爾·賈奇會爲《硅谷》未來的劇集來提取靈感。