在被迅速崛起的抖音打个措手不及后，曾经的短视频市场王者快手准备打一场硬仗。快手CEO宿华表示，平庸的公司没有未来。
ByteDance rival Kuaishou pledges ‘battle’ for China video market
快手不甘于被抖音反超，决心打一场硬仗
《金融时报》
Chinese start-up Kuaishou is bracing for a “tough battle” as it looks to counter the meteoric rise of rival ByteDance and attract more users and profits in the country's rapidly expanding short video market.
中国初创企业快手(Kuaishou)准备迎接一场“艰难的仗”。该公司希望抗衡竞争对手字节跳动(ByteDance)的快速崛起，并在中国迅速扩张的短视频市场吸引更多用户，分走更多利润。
brace for
表示“作准备，准备迎接（令人不快的事）”，英文解释为“to mentally or physically prepare yourself or someone else for something unpleasant that is going to happen”举个：
They are bracing themselves for a long legal battle.
他们在为漫长的法律诉讼作准备。
meteoric
meteoric /ˌmiːtɪˈɒrɪk/ 表示“迅速成功的”，英文解释为“achieving success very quickly”，如：a meteoric rise to fame 迅速成名，a meteoric career 迅速成功的事业，举个：
The company has experienced meteoric growth.
公司经历了飞速增长。
The Tencent-backed company dominated China's wildly popular short video market from 2016 until the middle of last year, racking up some 200m active users with its simple short-video app that was designed to appeal to less tech-savvy users.
从2016年到去年年中，这家腾讯(Tencent)投资的公司在中国广受欢迎的短视频市场中占据主导地位，其旨在吸引不太懂技术的用户的简单易用的应用赢得了约2亿活跃用户。
rack up
表示“积累，大量获得（利润）；严重遭受（损失）；（体育中）多次赢得（比赛）”，英文解释为“If a business racks up profits, losses, or sales, it makes a lot of them. If a sportsman, sportswoman, or team racks up wins, they win a lot of games or races.”举个：
Lower rates mean that firms are more likely to rack up profits in the coming months.
更低的费率意味着各公司更有可能在未来的几个月里获得大量利润。
The Chinese government estimated in May that the total value of the sector would reach Rmb30bn ($4.4bn) by the end of this year, up from Rmb11bn in 2018. In the next five years, online streaming demand is expected to grow 14 times over, with 70 per cent of smartphone traffic comprising videos.
中国政府在今年5月预估，截至今年底，短视频行业的总价值将达到300亿元人民币（合44亿美元），高于2018年的110亿元人民币。未来五年，线上流媒体需求有望增长逾14倍，视频将占据智能手机70%的流量。
This ballooning demand for cat videos, live streaming and vlogs has helped propel sky-high valuations for Chinese start-ups in the sector, including current market leader ByteDance — which was valued at $75bn in its latest funding round and whose hugely popular global video-streaming app TikTok has been downloaded more than 1bn times, according to third-party estimates.
对猫咪视频、直播和视频博客的不断扩大的需求助推行业内中国初创企业的天价估值，其中包括当前的市场领导者字节跳动——据第三方估计，字节跳动在其最新一轮融资中估值为750亿美元，其大受欢迎的全球视频流媒体应用TikTok（抖音国际版）的下载量已超过10亿次。
balloon
熟词僻义，作动词，表示“突然增加，激增”，英文解释为“to suddenly become larger in amount”举个：
The company’s debt has ballooned in the past year.
在过去一年里，公司的债务激增。
还可以指“突然长胖”，英文解释为“if someone balloons, they suddenly become fat”举个：
Paul ballooned after he got married.
保罗婚后吹气球似地胖了起来。
Kuaishou was caught off guard by Douyin, the version of TikTok for the Chinese mainland, and its features-rich offering that allowed users to edit video, add music and adjust footage speed. Since its launch in September 2016, Douyin has grown to account for about 250m of the 600m smartphone users who share and watch short videos every day in China.
快手被功能丰富的抖音(Douyin)打了个措手不及。抖音允许用户编辑视频、添加音乐和调整视频播放速度。自2016年9月推出以来，抖音的用户不断增长，在中国6亿每天分享和观看短视频的智能手机用户中，抖音的用户已占到其中约2.5亿。
catch sb off guard
表示“使（某人）措手不及；趁（某人）不警惕时（做某事）”，英文解释为“to surprise someone by doing something that they are not expecting or ready for”。
Kuaishou, which previously held the top spot and remains ByteDance's chief domestic rival, is plotting a comeback, according to co-founder Yang Yuanxi.
快手的联合创始人杨远熙表示，快手正在谋划重整再战。快手曾居于市场首位，目前仍是字节跳动在国内的主要竞争对手。
top spot
表示“榜首，最高位置”，英文解释为“The first position in a ranking.”
comeback
表示“复辟；复出；东山再起”，英文解释为“an attempt to become famous, powerful, or important again after a period of being much less famous, etc.”举个：
She's trying to make a comeback with her first album for 20 years.
她想凭借自己20年来的第一张专辑东山再起。
After going through a period of reflection, the company is preparing to “fight a tough battle” after the “shocking” realisation that the rise of Douyin had caught it flat-footed, Mr Yang said in an interview.
杨远熙在一次访谈中表示，抖音的崛起让快手措手不及，在“震惊地”意识到这一点并经过一段时间的反思后，快手准备“打一场艰难的仗”。
flat-footed
flat-footed本义表示“平足的”，可以指“拖着脚走的，蹒跚而行的”（moving in an awkward way）；此处，catch sb flat-footed替换了上文的catch sb off guard，表示“令某人猝不及防，措手不及的”，英文解释为“to surprise someone so that they cannot do something in the way they ought to”举个：
He were caught flat-footed when the opinion polls suddenly started to swing the other way.
当民意调查的结果突然倒向另一方时，他陷于了束手无策的境地。
Surveys of users in southern China carried out by Kuaishou showed that many former users had defected to Douyin, he said, adding: “Suddenly we became number two after being number one for five or six years.”
他表示，快手对中国南方用户的调查显示，许多曾使用快手的用户已转投抖音。他补充称：“（我们）做了五六年的第一突然变成第二了。”
defect
1）动词，表示“背叛，叛逃，投敌，变节”，英文解释为“to leave your own country or group in order to go to or join an opposing one”举个：
When the national hockey team visited the US, half the players defected.
国家曲棍球队访问美国时，有一半队员都叛逃了。
2）名词，表示“缺点，缺陷，毛病”，英文解释为“a fault or a lack of something that means that something or someone is not perfect”。
Last month, Kuaishou chief executive Su Hua sent employees a letter warning of “hidden dangers” if the company did not come up with better products.
上月，快手首席执行官宿华在致员工的一封信中警告称，如果公司不能推出更好的产品，公司是存在“隐患”的。
“We are not satisfied with the current situation, where we are coming to be known as a ‘slow company’, a relaxed organisation with a Buddha-like attitude,” Mr Su wrote. “A mediocre company has no future,” he added. He has launched a push for 300m daily active users by the end of January 2020.
宿华写道：“我们对现状很不满意，松散的组织、佛系的态度，‘慢公司’正在成为我们的标签。”他补充称：“一家平庸的公司是没有未来的。”宿华已设立了一个目标，在2020年1月底前实现3亿日活跃用户。
mediocre
mediocre /ˌmiːdɪˈəʊkə/ 表示“普通的，平庸的，不够好的”，英文解释为“not very good”举个：
The film's plot is predictable and the acting is mediocre.
这部影片的情节都能猜得到，演员的演技也不够好。
Kuaishou has more users in lower tier cities and rural areas and is less reliant on ads to make money. In contrast to ByteDance, Kuaishou plans to take a “steady step” approach to international expansion, preferring instead to focus on the home market, Mr Yang said.
快手在较低线城市和农村地区拥有更多用户，并且不那么依赖广告赚钱。与字节跳动的策略不同，杨远熙表示，快手计划以“稳步”的方式进行国际扩张，优先聚焦国内市场。
Matthew Brennan, founder of consultancy China Channel, said the differing nature of Douyin and Kuaishou meant the two could coexist.
咨询公司China Channel创始人马修•布伦南(Matthew Brennan)表示，抖音和快手的性质不同，这意味着二者可以共存。
Kuaishou and Tencent’s other short video companies “are not going to reach the scale of Douyin by any means, but there's going to be many players in this short video market in the long term,” he said.
他表示，快手与腾讯投资的另外几家短视频公司“无论如何都不会达到抖音的规模，但从长远来看，这个短视频市场中会有很多参与者”。
译者/何黎
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