Tech’s latest stars have it all — except a path to high profits

unicorn n.独角兽,新兴的科技巨头

miraculous a.奇迹般的，不可思议的

world-beating a.举世瞩目的

cumulative a.累积的

discount v.打折，低估，认为…不重要

supercharge v.增加…负荷，促使，促进

justification n.辩护，理由，解释

promiscuous a.杂乱的,滥交的

lease v.租用;出租

in full swing 全面开展，达到高潮

extrapolate v.推断,外推

***to estimate sth or form an opinion about sth, using the facts that you have now and that are valid for one situation and supposing that they will be valid for the new one

hold one's nerve 保持冷静

engineer v.设计，制造

Right now, mere ponies are being presented as unicorns: privately held tech firms worth over $1bn that are supposedly strong and world-beating — miraculous almost.

如今，区区小马驹也被描绘成了（传说中的）独角兽：那些估值超过 10 亿美元的私营科技公司，在人们眼中是实力雄厚，出类拔萃，近乎奇迹般的存在。

As we report this week, a dozen unicorns that have listed, or are likely to, posted combined losses of $14bn last year.

list v.上市

正如我们本周所报道的那样，12 家已上市或可能要上市的独角兽公司披露，仅去年的总亏损就达到 140 亿美元。

Their cumulative losses are $47bn. Their services, from ride-hailing to office rental, are often deeply discounted in order to supercharge revenue growth.

这些独角兽公司提供从叫车到办公室租赁的服务，并常常通过给用户大幅折扣来促进营收增长。

The justification for this is the Silicon Valley doctrine of “blitzscaling” in order to conquer “winner-takes-all” markets — or in plain English, conducting a high-speed land grab in the hope of finding gold.

为这种做法正名的是一种硅谷信条，这种信条讲求为占领“赢者通吃”的市场而进行“闪电式扩张”，简单来说，就是不知道地里有没有金子，但先抢占地盘再说。

The big worry is that the unicorns' losses reflect not temporary growing pains but markets which are contested and customers who are promiscuous.

这其中最让人担忧的是：独角兽公司的亏损所反映出的并不是暂时的公司成长期阵痛，而是服务市场的激烈竞争和心猿意马的用户群体。

Compared with the earlier generation of firms, today a reaction is in full swing, including over digital taxes and data and content laws.

与早期互联网公司所面对的发展环境相比，今天来自监管方的反噬达到了顶点 —— 数字税出台，数据和内容也颁布了相关法律。