The real reason most super apps are not super great

大多數(shù)超級應(yīng)用并不超級好用的真正原因

By Tim Bradshaw

Your smartphone's home screen has space for about 30 apps， depending on the display size. There are more than two million apps in Apple's App Store and nearly 3.5 million on Google Play vying for those slots. The prize for landing one is huge: according to App Annie， a market data company， consumers spent $143bn on apps last year， consuming trillions of hours of screen time.

你的智能手機主屏幕上可以容納大約30個應(yīng)用，具體數(shù)量取決于屏幕尺寸。蘋果的應(yīng)用商城里有超過200萬個應(yīng)用程序，谷歌商店中有將近350萬個應(yīng)用程序，它們都在激烈爭奪這些位置。在主屏幕上成功占據(jù)一個位置的好處是巨大的：市場數(shù)據(jù)公司App Annie的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，去年，消費者在應(yīng)用上花費了1430億美元，屏幕使用時長達到數(shù)萬億小時。

No wonder， then， that tech companies are racing to turn themselves into “super apps“— one-stop shops for a range of services， designed to entrench their app in your life.

那么，難怪科技公司競相將自己轉(zhuǎn)型為“超級應(yīng)用”——提供各種服務(wù)的一站式商店，其設(shè)計目的就是讓它們的應(yīng)用在你的生活中扎根。

The grandfather of super apps is Tencent's WeChat. In China， it's used for everything from messaging and gaming to food delivery and paying the rent， and has some 1.25 billion users. It launched in 2011， just as smartphone sales in China exploded.

超級應(yīng)用們的鼻祖是騰訊微信。在中國，從發(fā)消息、玩游戲到送餐和支付租金，一切皆可用微信；它約有12.5億用戶。微信于2011年面世，恰逢智能手機銷量在中國爆炸式增長。

A few Big Tech companies are dominant enough to colonise multiple places on home screens. Google， Facebook， Apple， Microsoft and Amazon， as well as Tencent and ByteDance in China， have all succeeded in building a “family of apps“， each with a more focused function.

一小部分科技巨頭公司的主導(dǎo)地位，足以讓他們在主屏幕上占據(jù)多個位置。谷歌、臉書、蘋果、微軟和亞馬遜，以及中國的騰訊和字節(jié)跳動，都成功打造了一個“應(yīng)用全家桶”，其中每一個應(yīng)用都有其更重點突出的功能。

But developers that respond by bundling ever more features into a super app risk frustrating users. Single-purpose apps are faster and easier to navigate. By contrast， the super-app approach involves cramming as many features as possible into one bloated piece of software.

但如果開發(fā)者為了應(yīng)對這一情況，將更多功能捆綁進一個超級應(yīng)用中，就會承擔(dān)令用戶失望的風(fēng)險。單一用途的應(yīng)用程序操作起來更快、更容易。相比之下，超級應(yīng)用的做法是將盡可能多的功能塞進一個臃腫的應(yīng)用軟件中。

This is a real issue with super apps: most solve a problem for the company， not the customer.

這就是超級應(yīng)用真正的問題所在：它們大多是在為公司，而不是為用戶解決問題。

生詞好句

1.the reason (why/that)+從句

拓展:

We would like to know the reason (why/that) she didn't accept the job.

我們想知道她為什么沒有接受這個職位。

2.super app

超級應(yīng)用

3.super great

非常棒

拓展:

在口語中，常用“super“來表達“extremely/exceptionally“的意思，以強化語氣。

The meals in this restaurant are super good.

這家餐廳的套餐真的很棒！

4.display size

顯示屏的尺寸

拓展:

display resolution顯示屏分辨率

5.vie

英[va?]美[va?]

vi.激烈競爭（to compete very hard with someone in order to get something）

拓展:

32 teams are vying for the championship.

32支球隊將為了冠軍展開激烈競爭。

6.land

英[l?nd]美[l?nd]

vt.（輕而易舉或意外地）得到，獲得

7.(It is) no wonder (that)...

難怪......，......一點都不奇怪

拓展:

He's been an alcoholic for 20 years. It's no wonder that he has so many health problems.

他酗酒20年，難怪他的健康出了很多問題。

8.then

英[een]美[een]

adv.那么

9.race

英[re?s]美[re?s]

vi.競爭（to compete）

10.entrench

英[?n?trent?]美[?n?trent?]

vt.牢固確立，深深地扎根（to establish something firmly so that it cannot be changed）

拓展:

He has been entrenched in the new company.

他在新的公司扎下了根。

11.some

英[s?m]美[s?m]

adv.大約，差不多（around， about）

12.launch

英[l??nt?]美[lɑ?nt?]

v.產(chǎn)品上線、投放到市場

13.explode

英[?k?spl??d]美[?k?splo?d]

vi.激增（to increase very quickly）

拓展:

The demand for working remotely has exploded since 2020.

2020年以來，遠程辦公的需求快速增加。

14.succeed in doing sth.

在某件事情上取得成功

15.family of apps

家族式應(yīng)用，全家桶

16.risk+n./risk doing sth.

承擔(dān)某種風(fēng)險，明知有風(fēng)險卻還要做（If you risk doing something， you do it even though you know there might be bad results.）

拓展:

He risked losing everything if his company fails.

如果他的公司失敗了，他面臨的風(fēng)險是失去一切。

17.navigate

英[?n?v?ɡe?t]美[?n?v?ɡe?t]

v.（文中）操作，操縱；（本義）導(dǎo)航，找到方向

18.by/in contrast

相比之下

19.cram

英[kr?m]美[kr?m]

vt.填滿，塞滿

拓展:

cramming填鴨式教學(xué)法

20.bloated

英[?bl??t?d]美[?blo?t?d]

adj.臃腫的；吃撐的

拓展:

bloat

v.使......腫脹，膨脹