The accelerated life and times of the world's most valuable startup.
加快的生活步伐以及全球最具价值创业公司。
Several of America's great industrialists built empires in Pittsburgh, including Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate.
美国一些伟大的实业家在匹兹堡建立了产业帝国，包括钢铁大王安德鲁·卡内基。
Now the city is attracting the attention of a new, aspiring robber baron.
如今该城市又吸引了另一位有抱负的强盗资本家（特拉维斯·卡拉尼克）的注意力。
Last year the ride-hailing firm Uber swooped down on a robotics research centre run by Carnegie Mellon University in search of autonomous-vehicle expertise.
去年，叫车服务公司优步一头扎进卡内基·梅隆大学的机器人技术研发中心，寻求自动驾驶汽车的专业技术。
It has been testing self-driving cars on Pittsburgh's roads for months, and will soon begin offering customers the chance to request rides in one.
优步已在匹兹堡道路上对自动驾驶车辆进行了为期数月的测试，乘客很快就能召唤到自动驾驶车辆。
Since the launch of its first smartphone app, UberCab, in 2010, the startup has attracted $18 billion in equity and debt.
优步公司自2010年开发了首款手机应用优步出租车（UberCab）后，便以股权和债权方式融资到180亿美元。
Today it carries a valuation of close to $70 billion, making it by far the largest of the startup “unicorns” worth over $1 billion.
如今优步市值接近700亿美元，成为 “独角兽”型企业（指估值超过10亿美元的创业公司）中市值最大的一家公司。
No technology firm in history has raised more money from private investors before going public.
历史上还没有哪家公司在上市之前便获得如此多的私人投资。
Its deep-pocketed backers include Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund, mutual funds, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and a crowd of other firms.
优步的大财主有沙特阿拉伯主权财富基金、共同基金、硅谷资本家和其他众多的公司。
They are stalking the next big win in the technology business at a time when returns from other assets are widely disappointing.
眼下其他资产投资回报普遍让人失望，他们纷纷将资金赌注到下一场技术热潮的到来。因此这些大财主都盯着技术行业，准备大赢一场。
Uber operates in more than 425 cities in 72 countries and has around 30m monthly users.
优步已在全球72个国家中的多于425个城市开展业务，每月用户达到3000万左右。
In 2016 it will probably have around $4 billion in net revenues, more than double the previous year’s.
优步2016年的净收入预计将达到40亿美元左右，是去年的两倍多。
Originally dedicated to connecting customers with limos and other ritzy rides, since 2012 it has offered a peer-to-peer service called UberX that lets drivers of all sorts of cars offer rides to passengers using its app.
优步最初致力于让顾客享受到高级、豪华轿车的服务，但自2012年起，优步推出了点对点的服务，即UberX，借此所有类型的汽车的司机都能搭载使用该应用的乘客。
This service now accounts for the bulk of the firm’s revenues.
优步的收入有很大一部分来自该项服务。
The company also offers an UberPool service that allows several passengers travelling in the same direction to share a ride.
优步还提供拼车（Uberpool）服务，前往同一方向的乘客可以共享一辆车。
It does not own its car fleet, but takes a cut of the fare in return for providing the platform that allows the drivers to work—typically 25%, with the rest going to the driver.
优步并没有自己的车队，但它从使用优步平台的车主中抽成，通常抽成25%，剩下的归车主。
The company combines great name recognition with huge potential for growth.
优步因其巨大的增长潜力不断获得品牌知名度。
Like Facebook and Google before it, it has its own verb ( “Let's Uber there” ) .
与此前的脸书和谷歌相同，优步已然可以当成动词使用(我们优步过去吧)。
Speaking to The Economist, Travis Kalanick, the company's co-founder and boss, says his goal is not simply to disrupt the taxi market but to make ride-sharing so cheap and convenient that using Uber becomes an alternative to owning a car.
优步的联合创始人及老板，特拉维斯·卡拉尼克（Travis Kalanick）在接受经济学人的采访时表示，优步的目标不仅仅是改变现有的出租车市场，而是降低租车价格，提高服务便利性，推动优步最终可以成为自有车辆的替代之选。
Meanwhile, he is pushing into new areas, such as delivering food and packages.
与此同时，他还在积极拓展新领域，例如外卖和快递行业。
Last month Uber acquired Otto, a newborn autonomous-lorry company, for around $600m and 20% of Uber's future profits from trucking.
上个月，优步以大约6亿美元的价格收购了奥拓，一家成立不久的公司主营无人驾驶型货车，收购奥拓的资金占到优步未来货车行业利润的20%。
If Uber can pull all this off, it could be one of the biggest companies in the world—one which plays a critical role in the lives of consumers and the fabric of cities.
如果优步能够实现所有的雄心壮志，便可以成为世界级的企业巨头，对消费者的生活以及城市面貌产生重要影响。
The potential for profit is enormous.
（由此可见）优步在盈利能力上有巨大的潜力。
Worldwide spending on internet advertising, the business that sustains internet giants like Google and Facebook, will be $175 billion this year—larger than the taxi market, which is estimated at roughly $100 billion.
互联网广告业务是网络巨头谷歌及脸书持续盈利的主要来源，今年广告业投放在互联网的资金预计达到1750亿美元，超过投放于出租车市场的金额（粗略估计为1000亿美元）。
But the global market for personal mobility is worth as much as $10 trillion, according to Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, a bank.
但是摩根士丹利银行的亚当·乔纳斯推测，为人员流动提供便利的全球市场价值高达10万亿美元。
These prospects go some way to explaining a valuation higher than the market value of 87% of firms in the S&P 500 and more than a third higher than that of General Motors, which had a gargantuan $152 billion in sales last year.
尽管去年通用汽车的销售额达到惊人的1520亿美元，优步的市值依然比通用汽车高出三分之一。优步的市值击败了标准普尔指数500中87%的公司，究其原因，正是上述所提到的优步的（发展）前景。
Unsurprisingly, a valuation of around 17 times the loss-making company's 2016 revenues spurs a certain amount of scepticism.
这就是为什么人们怀疑优步何以能在持续亏损的情况下市值能达到2016年营收的17倍。
Such a figure can be justified only by lots of future growth, which will cost yet more money.
只有在未来实现巨幅增长才能证明这个数字不是无稽之谈，而增长需要大量资金。
But when Uber goes public, perhaps as soon as next year, in order to provide an exit for current investors, will its new shareholders be willing to tolerate continuing losses in the name of growth?
但是如果优步成为上市公司（时间最早可能在明年），为现有的投资者提供撤资渠道，新的股东是否会愿意为了未来的增长持续忍受亏损呢？
There are other questions, too.
问题不仅限于此。
Are the barriers to entry in Uber's business high enough to defend it against rivals such as Lyft in America, Ola in India and Grab in South-East Asia, and from future competition from the likes of Alphabet's Google?
进入打车行业的门槛是否足够高，能够将优步的竞争对手，譬如美国的Lyft，印度的Ola及东南亚的Grab公司拒之门外。Uber在未来是否又能抵御Alphabet旗下的谷歌以及其他同类公司的竞争呢？
Will regulation hamstring its growth? (市场)监管是否会挫伤优步的增长呢？
And perhaps most crucially, how will it manage the transition to driverlessness?
最重要的是，优步将如何向无人驾驶转型呢？
The firm's long-term success lies in changing the way people and goods get moved around—exactly the area that autonomous vehicles will disrupt.
优步要想保持成功就需要改变人员及货物运输方式，而无人驾驶车辆势必在这一领域带来颠覆性的影响。
The company feels a pressing need to navigate this technological change before the carmakers and rival technology companies provide competitive visions of the future of transport, and of who will profit from it.
优步公司在科技领域推动变革可谓迫在眉睫，必须先于汽车制造商以及同业竞争者，预见未来交通领域发展趋势，以及从这一趋势中获利的实体。
Two of today's digital giants provide a useful guide to Uber's position and plans.
当下，两大科技巨头可以在市场定位和发展计划方面为优步提供借鉴之处。
Its executives never have Amazon far from their minds as they plot their company's future, says Bill Gurley,
比尔·格利表示，优步的执行官在描绘公司未来蓝图时始终在借鉴亚马逊的经验。
a venture capitalist at Benchmark Capital, who invested in Uber and sits on its board.
他是风投公司Benchmark Capital的风险投资人，同时也是优步的投资者兼董事。
Amazon has favoured relentless growth over the pursuit of profits for much of its history, keeping prices low to win loyalty and grab market share.
自成立至今，亚马逊绝大部分时间都在致力于压低价格以求赢得客户忠诚度，扩大市场份额，亚马逊更加看重快速增长而并非实现盈利。
Uber is trying a similar track by subsidising drivers to keep fares down, by rapidly expanding into new cities and by launching new services, such as the delivery of food and other items.
优步效仿亚马逊，为司机提供补贴从而降低车费，不断向新城市扩张，开发新服务，包括外卖等。
Investors like to see the company in terms of Facebook.
投资者喜欢拿脸书和优步作比较。
When the social network accepted an investment from Microsoft that valued it at $15 billion in 2007, a time when it had not shown any real propensity to make money, this was decried as folly.
2007年，微软向社交网站脸书注资，根据微软的估价，脸书的市值为150亿美元。彼时，脸书尚没有表现出盈利能力，微软注资的决定遭遇非难，看似愚不可及。
When it filed to go public at a valuation of around $100 billion in 2012, accusations of madness came back, based on worries about the company's ability to adapt to the mobile phone.
2012年，脸书以市场价值约合1000亿美元申请上市时，近乎疯狂的指责卷土重来，起因是人们担心脸书不能适应手机（模式）。
Today Facebook has a market value of more than $360 billion.
时至今日，脸书的市场价值超过3600亿美元。
A fear of missing out on the internet's next Facebook-sized hit is a big factor in the flood of capital into Uber's coffers.
投资者向优步大量注资很大程度上是担心错失互联网的下一个脸书效应。
Investors' bullishness is bolstered by Uber's position at the intersection of three linked disruptive trends.
投资者对优步的前景看好也与优步的市场定位有关，优步处在三大相互关联且具有颠覆性趋势的交点上。
First is the emergence of asset-light business models.
首先，低资产商业模型的出现。
The cost of expanding is far lower for a startup that does not own its own cars or consider its drivers employees.
对于不用自购汽车、雇佣驾驶员的创业公司来说，扩张成本大大降低。
Second is the shift to the sharing economy, which underlies the success of peer-to-peer services; a system that lets people do as much or as little as they like attracts workers.
其二，共享经济成为潮流，为点对点服务的成功奠定了基础，由于不再强制分配工作量，该系统对于劳动者的吸引力有所上升。
The third is that consumers, especially young consumers, are increasingly happy to pay for access to things, rather than own them outright.
其三，消费者，特别是年轻的消费群体，日益热衷于为商品的使用权买单，而不是所有权。
The average cost per mile of UberX is probably around $1.50 (euro 0.84/km) .
UberX车型的车辆每行驶1英里，平均费用约为1.50美元（合计0.84英镑每公里）。
It already costs more than that to own a car in some places.
在有些地方，使用优步车辆比驾驶私家车还要昂贵。
In New York City, car ownership works out at around $3 a mile.
在纽约市，私家车的驾驶成本是每英里3美元。
All told, about 14% of people in the urban centres of America's top 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) may find it cheaper to use UberX at current rates than to own a car,
总体看来，在美国前20的都市统计区域（MSAs）的城市中心区，约14%的人认为使用UberX服务（当前价格）比私家车成本更低。
according to Rod Lache of Deutsche Bank.
以上为德意志银行的罗德·拉奇的推测，
The more Uber can bring costs down, the more widely it will compete with car ownership.
优步的服务价格越低，与私家车竞争的实力就越强。
Mr Lache reckons that autonomous cars might bring the price per mile down to 89 cents or less—below the average cost per mile for car owner ship across all 20 top American MSAs.
罗德·拉奇同时推测，无人驾驶车辆将会把每英里服务价格降至89美分甚至更少，低于美国前20的都市统计区域（MSAs）内私家车的平均驾驶成本。
Cost is not the only reason someone would give up a car; convenience and time matter, too.
部分人放弃买车不仅仅是因为成本，便利和时间也是需要考虑的因素。
Like Amazon, though, Uber understands that low prices hook customers and is trying to push them down more.
然而，如同亚马逊一样，优步清楚低价可以吸引客户，同时也在尽力压低价格招徕更多客户。
In San Francisco the price of an UberX ride is half what it was two years ago.
在旧金山，UberX旅行价格是两年前的一半。
An UberPool costs around half of an UberX ride.
UberPool的费用大概是UberX的一半。
Even without an interest in forming habits, though, Uber would have little choice about low prices—because it has competition.
然而，即使优步不想压低价格，它也别无选择，因为它面临着竞争。
The switching costs for both passengers and drivers are relatively low, which means new entrants can buy market share by subsidising trips and earnings.
对乘客和司机来说，换一个打车公司的成本并不高，这也意味着新的竞争者可以通过给司机和乘客发放补贴来获取市场份额。
The same exuberance that has driven up Uber's valuation has also given its rivals the resources with which to attack it.
繁荣的市场提升了优步的市值，同时给对手提供了攻击优步的资源。
Lyft, with 20% of the American market to Uber's 80%, is spending an estimated $50m a month to increase its share, and in many places it has been succeeding.
相比于优步所占的80%，Lyft所占的市场份额仅为20%，而后者每月投入了约5000万美金来提高它的比例，这一举措已在多地卓有成效。
Uber has had to pay out to avoid losing passengers and drivers in key markets.
优步不得不继续投钱来避免核心市场中乘客和司机的流失。
New companies, hearing of gold in the ride-hailing hills, have rushed in; two startups, Juno and Via, have toeholds in New York.
因为发现打车服务是座金山，公司们蜂拥而至。在纽约已基本站稳脚跟的就有两个：Juno 和 Via。
Being the biggest company in a market helps a lot, because customers want short waiting times and drivers want frequent fares.
当市场里的龙头老大是很有优势的，因为乘客不想等太久而司机想多接客。
But fighting off competitors still costs money.
但要打败竞争者，也颇费财银。
After claiming earlier this year that its developed-market business had become profitable, Uber lost an estimated $100m in America in the second quarter.
年初优步称其成熟市场业务已实现盈利，然而二季度优步美国亏损约1亿美元。
Competition at home and abroad will affect Uber's profit margins in the medium term.
在发展中期，优步的利润率会受到来自国内外竞争的影响。
Thibaud Simphal, the boss of Uber's French operations, admits that ride-hailing could be “a high-volume, low-margin business. It’s transportation. It's like retail.”
优步公司法国分部老总希博德·辛法尔指出，打车服务“生意量大，利润率低，它属于交通业，也像零售业”。
For the time being, investors are willing to accept these low margins as Uber pursues growth above all else.
优步的当务之急是持续发展，投资商们为此可以暂时接受较低的利润率。
But their patience may wear thin if the intense competition drags on.
但如果激烈的竞争持续下去，这种耐心会消磨殆尽。
Amazon built up its business at a time when few competitors shared its vision of the size of the e-commerce opportunity.
亚马逊发展初期，鲜有竞争者预见到未来电子商务的发展规模。
Uber does not operate in a world of low expectations.
不过在优步所处的时代，人们可不是那么没有野心。
One wild card is whether Lyft remains an independent company.
有一个不确定因素便是Lyft是否会保持独立经营。
There have been reports it has been seeking a buyer.
有报道称它正谋求并购。
In 2014 Uber might have been that buyer, something that has not been previously reported; negotiations fell apart over price.
2014年，Uber曾有意并购该公司，这一消息此前并未传出；之后双方由于价格原因协商失败。
Mr Kalanick insists he does not regret the outcome: “It's a really powerful thing for a company to compete. It makes you fierce about serving your customer.”
卡拉尼克先生坚称对结果并不遗憾，“对于企业来说，竞争的作用巨大，它能让你竭尽全力服务好客户。”
Having a rival also helps deflect regulators' scrutiny.
同时，竞争对手也能转移监管机构的审查。
Yet many of Uber's investors wish the two had gone forward with a deal, so that Uber would not have to keep battling for share.
优步的投资人期望二者达成交易，那样优步就不用为抢占份额一直斗下去。
If the competition can be won with money and determination, Uber has to be well-positioned.
如果靠砸钱和决心就能打胜仗，优步需要找准自己的定位。
It was not the first firm to recognise the potential of peer-to-peer ride-sharing: Sidecar, a now-defunct startup in San Francisco, got the ball rolling. Lyft came next.
它并不是首个认识到P2P共享出行潜力的公司。现已倒闭的位于旧金山的Sidecar拉开了此业务的序幕。随后是Lyft。
But Mr Kalanick used the momentum achieved by raising a lot of capital and expanding rapidly to great effect.
但是卡拉尼克通过大量筹资和迅速扩展市场为优步蓄势，引起了极大的反响。
Uber's huge cash pile now acts as an “almost unassailable barrier” to new entrants, says Sunil Paul, the founder of Sidecar.
Sidecar创始人苏尼尔·保罗说，对于新进入市场的公司来说，Uber的巨额现金流就像一道“无懈可击的屏障”。
And even with $9 billion, Mr Kalanick does not rule out the possibility of asking investors for more: “If the money is there, that means my competitors will raise it, and that means I need to as well.”
即便坐拥90亿美金，卡拉尼克还在继续引入尽可能多的投资，他表示：“如果钱还留在资本市场，就意味着我的竞争对手一定会想办法筹集资本，那么我也必须这么做。”
However dominant Uber's position may be, Mr Kalanick will not let up.
不管以后优步地位会有多么强势，卡拉尼克也丝毫不会松懈。
“He always sees himself as an underdog,” says Thuan Pham, Uber's chief technology officer.
优步公司的首席技术总监顺·范说，卡拉尼克先生他总觉得自己是个失败者。
Uber is not Mr Kalanick's first startup; that was Scour, a file-sharing firm which filed for bankruptcy in 2000 after being sued by media companies for $250 billion for copyright infringement.
卡拉尼克的首次创业并不是优步，而是Scour，一个做文件共享的企业。公司在2000年由于侵犯版权，被媒体企业起诉并被判罚2500亿美金，随后破产。
He sold his second startup to Akamai, an internet firm, for a modest $15m.
他创立的第二个公司，以并不算高的1500万美金的价格卖给了互联网公司Akamai。
Those experiences left him obsessed with details and intensely focused on improvement.
这些经历，使得他对细节极为苛求，对自我完善极度关注。
He enforces a feedback system called T3B3 (top-three, bottom-three skills) , requiring his deputies to give him brutally honest feedback.
他推行了一套T3B3（最重要和最不重要的3项技能）反馈系统，要求下属们给予最大胆诚实的反馈。
“He changes himself faster than we can change our algorithms,” says Mr Pham.
范先生说：“他变得很快，我们的算法更新速度都没他变得那么快。”
In the T3B3 process he shared his observation that Mr Kalanick should thank people more; now, apparently, he does.
范曾T3B3中分享道，“卡拉尼克应该多感谢身边的人”；现在，很明显，他做到了。
Uber has also shown a capacity for change.
优步同样显示出了变革的能力。
It launched UberX when many employees at the company thought it should not risk disrupting its black-car service by offering a cheaper option.
就在公司员工认为不该冒着扰乱其高端服务的风险提供廉价出行方案时，优步推出了UberX。
And this August, after years spent ploughing huge amounts of money into its business in China, it announced that it was merging its Chinese business with that of a local rival, Didi Chuxing, in return for a fifth of the new firm, worth around $7 billion today.
优步在中国市场投入了多年时间和巨额资金，而就在今年8月，优步宣布与中国市场最大竞争对手滴滴出行合并，合并后优步将获得新公司20%的股份，总值达70亿美元。
Investors were thrilled.
投资者们都激情亢奋。
They had worried that Uber would continue to lose billions of dollars chasing its Chinese dream.
之前他们都还担心优步会继续砸掉数十亿美金来追寻自己的中国梦。
Mr Kalanick is extremely secretive about Uber's financial data, but in the first two quarters of 2016, with $2.1 billion in revenue, the company lost at least $1.3 billion, according to reports, and there are good reasons to think that a lot of that was lost in China.
尽管卡拉尼克先生对优步的财务数据高度保密，但仍有报道称，该公司2016年一、二季度的总收入为21亿美元，亏损了13亿，而且有充分理由证明，这些钱大部分都是亏在了中国市场。
Now Uber can share in the growth of the Chinese market without spending another dime.
现在，优步终于不用再花一分钱，就能享受壮大的中国市场所带来的可观利益。
Having sorted China out, Uber is able to concentrate on promising pickings in other developing markets where governments may not be quite as determined as China's was to see a local firm win out.
放下中国市场后，优步便能将精力集中在其他有发展前景的新兴市场上，那些发展中国家的政府不像中国政府一样偏袒本土企业。
In India, South-East Asia and Latin America rates of car ownership are low.
在印度、东南亚以及拉丁美洲地区，汽车拥有率很低。
Just as consumers in emerging markets leapfrogged the desktop internet and went straight to mobile devices, they could choose to bypass buying a car and move around via ride-hailing instead.
正如新兴市场的消费者跨过桌面网络而直接转向移动设备一样，他们也能省略买车这一步，直接进入叫车服务时代。
Mr Jonas of Morgan Stanley reckons that by 2030 around 25% of miles travelled in India will be on ride-hailing and ride-sharing services.
摩根斯坦利的琼斯认为到2030年，印度1/4的出行将通过叫车和拼车的方式实现。
Fares in these markets will be lower—in Mumbai a commuter's hour-and-a-half Uber costs 500 rupees ($7.50) —but the size of the population means there will be a lot of transactions.
虽然这些市场的车费会降低，例如在孟买使用优步出行一个半小时只需500卢比 (7.5美金)；但这些国家的广大人口意味着未来会有大量的订单交易。
At the moment Uber is the underdog in India, lagging Ola, its local rival.
目前，在印度，优步的业绩不敌其本土对手——欧拉。
Its huge cash resources mean that it is still a competitor, though.
但资金充足的优步仍然是个不可忽视的竞争者。
In Mexico and Brazil, it is the leader.
在墨西哥和巴西，优步绝对是市场的领头羊。
And as a global brand it will be best placed to serve the small but disproportionately lucrative global business clientele.
作为一个全球品牌，其最佳定位是专为全球商业人士提供服务，虽然此类人群较小，但却能获取高额利润。
To distinguish itself from its competitors, Uber is investing heavily in developing its own mapping capabilities by buying assets, including the mapping startup deCarta, and hoovering up talent from Google.
优步为了彰显不同，正斥重金开发其地图绘制能力。它已经购买了包括创业公司迪卡塔在内的一些资产，并从谷歌内部挖掘人才。
(Uber dreams “big” but “not as broad” as Google, says Brian McClendon, a high-profile hire from Google who now runs Uber’s mapping team. )
（曾就职于谷歌的高层员工，现任优步绘图组的负责人布莱恩·麦克伦登表示，优步的愿景“很大”，但却不如谷歌那样“包罗万象”。）
