芬兰科技业的三个神奇故事

Finlandhaslongbeenintheeconomicdoldrums.Weighe...



Finland has long been in the economic doldrums. Weighed down by the steep decline in Nokia’s once dominant mobile phone business, the country has been mired in recession for four years.

芬兰处于经济低谷已经很久了。受到诺基亚(Nokia)一度占统治地位的手机业务暴跌的影响，该国4年来一直深陷衰退泥潭。

But three pieces of corporate news in recent days hint at some cause for optimism for Finland — and point to some of its challenges. All three come in consumer technology, an area in which Finland has overcome its long-held stereotype as shy and retiring (a classic Finnish joke goes: how do you tell a Finnish extrovert from an introvert? The extrovert looks at your shoes).

但近来的三条企业新闻暗示了一些看好芬兰的理由，同时也指向该国面临的一些挑战。这三条新闻都来自消费科技领域，芬兰在这个领域克服了其长期以来腼腆和不爱与人交际的印象（一个经典的芬兰笑话是这样的：如何分辨一个外向的芬兰人和一个内向的芬兰人？外向的那个人会盯着你的鞋）。

First up was the release of Angry Birds, a film based on an app that once conquered the world but recently seemed to fall out of favour. To the surprise of many people, not least this columnist after attending the tepid, almost laughter-free premiere in Helsinki, the film shot to the top of the box office charts in the US and China.

首先是《愤怒的小鸟》(Angry Birds)电影上映。这部电影是基于一款曾经征服世界、但最近似乎不再受到青睐的app制作的。让很多人（尤其是我这个参加了这部电影在赫尔辛基举行的不温不火，几乎没有笑声的首映式的专栏作家）感到惊讶的是，这部电影一跃登上美国和中国票房榜的榜首。

The film is nothing less than an all-in bet by Rovio Entertainment, the developer of Angry Birds. The company once had an ambition to become a new-age Walt Disney, building Angry Birds playgrounds and theme parks, selling Angry Birds fishing rods and sodas as well as making games and cartoons.

这部电影几乎可以说是“愤怒的小鸟”开发商Rovio Entertainment的孤注一掷之举。这家公司曾经怀有成为新时代的华特迪士尼公司(Walt Disney)的抱负，建造愤怒的小鸟游乐场和主题公园，售卖愤怒的小鸟钓鱼竿、碳酸饮料，同时制作游戏和漫画。

That vision, however, clouded over as the game’s popularity dipped, leading to three consecutive years of shrinking revenues and a loss last year. It has shed nearly half of its workers in the past two years. It took the unusual step of using its own cash on the film, spending $73m on the production and more on the marketing. As a result, despite the box office success, Rovio is not yet guaranteed to make much profit from the production. But it may hope the spillover effects will invigorate its faltering games business.

然而，随着该游戏的人气下滑，导致该公司连续3年收入下降，去年出现亏损，这一愿景被蒙上阴云。过去两年期间，该公司裁掉了近一半员工。该公司采取了用自己的资金投资这部电影的不寻常之举，在电影制作上投入了7300万美元，在营销上砸下更多资金。其结果是，虽然该片在票房上取得成功，但Rovio还无法保证从制作这部电影获得高额利润。不过，该公司可能希望影片的溢出效应将提振其摇摇欲坠的游戏业务。

The second piece of news was Nokia’s return to mobile phones after selling its original business to Microsoft in 2014. Under a complicated deal, Nokia-branded phones and tablets will be made by Taiwan’s Foxconn and marketed by a new Finnish company. The local relief was palpable. “Nokia’s comeback gains pace. Lifting spirits in Finland,” tweeted Olli Rehn, Finland’s economy minister. It is hard to exaggerate the psychological boost Nokia’s success in the consumer world had in the 1990s and 2000s on Finland, which hitherto had been solely a business-to-business specialist.

第二条新闻是，自2014年将其原有业务卖给微软(Microsoft)后，诺基亚重拾手机业务。根据一项复杂的协议，诺基亚品牌的手机和平板电脑将由台湾的富士康(Foxconn)制造，一家新的芬兰公司将负责这些产品的营销。芬兰当地人的如释重负感很明显。“诺基亚复出的步伐加快了。提振了芬兰的精神，”芬兰经济部长奥利•雷恩(Olli Rehn)在Twitter上发帖称。上世纪90年代和2000年代，诺基亚在消费者领域的成功给芬兰带来的心理提振怎么说都不为过，在那之前诺基亚仅仅是一个企业对企业的专家。

The return to phones is pretty low-risk and low-return. Nokia has avoided the dangers of manufacturing its own devices and instead plumped for royalty payments for the use of its brand and patents. Still, the deal is testament to the resurrection of Nokia, whose future was far from certain before the 5.4bn Microsoft sale.

重拾手机业务的风险和回报都相当低。诺基亚避开了自己制造设备的危险，而是选择收取使用其品牌和专利的许可费。话虽如此，这笔交易是诺基亚复活的证明，当初该公司在作价54亿欧元把手机部门出售给微软之前也面临着不确定的未来。

The final bit of news features Supercell, which can arguably claim to be Nokia’s successor as Finland’s leading consumer company. Japan’s SoftBank, which owns a majority stake in the developer of the hit mobile games Clash of Clans, Hay Day, Boom Beach and Clash Royale, is reportedly putting a majority stake up for sale at a price that would value it at more than $5bn.

最后一条新闻涉及Supercell，该公司堪称继诺基亚之后芬兰首屈一指的消费者企业。热门手机游戏部落冲突(Clash of Clans)、卡通农场(Hay Day)、海岛奇兵(Boom Beach)和部落冲突：皇室战争(Clash Royale)均由该公司开发。持有该公司多数股权的日本软银(SoftBank)据报道正要出售其所持股权，售价意味着该公司的估值超过50亿美元。

Any deal would be bittersweet for the company, which hailed the 2013 investment, saying its new investor had a focus that “isn’t on the next 10 years but the next 100 years”. But the sale talk underlines how the Finnish company has become one of the successes of the hyper-competitive mobile gaming sector. With just three games — Clash Royale was released this spring — Supercell last year had revenues of 2.1bn and operating profits of 848m.

任何交易对这家公司来说都是喜忧参半。该公司曾盛赞软银在2013年的投资，称这位新投资者的关注点“不在于下一个10年，而是下一个100年”。但软银出售Supercell股权的谈判突显出这家芬兰公司已成为竞争极为激烈的手机游戏业的成功者之一。仅仅依靠3款游戏（部落冲突：皇室战争是今年春天才发布的），Supercell去年实现了21亿欧元的收入和8.48亿欧元的营业利润。

But Supercell made all that money with fewer than 200 employees. By contrast, Nokia had as many as 130,000 in 2010-11, which was down to 56,000 at the end of last year. Rovio, which at its peak employed 800 people, has fewer than 500. Indeed, Microsoft’s announcement of 1,350 job cuts in Finland on Wednesday underscores how the pain from Nokia’s legacy still outweighs any recent employment gains.

但是，Supercell只用不到200个员工实现了这样的业绩。相比之下，诺基亚在2010-11年度有多达13万员工，在去年底缩减到了5.6万名员工。Rovio在顶峰的时候雇佣了800名员工，目前不到500名。的确，微软最近宣布在芬兰裁减1350个工作岗位，突显出诺基亚的遗留影响依然超过近期的就业增加。

This puts into perspective the quest to develop European technology groups to rival the big US operators. Supercell and its backers chose to sell out to an Asian company rather than take the risk of development on themselves, and Rovio’s plans for an initial public offering are still very much on the back burner.

这让人们客观看待发展欧洲科技公司、使其能够与大型美国对手匹敌的追求。Supercell和其赞助者选择将股份出售给一家亚洲公司，而不是自行承担发展风险，而Rovio的首次公开发行(IPO)计划依然遥遥无期。

Finland’s tech scene may be impressive in Europe but it shows just how far the continent still has to go.

在欧洲，芬兰科技业可能让人印象深刻，但这也表明欧洲大陆还有多长的路要走。

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