2023年经济学人 TikTok正改变书籍销售方式(1)

    Culture

    文艺版块

    TikTok is changing the way books are recommended and soldTikTok正在改变推荐和销售书籍的方式

    First the camera pans across eight books arrayed with hundreds of sticky tabs, flaunting¹ that they have been closely read and meticulously² annotated³.

    首先，摄像机横向扫过八本书，每本书上都贴着数百个便利贴，明晃晃地显示出它们被仔细阅读过，而且写满了细致的注释。

    Next a description runs across the screen: “Books I would sell my soul to read again for the first time”.

    接下来，屏幕上出现了这样一条描述：“我愿意出卖自己的灵魂，只为换来与这些书的初见。”

    The music crescendoes, and a manicured hand reveals the books’ covers in time with the beat, featuring authors including Simone de Beauvoir, Elena Ferrante and Sally Rooney.

    然后音乐达到高潮，一只指甲修剪干净的手随着音乐节拍翻开了书的封面，这些书的作者包括西蒙·德·波伏娃、埃莱娜·费兰特和萨莉·鲁尼。

    The user, who is called “buryme.withmybooks”, does not say why she likes them, but that does not matter.

    拍视频的人叫做“与书同葬”，她没有说自己为什么喜欢这些书，但这并不重要。

    On TikTok hyperbole is the name of the social-media game.

    在TikTok上，社交媒体游戏都是夸张的。

    Around 9.3m people have watched the video and almost 400,000 people have saved it for future reference.

    约有930万人观看了这段视频，近40万人将它收藏，以备下次观看。

    TikTok, which has more than 1bn regular users, is making a mark on the world of publishing.

    拥有逾10亿固定用户的TikTok正在出版界留下印记。

    Much of this is done through BookTok, the app’s community of users who comment on books.

    这主要是通过BookTok完成的，BookTok是该应用程序的一个用户社区，用户们在这里对书籍发表评论。

    It is among the largest communities on the app; videos with this tag have been viewed 179bn times, more than twice as many as BeautyTok (beauty enthusiasts⁴ splinter into various groups).

    这是该应用程序上最大的社区之一，带有这个标签的视频浏览量为1790亿次，是BeautyTok的两倍多(美妆爱好者分散为不同群体)。

    Adding #reading, #books and #literature pushes views to more than 240bn.

    加上#阅读、#图书和#文学标签，这些视频的浏览量将超过2400亿。

    Whoever said books are dead has not spent much time on TikTok, nor in bookstores, which now have whole displays touting⁵ titles “as seen on TikTok”.

    那些说书籍已死的人肯定没怎么刷过TikTok，也没怎么去过书店，书店里现在陈列着整套整套的图书，兜售标语是“TikTok热门书籍”。

    Last year in Britain one in four book buyers used TikTok.

    去年，在英国，四分之一的购书者使用TikTok。

    The slice of sales directly attributable to the app is still small.

    直接由TikTok带来的销量份额仍然很小。

    Video platforms like TikTok and YouTube drove only around 3% of sales in 2022 in Britain, according to Nielsen, a research firm.

    根据研究公司尼尔森的数据，像TikTok和YouTube这样的视频平台在2022年推动的销量只占英国销售额的3%左右。

    But TikTok’s influence is significant and growing.

    但TikTok的影响力是巨大的，而且还在不断增长。

    The largest group of book buyers—women aged⁶ 54 and younger—are more likely to use the app than their male peers.

    最大的购书群体--54岁及以下的女性--比她们的男性同龄人更有可能使用这款应用。

    TikTok recommendations influence their purchases, creating new literary stars and unearthing⁷ unlikely past ones, too.

    TikTok的推荐影响了他们的购买行为、打造了新的文学明星，也挖掘出了让人意想不到的昔日明星。

    TikTok is not the first online platform to alter the publishing landscape.

    TikTok并不是第一个改变出版业格局的在线平台。

    Wattpad, a self-publishing firm founded in 2006, helped writers publish stories and reach readers online.

    Wattpad是一家成立于2006年的自出版公司，它让作家在网上发表自己的故事并与读者接触。

    For years Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (now X) have allowed authors to connect with readers—and sometimes score a book deal in the first place.

    多年来，脸书、Instagram和推特(现在叫X)一直让作家能够与读者建立联系，有时还会抢先和作家签订图书合约。

    However, TikTok functions slightly differently.

    不过，TikTok的功能略有不同。

    One way to think about BookTok is as a book club for the Internet age.

    可以把BookTok看作互联网时代的读书俱乐部。

    Just as stars like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama can cause copies to fly off bookstore shelves by updating their lists of recommended reads, BookTok does something similar.

    就像奥普拉·温弗瑞和巴拉克·奥巴马这样的名人可以通过更新他们的推荐书单，就让书店书架上的书迅速卖空一样，BookTok也有类似的效果。

    However, the tastemakers are not usually celebrities⁸ but attractive #bookgirlies doing #readingchallenges, often in artfully lit bedrooms.

    然而，引领阅读潮流的通常不是名人，而是长相迷人的#爱书女孩在做#阅读挑战，场景通常是灯光精心布置的卧室。

    (Although Ms Winfrey’s book club is now on TikTok, too.)(虽然温弗瑞的读书俱乐部现在也在TikTok上。)

1 flaunting   

adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来

参考例句：

• He did not believe in flaunting his wealth. 他不赞成摆阔。
• She is fond of flaunting her superiority before her friends and schoolmates. 她好在朋友和同学面前逞强。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

3 annotated   

v.注解，注释( annotate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Thematic maps should always be annotated with the source and date of the topical information. 各类专题地图，均应注明专题资料来源和日期。 来自辞典例句
• And this is the version annotated by Umberto de Bologna. 并且这是有安博多-德-波罗格那注释的版本。 来自电影对白

4 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册

5 touting   

v.兜售( tout的现在分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• He's been touting his novel around publishers for years. 他几年来一直到处找出版商兜售自己的小说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Technology industry leaders are touting cars as a hot area for growth. 科技产业领袖吹捧为增长热点地区的汽车。 来自互联网

6 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

7 unearthing   

发掘或挖出某物( unearth的现在分词 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露

参考例句：

• And unearthing the past often means literally and studying the evidence. 通常，探寻往事在字面上即意味着——刨根究底。
• The unearthing of "Peking Man" was a remarkable discovery. “北京人”的出土是个非凡的发现。

8 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目