跟读练习: Why Amazon's Marketplace Failed In China - 通过视频学习英语口语
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68 句
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These are some of the biggest and most recognizable brands in the U.S.
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What do they all have in common?
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None survived in China.
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And you might be surprised to see this e-commerce giant on that list, despite China's enormous $2 trillion e-commerce market.
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Amazon arrived in the country through a $75 million acquisition of Joyo.com, an online book and media seller, back in 2004.
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The company bet big on its e-reader and tablet product offerings, but it took years thanks to China's infamously tricky regulatory approval process.
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"Some companies thought their competitive advantages can be transferred to China.
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Unfortunately, they couldn't." China is home to the largest and fastest growing e-commerce market in the world.
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Competition includes the likes of billionaire and multi-hyphenate Jack Ma's Alibaba, TaoBao and JD.
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It also has a massive middle class, having grown from a measly 4% of urban households in 2000 to 76% in 2022, making for an attractive market.
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"China's a very tech savvy and mobile first market, and the Chinese consumer's always in to the latest technology and into the latest trends.
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On top of that, Chinese consumers still love and are attracted to a lot of foreign brands.
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So that presents an interesting opportunity." So why did Amazon, a global e-commerce force, lose its footing in a country that so readily embraces e-commerce?
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Like many U.S. company failures in China, Amazon's was a lesson in overconfidence.
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It thought its domestic success story could translate . In North America, net sales more than doubled from 2004 to 2008. Amazon Prime launched in 2005.
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In China, the company began its expansion by acquiring Joyo, a domestic online shopping market, in 2004.
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Joyo rebranded to Amazon China in 2011.
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"At that time, the e-commerce market in China was just taking shape. There were only a few players out there, including eBay, Alibaba, JD, Dongdong and Joyo. For the first few years, Amazon was kind of market leader, so it was taking 12% of the market share, only after Dong Dong." "When Amazon entered the market in 2004 through the acquisition of Joyo, it was very much seen as a platform for... that Chinese consumers could trust for authentic products, not only domestic products, but also products from abroad." In later years, the company bet on its full suite of e-reader and tablet products, but regulatory approval for wireless products were required from three different government agencies, which caused years-long delays and a lot of valuable time lost.
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Between 2011 and 2012, Amazon's market share held at a little over 15%.
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But by the end of 2019, that number plunged to less than 1%.
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"Alibaba, through Tmall and Taobao and JD.com, another rival, began to expand aggressively.
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And that edge, that unique proposition that Amazon had, started to erode because JD.com, as well as Alibaba's e-commerce platforms, began to partner with brands, they brought foreign brands onto their platform, luxury goods and foreign clothing, brands, electronics, etc., etc.
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And so they become- they became also trusted platforms for Chinese consumers to get a lot of these products." Amazon's failure was, for the most part, a gradual ordeal.
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After all, the company managed a 15-year tenure in China. Given the wealth of China's e-commerce segment, the assumption is that a global conglomerate of Amazon's pedigree would fit right in, somewhere in that $2 trillion. But the reality is that the market is saturated and exceptionally competitive.
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Amazon was up against billion-dollar behemoths.
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Alibaba's China commerce revenue was $15.6 billion in 2012. Tmall, another Alibaba-owned B2C site, controlled 53.7% of the B2C China market, and JD held 17.1% in 2012 as well.
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Amazon trailed behind by a measly 2.7%.
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Alibaba was founded by Jack Ma in 1999 and operates some of the largest third-party platforms and marketplaces in China, including Taobao, Tmall and Juhuasuan.
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In 2013, it was the world's largest online and mobile commerce company. Alibaba and JD are two of the largest e-commerce players in China.
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Aside from their positive reputations among Chinese consumers, their long-standing presence advantageously informs their business decisions and acumen.
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Put more simply, they understand the Chinese consumer better.
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"It's important to talk a little bit here about Singles Day. This happens every year on November the 11th, and it's a huge day where e-commerce companies offer massive discounts and big promotions.
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Alibaba, JD and some of the domestic e-commerce players are very aggressive in their marketing around this, but over the years, you haven't really seen Amazon take a huge role in marketing around this.
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And this is the big marketing event of the year.
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So I think that really highlights the way that Amazon hasn't been as forthcoming when it comes to advertising for its business in China." In other words, price wars broke out.
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Amazon did have Prime Day, a day-long event featuring special discounts and deals, as it does in the U.S.
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But the other platforms' connection with consumers was just stronger.
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Both JD and Alibaba break their sales records nearly every year.
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In America, Amazon's competitive pricing is what attracts many consumers.
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But in China, the playing ground was leveled.
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The consumer experience between shopping, ordering and delivery was also lackluster by comparison.
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Amazon's selection, previously seen as expansive, proved to be narrower than competitors in later years.
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Alibaba's exclusive payment system, Alipay, was not only convenient and favored by consumers, but has existed in China since 2004, and on top of charging for delivery, Amazon's delivery times lagged behind competitors in China.
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"Consumers value speed more than anything else.
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Amazon still relied on third-party couriers for the last mile delivery.
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But JD already built its own in-house delivery team, so those drivers would ride on three-wheeled electric bikes and get the goods very fast to consumers." Amazon's leadership was also ill-equipped to compete with Chinese entrepreneurs.
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The local team in China was actually aware of the company's missteps, but unable to get on the same page with Amazon's domestic leadership.
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"We know Amazon is a global company.
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It generates more than half of its revenue from international markets.
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But JD or Alibaba, they are local companies.
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The majority of their revenue comes from the Chinese market, so they couldn't afford to lose China.
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So the Chinese entrepreneurs are much more aggressive than their counterparts in the West.
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For them, it's a life or death battle." Despite a strong logistics network and familiar name, according to some China-based analysts, Amazon's insistence on implementing Western business practices ultimately led to an unsustainable operation.
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With no sign of growth or profitability, it decided to withdraw most of its marketplace efforts in 2019 and refocused its China business on cross-border operations.
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"It allowed Chinese consumers to buy products from some of its foreign sites.
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Now that business is tiny, and by this point, it really lost the battle. JD.com and Alibaba's e-commerce sites still dominate, particularly as well, in that cross-border part of the business." It's worth noting that Amazon itself recognized all of these challenges in its 2012 report and yet were unable to overcome them anyway.
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Today, Amazon's presence in China is led by its cloud and selling services.
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Amazon Web Services operates in the Beijing and Ningxia regions.
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To be clear, Amazon's presence in China has not dissolved to a full absence.
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The company continues to operate cross-border services and announced plans to open a front-end bonded warehouse in the Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 2023.
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Other services include Amazon Global Selling, Amazon Advertising, Amazon Global Logistics, among others.
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On the other hand, Amazon struggles in China persist.
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In summer 2022, it announced the closure of its Kindle e-book store.
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In Q3 2022, Amazon's international segment sales decreased 5% year-over-year to $27.7 billion from $29.1 billion.
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The international segment operating loss was $2.5 billion. Despite its China marketplace closure, Amazon's international scope otherwise hasn't ceased to expand.
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Germany and Britain are Amazon's biggest markets after the U.S. This year, Amazon announced a plan to launch new Amazon Web Services local zones in 32 new metropolitan areas in 26 countries globally.
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AWS is a multi-service cloud platform that provides compute, storage and data functionalities, among others.
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Amazon provided CNBC the following statement: "We have become much more than an online store in China and will continue to expand the services we offer to our Chinese customers." For now, Amazon has shown no intentions of reinstating its China market, but given that it still has operations in the largest e-commerce market in the world, it remains to be seen whether or not Amazon will attempt a revival in the future.
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本课的词汇与口语要点
这节 B2 级别的口语课以视频“Why Amazon's Marketplace Failed In China”为素材。 视频中反复出现的词有：China, Amazon, commerce, consumer, Chinese。 这段视频共有 68 个句子、1436 个单词可供跟读。 讲话部分时长为 10:42。 说话人语速平稳，每分钟约 134 个词，很适合跟读。 只有 79% 的单词属于英语最常用的 3,000 词，词汇难度较高。
视频中的重点词汇
视频中最难的 15 个单词，附发音和释义：
| 单词 | 发音 | 释义 |
|---|---|---|
| marketplace 名词 | 草市, 市井 | |
| competitor 名词 | /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/ | 競爭者 /竞争者, 比賽者 /比赛者 |
| logistics 名词 | /ləˈd͡ʒɪstɪks/ | 物流, 運籌 /运筹 |
| entrepreneur 名词 | /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/ | 企業家 /企业家 |
| acumen 名词 | /ˈækjəmən/ | 慧眼, 精明 |
| behemoth 名词 | /bəˈhi(ː).məθ/ | 貝西摩斯 /贝西摩斯, 巨獸 /巨兽 |
| compute 动词 | /kəmˈpjuːt/ | 計算 /计算 |
| conglomerate 名词 | /kənˈɡlɑ.mɚ.ət/ | 合併 /合并 |
| dissolve 动词 | /dɪˈzɑlv/ | 解散 |
| ordeal 名词 | /ɔːˈdiːl/ | 煎熬, 磨難 /磨难 |
| pedigree 名词 | /ˈpɛd.ɪ.ɡɹi/ | 家譜 /家谱, 系譜 /系谱 |
| persist 动词 | /pɚˈsɪst/ | 堅持 /坚持 |
| savvy 形容词 | /ˈsæv.i/ | 精明能幹的 /精明能干的 |
| cellar 名词 | /ˈsɛləɹ/ | 地窖, 地下室 |
| saturated 形容词 | 飽和 /饱和 |
视频中出现的短语动词
| 单词 | 释义 |
|---|---|
| break out 动词 | 逃出 |
视频中的语法
说话人最常用的结构，并附上视频中的原话：
| 结构 | 视频中的用法 |
|---|---|
| 被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的 | can be transferred · are attracted · were required |
| 现在完成时 have/has + 过去分词 — 过去发生但与现在仍有关联的事 | haven't really seen · hasn't been · has existed |
需要注意的发音
说话人用了 5 次缩略和弱读形式，例如 couldn't, hasn't, haven't。请按听到的简短形式来说。
- “th” 音: behemoth /bəˈhi(ː).məθ/, forthcoming /fɔɹθˈkʌmɪŋ/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, withdraw /wɪðˈdɹɔ/
- “sh” 和 “zh” 音: closure /ˈkloʊ.ʒɚ/, exceptionally /ɪkˈsɛp(t)ʃənəli/, proposition /ˌpɹɑpəˈzɪʃən/, assumption /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/, intentions /ɪnˈtɛnʃənz/
- 长单词——注意重音位置: competitor /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, conglomerate /kənˈɡlɑ.mɚ.ət/, overconfidence /oʊvɚˈkɑnfɪdənts/, profitability /ˌpɹɑ.fɪ.təˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/
中文母语者容易读错的音：
- /v/ — 不要读成 /w/，上齿轻触下唇: dissolve /dɪˈzɑlv/, expansive /ɪkˈspænsɪv/, overconfidence /oʊvɚˈkɑnfɪdənts/, savvy /ˈsæv.i/, revival /ɹɪˈvaɪ̯vəl/
- 词尾辅音 — 要读清楚，后面不要加元音: logistics /ləˈd͡ʒɪstɪks/, tablet /ˈtæblət/, behemoth /bəˈhi(ː).məθ/, compute /kəmˈpjuːt/, conglomerate /kənˈɡlɑ.mɚ.ət/
- /r/ 和 /l/ 的区别: profitability /ˌpɹɑ.fɪ.təˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/, cellar /ˈsɛləɹ/, gradual /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəl/, translate /tɹænzˈleɪt/, revival /ɹɪˈvaɪ̯vəl/
如何用这段视频练习
- 先完整听一遍视频，不要开口，记下不认识的单词。
- 用正常速度逐句跟读，每句重复到你的节奏与说话人一致为止。
- 录下自己的声音并与原声对比，特别注意 marketplace, competitor, logistics 这类单词。
什么是跟读法？
跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。