VOA慢速英语2015 Facebook用户数量超过中国人口

Facebook Has More Users than Population of China Facebook用户数量超过中国人口

The social network Facebook reported that it now has 1.44 billion monthly active users (MAU) worldwide. That is 50 million more users than the population of China and over 188 million more than India’s population.

社交网络脸书(Facebook)报告称其目前在全球范围内每月有14.4亿活跃用户，比中国人口还多5千万，比印度人口多1.88亿以上。

Facebook also reported that 75 percent of its users access the site via mobile devices as of March 2015.

脸书(Facebook)还报告称，截止到2015年3月，75%的用户是通过移动设备访问该网站的。

Despite its growing user base and accessibility via smartphones and tablets, Facebook’s income dropped 13 percent over year-ago levels to $933 million.

尽管其用户基础和通过智能手机及平板电脑访问的可用性不断增长，脸书(Facebook)的收入比去年同期下降13%至9.33亿美元。

That is likely a result of several factors, analysts 2 say.

分析人员表示这可能是多个因素共同作用的结果。

Over the last year Facebook has spent money to buy the photo-sharing Instagram app. It launched “Messenger” for users to communicate directly and added videos to the site to compete with YouTube.

在过去一年，脸书(Facebook)斥资收购了图片分享应用程序Instagram，还推出了让用户直接沟通的Messenger，并且增加了视频服务，与YouTube竞争。

Additionally, more than half of Facebook’s revenue comes from nations other than the United States. For example, it is very popular in Indonesia. The recent rise in the value of the U.S. dollar may have cut into Facebook’s overall profits.

此外，脸书(Facebook)一半以上的收益来自于美国以外的国家。例如，该网站在印度尼西亚很受欢迎。近期美元升值可能也削弱了脸书(Facebook)的整体利润。

In a statement to the media, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called its quarterly report “a good quarter and a good start to the year.”

脸书(Facebook)联合创始人兼CEO马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)在一份面向媒体的声明中称脸书(Facebook)的季度报告是“良好的一个季度，也是一年良好的开始”。

Facebook launched to the public in December 2004 but had little growth in its first four years. Social media strategist Ben Foster calculates that Facebook has seen explosive growth since April of 2009.

脸书(Facebook)于2004年12月问世，但是其在最初四年增长甚微。社交媒体策略分析师Ben Foster认为脸书(Facebook)从2009年4月开始爆炸性增长。

“The strong growth in Mobile MAUs tells me that Facebook is becoming the first thing people go to on their mobile device,” Foster told VOA via email. “If this trend continues, Facebook could easily become the primary source of traffic for publishers and companies. This could change the digital landscape for content, as the content we prefer to consume on mobile is quite different than content we prefer on a browser 3.”

Foster通过电子邮件对美国之音表示，“移动端月度活跃用户的强势增长提示我们，Facebook正成为人们使用移动设备的主要任务。如果这种趋势继续下去，Facebook就能轻易成为广告发布者和各个公司的主要流量来源。这可能会改变内容的数字前景，因为我们在手机上选择阅读的内容同我们在浏览器上选择的完全不同。”

Much of Facebook’s revenue comes from sales of ads that are tailored for users based on their Facebook activities and friends.

Facebook大部分收入来自基于用户的Facebook活跃内容和朋友圈为用户量身定做的广告销售。

Earlier this year in March, the European Court of Justice – the EU’s highest-such court – heard a complaint against Facebook. The social media site allegedly passed data from European users to the U.S. National Security Agency. This violates EU privacy protections.

今年三月，作为欧盟最高法庭的欧洲法院对一起针对Facebook的诉讼进行了聆讯。据传这家社交媒体网站将欧洲用户数据传给了美国国家安全局。这违反了欧盟的隐私保护政策。

Despite privacy concerns, analyst 1 Foster says the numbers suggest people actually like the product, and the number of users will grow.

尽管存在这些隐私忧患，分析师福斯特表示，各项数字表明人们真正喜欢该产品，用户数量还会继续增长。

“For Facebook's reach, if they are the best at delivering content, then they will continue to get more users which will continue the cycle,” he said.

“对于Facebook的未来，如果它们是内容分发上的最佳选择，它们就能获得更多用户并周而复始。”

Words in This Story

accessibility – n.; accessible adj. able to be reached or approached

factor – n. something that helps produce or influence a result

quarterly report – n. (in finance) a financial report for investors 4 that covers three months of the year and required of public company

explosive – adj. happening quickly and suddenly