原文: 选自英国>
译者: 爱尔兰都柏林大学 赖小琪
Listening to what is coming from China’s official media these days, you could believe this was a socialist country. Every other day, web pages at Xinhua, the official news agency, are bathed in red promoting a special on the ruling Communist party’s upcoming 90th anniversary.
听听最近中国官方媒体的言论, 你可能会认为中国的确是一个社会主义国家. 每隔一天, 官方新闻通讯社新华社都会在其火红的网页上大力宣扬即将到来的中国共产党成立90周年的特别日子.
But one recent success among the booming social media, which are all privately owned, speaks a completely different language: P1.CN, an invitation-only social network for urban affluent Chinese, has attracted 1.2m members. And its success seems to lie in a concept that reflects a class society.
但是,在所有私有的社交媒体的蓬勃发展中, 有一个成功的媒体企业, 却讲述着不同的
故事: P1.CN, 一个面向都市富人而且只接受邀请入会的社交网站, 已经吸引了120万的会员. 这个网站的成功的秘诀似乎在于其反映阶级社会的经营理念.
As a message to unfortunate non-members on the site’s homepage makes clear, P1.CN is out to make a virtue of exclusivity: 'P1.CN is a private, invitation only social network for exceptional individuals. Therefore we pay special attention to the few people that receive the opportunity to join our network. Finding 5 of your friends on P1 will grant you access to our community.’
网站的首页清楚地向不幸不能入会的人表示, P1.CN 的 “排他性” 其实是一种美德: “P1.CN 是私人所有的, 仅为社会精英人士服务的社交网站, 而且只采用邀请入会的方式. 因此, 我们对少数接受到邀请入会的人会给予特别的关注. 只要在我们网站上找到5个会员朋友, 你就有机会进入加入我们的社区.”
The service found its first clientele by doing profiling in shopping malls – for that reason, it initially had a large overhang of female members. Members can network but also get special offers for top-end nightclubs and luxury brand shops.
这项服务最初的客户群是通过在购物中心进行宣传推广建立的. 正因为如此, 它最初拥有相当大的一批女性会员. 会员可以在网站上进行社交, 也可以获得高级夜总会和奢侈品牌店提供的特别优惠.
Prospective members must have a monthly income of at least Rmb8,000 – according to luxury market researchers, the threshold for an upper middle class lifestyle. But above ordinary membership, there are silver, gold and platinum memberships. Platinum members are “basically the super-wealthy,” says Wang Yu, the company’s chief executive.
潜在会员月收入必须达到8000元人民币以上—奢侈品市场研究人员表示, 这是社会中高层阶级生活方式的门槛. 但是除了普通会员以外, 还有银卡会员, 金卡会员以及白金会员. 白金会员 “基本上都是超级富豪”, 该公司的首席执行官王宇表示.
And while, in other countries, the higher levels of exclusivity might come with age, P1.CN indicates it’s the other way round in China. “Gold members tend to be older than Platinum members because the latter often belong to the ‘rich second generation’,” says Wang.
虽然在别的国家, 更高级别的会员通常是年纪比较大的会员, 但是P1.CN表示中国的情况恰恰相反. “金卡会员通常比白金会员年纪大, 因为白金会员通常是中国的 ‘富二代’.” 王宇说.
According to him, China’s rich kids are reluctant to engage socially with people outside their own class, and are desperate to find others with similar wealth levels. “The higher up you go, the more active they are [on P1.CN],” he says. “The top members use it on a daily basis because for these people, it is really hard to find others of their kind.”
王宇表示, 中国富裕家庭的孩子往往不愿与他们阶层以外的人接触, 而是非常渴望寻找和他们财富水平相当的人交往. “你在P1.CN的会员等级越高, 他们对你就越热情.” 王宇表示. “最高等级的用户基本上每天都会上P1.CN, 因为对他们来说, 身边已经很难找到和他们同一个层次的人.” |
