2019-03-13-TikTok: the video app
2019-03-13 本文已影响0人
相思清狂
原文载于The Guardian杂志：https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2019/mar/11/tiktok-video-app-internet-500-million-users-social-media
TikTok: the video app taking over the internet
With 500 million users across 150 countries, the short-form video app is becoming a social media sensation
Elena Cresci
Mon 11 Mar 2019 18.05 GMT
| 原文 | 译文（机译+略改） |
|---|---|
| If you spend any amount of time on social media, the chances are you have probably seen a TikTok video - knowingly or not. In a short space of time, the mobile app used for creating and sharing short videos has become an almost unavoidable part of internet culture. Considering it had amassed more than 500 million users across 150 countries as of November last year, it is easy to see why. | 如果你花很多时间在社交媒体上，你很可能已经看到了TikTok的视频——不管你是否有意。在很短的时间内，这个用于创建和分享短视频的移动应用程序几乎已经成为互联网文化不可避免的一部分。考虑到截至去年11月它已在150个国家积累了超过5亿的用户，原因显而易见。 |
| But what exactly is TikTok? Simply put: it is a free, short-form video app popular with teens (or Generation Z, as they are known). It was created in 2016 by ByteDance, a tech company now valued at $75bn (£57.3bn) and based in Beijing, where the app is known as Douyin. In 2017, ByteDance merged with Musical.ly, an enormously popular app built around lipsyncing. Its popularity has since skyrocketed, and it is touted as the first Chinese social media app to make it big in English-speaking countries. | 但TikTok到底是什么?简而言之:这是一款免费的短格式视频应用程序，深受青少年(他们被称为Z一代)的欢迎。它是由字节跳动(ByteDance)于2016年创建的。字节跳动是一家总部位于北京的科技公司，目前估值750亿美元(合573亿英镑)。2017年，字节跳动与Musical ly合并，后者是一款非常受欢迎的lipsyncing应用程序。自那以后，它的人气一路飙升，被誉为中国第一个在英语国家大受欢迎的社交媒体应用。 |
| TikTok’s videos – usually 15 to 60 seconds-long and set to music – have flooded social media, occupying a gap once filled by Vine (another beloved, short-form video app, which was shut down by Twitter in 2017). Memes and challenges thrive on TikTok, encouraged by in-app features and celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon, who recently joined the app. Fallon’s #tumbleweedchallenge involved users dropping to the ground and rolling around like a tumbleweed. It may sound weird, but weird is the lifeblood of TikTok – as one Atlantic piece pointed out last year: “Tik Tok is cringey and that’s fine.” | TikTok的视频——通常15到60秒长，配有音乐——已经充斥了社交媒体，填补了Vine(另一个受欢迎的短格式视频应用，在2017年被Twitter关闭)一度填补的空白。文化基因和挑战在TikTok上蓬勃发展，这受到了应用内置功能和吉米·法伦(Jimmy Fallon)等名人的鼓励。法伦的“风滚草挑战”使用户摔倒在地，像风滚草一样滚来滚去。这听起来可能很奇怪，但奇怪是TikTok的命脉——正如《大西洋月刊》去年的一篇文章所指出的:“Tik Tok是令人尴尬的，这很好。” |
| To call the app another Vine is too simple, but in many ways it is what Vine could have been had it stuck around. YouTube is full of TikTok compilations and the funnier videos regularly get uploaded to Twitter as prime retweeting material. Even Facebook – usually one of the slowest social media apps to get in on a youthful trend – can’t escape it. | 把这款应用程序称为“另一个Vine”太简单了，但从很多方面来说，如果Vine还在的话，它本来是可以这么叫的。YouTube上到处都是TikTok的汇编，滑稽的视频会定期上传到Twitter上，成为主要的转发内容。即使是Facebook——通常是最慢进入年轻潮流的社交媒体应用之一——也无法逃脱。 |
| And, having just passed the 1bn downloads mark, it doesn’t look to be going away any time soon. | 而且，在刚刚通过10亿次下载之后，它看起来不会很快消失。 |
|
Topics: Apps / Shortcuts Vine / Social media / Internet / Digital media / Technology sector / features |
主题： 应用程序 / 剪切 葡萄藤 / 社交媒体 / 互联网 / 数字媒体 / 技术部门 / 特征 |
- take over
① (PHRASAL VERB) 接收，接管(公司) If you take over a company, you get control of it, for example by buying its shares.
② (PHRASAL VERB) (武力)占领，接管，控制 If someone takes over a country or building, they get control of it by force, for example with the help of the army.
③ (PHRASAL VERB) 接替;接任;接手 If you take over a job or role or if you take over, you become responsible for the job after someone else has stopped doing it.
④ (PHRASAL VERB) 取代;代替;占上风 If one thing takes over from something else, it becomes more important, successful, or powerful than the other thing, and eventually replaces it. - sensation
① (N-COUNT) (身体上的)感觉，知觉 A sensation is a physical feeling.
② (N-UNCOUNT) (尤指)触觉;感觉能力;知觉 Sensation is your ability to feel things physically, especially through your sense of touch.
③ (N-COUNT) (某种经历所产生的)整体感觉，总体印象 You can use sensation to refer to the general feeling or impression caused by a particular experience.
④ (N-COUNT) 引起轰动的人(或事件、情况) If a person, event, or situation is a sensation, it causes great excitement or interest.
⑤ (N-SING) 轰动;哗然 If a person, event, or situation causes a sensation, they cause great interest or excitement. - any amount of
大量 - the chances are （that）
大概是，很可能是 - knowingly
(ADV) 故意；蓄意地 If you knowingly do something wrong, you do it even though you know it is wrong. - amass
(VERB) 积聚；收集 If you amass something such as money or information, you gradually get a lot of it. - as of
截至 - merge
① (V-RECIP-ERG) (使)合并;(使)融合 If one thing merges with another, or is merged with another, they combine or come together to make one whole thing. You can also say that two things merge, or are merged .
② (V-RECIP) 渐渐消失于;融入;相融 If one sound, colour, or object merges into another, the first changes so gradually into the second that you do not notice the change. - enormously
（adv）巨大地，庞大地; 大大; - skyrocket
(VERB) 剧增;猛涨;猛升 If prices or amounts skyrocket, they suddenly increase by a very large amount. - tout
① (VERB) 兜售;吹嘘 If someone touts something, they try to sell it or convince people that it is good.
② (VERB) 兜揽;招徕 If someone touts for business or custom, they try to obtain it.
③ (VERB) (在体育场或剧院外)倒卖(高价票) If someone touts tickets, they sell them outside a sports ground or theatre, usually for more than their original value.
④ (N-COUNT) 票贩子;“黄牛” A tout is someone who sells things such as tickets unofficially, usually at prices which are higher than the official ones. - make it big
（n）（美俚） 成功，飞黄腾达; - flood
① (N-VAR) 洪水;水灾 If there is a flood, a large amount of water covers an area which is usually dry, for example when a river flows over its banks or a pipe bursts.
② (V-ERG) 淹没;使充满水 If something such as a river or a burst pipe floods an area that is usually dry or if the area floods, it becomes covered with water.
③ (VERB) (尤指暴雨后河水)泛滥 If a river floods, it overflows, especially after very heavy rain.
④ (N-COUNT) 大量;大批 If you say that a flood of people or things arrive somewhere, you are emphasizing that a very large number of them arrive there.
⑤ (VERB) 大批涌入;大量云集 If you say that people or things flood into a place, you are emphasizing that they arrive there in large numbers.
⑥ (VERB) (使)充满;(使)充斥 If you flood a place with a particular type of thing, or if a particular type of thing floods a place, the place becomes full of so many of them that it cannot hold or deal with any more. - occupy
① (VERB) 居住，使用（建筑物或某地） The people who occupy a building or a place are the people who live or work there.
② (V-PASSIVE) 占用，使用（房间、座位等） If a room or something such as a seat is occupied, someone is using it, so that it is not available for anyone else.
③ (VERB) 占领；占据；侵占 If a group of people or an army occupies a place or country, they move into it, using force in order to gain control of it.
④ (VERB) 担任（…职务）；居于（…地位） If someone or something occupies a particular place in a system, process, or plan, they have that place.
⑤ (VERB) 使忙碌；使全神贯注 If something occupies you, or if you occupy yourself, your time, or your mind with it, you are busy doing that thing or thinking about it.
⑥ (VERB) 使从事；使关注；使花费时间 If something occupies you, it requires your efforts, attention, or time. - beloved
① (ADJ-GRADED) 深爱的；钟爱的 A beloved person, thing, or place is one that you feel great affection for.
② (N-SING) 爱人；心爱的人 Your beloved is the person that you love. - meme
（n）（通过模仿等传递的）文化基因; - thrive
① (VERB) 欣欣向荣;茁壮成长;兴旺发达 If someone or something thrives, they do well and are successful, healthy, or strong.
② (VERB) (尤指在别人觉得困难的时候)以…为乐，可以出色应对 If you say that someone thrives on a particular situation, you mean that they enjoy it or that they can deal with it very well, especially when other people find it unpleasant or difficult. - celebrity
① (N-COUNT) (尤指娱乐界的)名人，明星 A celebrity is someone who is famous, especially in areas of entertainment such as films, music, writing, or sport.
② (N-UNCOUNT) (尤指娱乐界的)名声，名誉，名气 If a person or thing achieves celebrity, they become famous, especially in areas of entertainment such as films, music, writing, or sport. - tumble
① (VERB) 滚下;摔倒;跌落;翻滚而下 If someone or something tumbles somewhere, they fall there with a rolling or bouncing movement.
② (VERB) (物价等)暴跌，剧降 If prices or levels of something are tumbling, they are decreasing rapidly.
③ (VERB) (水)冲刷，滚滚流过 If water tumbles, it flows quickly over an uneven surface.
④ (VERB) 突然闯入（某地）;陷入，浑然不觉地进入(某种状态) If you say that someone tumbles into a situation or place, you mean that they get into it without being fully in control of themselves or knowing what they are doing. - weed
① (N-COUNT) 杂草;野草 A weed is a wild plant that grows in gardens or fields of crops and prevents the plants that you want from growing properly.
② (N-VAR) 水草;水生植物 Weed is a plant that grows in water and usually forms a thick floating mass. There are many different kinds of weed.
③ (VERB) 给…除杂草 If you weed an area, you remove the weeds from it.
④ (N-UNCOUNT) 烟草；大麻 People sometimes refer to tobacco or marijuana as weed . - tumbleweed
(N-UNCOUNT) （生长于北美沙漠地区的）风滚草 Tumbleweed is a plant that grows in desert areas in North America. It breaks off from its roots at the end of its life and then blows around on the ground. - weird
(ADJ-GRADED) 奇怪的;不寻常的;奇异的 If you describe something or someone as weird, you mean that they are strange. - lifeblood
(N-SING) 生命线；命根子；生命力 The lifeblood of an organization, area, or person is the most important thing that they need in order to exist, develop, or be successful. - piece
① (N-COUNT) （断下、撕下或切下的）块，片，段，截 A piece of something is an amount of it that has been broken off, torn off, or cut off.
② (N-COUNT) （尤指可拆卸的）部件，部分 A piece of an object is one of the individual parts or sections which it is made of, especially a part that can be removed.
③ (N-COUNT) （土地的）一块，一片 A piece of land is an area of land.
④ (N-COUNT) （与不可数名词连用）桩，项，条，件 You can use piece of with many uncount nouns to refer to an individual thing of a particular kind. For example, you can refer to some advice as a piece of advice.
⑤ (N-COUNT) （报纸或杂志上的一篇）文章；（一首或一部）音乐作品；（一段）广播节目；（一出）戏剧 You can refer to an article in a newspaper or magazine, some music written by someone, a broadcast, or a play as a piece .
⑥ (N-COUNT) （一件）艺术品 You can refer to a work of art as a piece .
⑦ (N-COUNT) 硬币 You can refer to specific coins as pieces. For example, a 10p piece is a coin that is worth 10p.
⑧ (N-COUNT) 棋子 The pieces which you use when you play a board game such as chess are the specially made objects which you move around on the board. - compilation
(N-COUNT) 汇编物;辑;集子 A compilation is a book, CD, or programme that contains many different items that have been gathered together, usually ones which have already appeared in other places. - funnier
① (ADJ-GRADED) 有趣的;好笑的;滑稽的 Someone or something that is funny is amusing and likely to make you smile or laugh.
② (ADJ-GRADED) 古怪的;奇怪的;令人困惑的 If you describe something as funny, you think it is strange, surprising, or puzzling.
③ (ADJ-GRADED) 略感不适的 If you feel funny, you feel slightly ill. - trend
① (N-COUNT) 趋势;倾向;动向 A trend is a change or development towards something new or different.
② (N-COUNT) 规范;风尚;时尚 To set a trend means to do something that becomes accepted or fashionable, and that a lot of other people copy.
