社交媒体创造“小”时代

    结果，媒体公司越变越小，而不是越变越大。来看几个例子：Cox Enterprise在2008年出售了旗下几家报纸；时代华纳（Time Warner）在2009年甩掉了美国在线（AOL），并打算甩掉《财富》所在的时代集团（Time Inc.）等等。有趣的是，正如多年前专家认为大型媒体将会威胁到民主一样，梅勒担心新闻缩短成140字的微博之后，同样将导致类似的结果。

    梅勒强调大型公司的结局时，他的理论似乎不那么让人信服，甚至有点杞人忧天。正如大型新闻媒体和政府的终结会导致责任上的严重差距，大型公司的终结也会产生类似问题：“就这点而言，我们甚至可能倒退回19世纪，任何庸医都能发布不符合事实的广告，而你无从得知究竟拿到了药物还是小苏打。”

    因特网确实打垮了一些美国的大型零售商。看看大型连锁商店，比如巴诺（Barnes & Noble）在与亚马逊（Amazon）这类公司的竞争中举步维艰，关闭了数百家门店。此外，Etsy和Quirky这样的公司也开始在零售市场招兵买马。

    梅勒表示，尽管小型公司变得更有竞争力，但并非所有的大型公司都在变小。实际上，最大型公司的现金量多年来一直连创新高。

    此外，华尔街也没有收缩阵地。奥巴马三年前曾经承诺消除金融机构因为过于庞大而无法倒闭的风险，而如今国内最大的几家银行却比金融危机前变得更加强大。正如批评人士所说，这些机构的规模对全球金融系统的安全造成了很大的威胁。

    尽管如此，“大”时代的终结正在影响我们生活的方方面面。梅勒让我们认真思考如今我们生活在一个怎样的世界，以及更重要的是，我们明天的生活会变成什么样。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    As it turns out, media companies are getting smaller, not bigger. A few examples: Cox Enterprise's move in 2008 to sell off several of its newspapers throughout the chain, AOL's (AOL) spinofffrom Time Warner (TWX) in 2009, Time Warner's planned spinoff of Fortune parent Time Inc., and so on. Interestingly enough, just as experts years ago thought big media would threaten democracy, Mele fears a similar outcome as news shrinks to, say, a 140-character tweet.

    Where Mele's argument seems less convincing -- even a bit alarmist -- is when he highlights the end of big companies. Just as the end of big journalism and government could lead to a serious accountability gap, the same problem could arise with the end of big business: "In this respect, we might even return to the 19th century, when any quack could make bizarre advertising claims, and you had no way of knowing if you were getting medicine or baking soda."

    It's true the Internet has disrupted some of America's biggest retailers. Take a look at big-box chains such as Barnes & Noble (BKS), which has closed hundreds of stores as it struggles to compete with the likes of Amazon (AMZN). What's more, companies like Etsy and Quirky have empowered entrepreneurs in the retail space.

    While small companies may be getting more competitive, Mele acknowledges not all big companies are getting smaller. In fact, the biggest ones have been sitting on record levels of cash for years.

    What's more, Wall Street isn't getting smaller, either. Three years after President Obama vowed to eliminate the danger of financial institutions that are too big to fail, the nation's largest banks are bigger than they were prior to the financial meltdown. As critics argue, the scale of these institutions poses an enormous threat to the security of the global financial system.

    Nonetheless, the end of big is hitting many aspects of our lives. And Mele makes us seriously think about the world we live in today and, more importantly, how we'd like to live in it tomorrow.