十问BuzzFeed国际业务副总裁

    这种做法行得通吗？

    我认为行得通。特别是法语、西班牙语和葡萄牙语，比我们预想的要好得多。似乎其它地区对BuzzFeed的模式非常感兴趣。在其它的媒体市场中，本土的数字刊物并不多见。这些地方仍拥有非常有影响力的大型报纸和杂志企业，它们正试图与网络接轨，而且在这些国家中，与BuzzFeed有着类似业务的初创企业少之又少。

    什么最具吸引力：娱乐榜单还是正统新闻？

    一直以来，我们所翻译的榜单的数量在不断增多。在这个过程中，弄清楚哪些能翻，哪些不能翻是一件很有意思的事情。那些很直观的东西翻译起来很容易，而且不受文化的限制，这类事物往往会拥有更大的影响力。

    我们做的很多榜单都与老龄化有关，一切与衰老焦虑有关的话题在不同文化中都很受欢迎，子女教育话题亦是如此。我看见这种话题的反应是，“那是当然。”这并不会让人感到惊讶，因为它是一个共同话题。这些帖子的分享率也非常高，它们使用了很多GIF动画。

    那么GIF是一种通用语言吗？

    网页里多少有一些国际通用语言。GIF是其中的一部分，特别是如果你不用看最底行的文字内容就能看懂的话。它们是共享文化的一部分。它们与好莱坞有着密切关系，但是网页文化给人的感受通常是共通的，因为从创建之初，网站就是全球性的。YouTube便是一个非常出色的国际性网站。《江南Style》这样的单曲之所以能变得如此火的原因在于，人们无需看懂歌词便能欣赏这首歌曲。网页文化便是这样。成为以网页为主要载体的刊物、并且能用这种语言进行表达有一定的优势。

    到目前为止，你都看到了哪些有意思的文化差异？

    在英国，文化差异并不明显，而且语言上也没有障碍。但是，如果你看看英国团队所发的帖子，他们的确会给人一种不同的感觉。BuzzFeed美国非常有激情，而且基本上比较乐观。他们奉行的是一种“非仇视”政策。BuzzFeed英国办事处的风格跟英剧《办公室》（Office）有点类似，更挖苦，更辛辣。他们已经形成了自己的一套风格，而且看待事物的角度也不同。

    一直以来，互联网中最为老生常谈的话题莫过于猫。在法国，人们倾向于点击可爱、逗乐的事物，但是他们并不会去分享这些东西。他们更情愿站在政治或相反的立场上来进行分享，而这也影响了法国编辑看待翻译的方式以及她创建内容的种类。

    国际市场的广告商能理解本土广告和赞助内容这个趋势吗，或者你们是否会成为这些市场中第一个吃螃蟹的人？

    在很多地方，我们都将成为第一个吃螃蟹的人。两三年前，美国市场也出现了类似的、有关本土广告的探讨。在一些地方，事情甚至还没进展到那一步。巴西、德国数字市场发展的方式会与我们在美国经历的发展方式类似，而社交广告这种概念仍然比较陌生。

    你会成立本土销售团队，或在全球各地向美国公司提供广告服务吗，例如拉美分公司与英特尔做的第一笔生意？

    就理想状态而言，每个市场都将是内外兼修。目前，我们合作的很多品牌都是国际性品牌。其它媒体公司，例如The Mail online和《卫报》（The Guardian）都已经大规模地拓展了自己的全球业务，而且众多品牌已开始思考统一全球广告用词，我们希望继续与它们保持合作。（财富中文网）

    Did it work?

    I think it has. Especially in French, Spanish, and Portuguese, it works much better than we thought it would. It seems like there's a real hunger for the model that BuzzFeed has in other places. There are not a lot of digitally native publications in a lot of these other media markets. They still have very powerful large newspapers and magazines that are trying to adapt to the web, but very few startups along the lines of BuzzFeed in these countries.

    What's gotten the most interest: the entertaining lists or the journalism-with-a-capital-J?

    We have been translating a much higher volume of lists. It has been interesting to see what does well and what doesn't. Stuff that is highly visual is much easier to translate, and irrespective of your culture, something like that tends to have a much bigger impact.

    A lot of the lists we do about aging, anything about the anxiety of getting older does really well across cultures, as well as things about parenting. When I saw that, I was like, "Of course." It shouldn't have come as a surprise. It's universal. Those posts are also very BuzzFeed-y. They use a lot of animated GIFs.

    So are GIFs the universal language?

    There is a bit of an international language on the web. GIFs are a part of it, especially if they're not all about the text at the bottom. They are a part of a shared culture. They're tied to Hollywood, but the sensibility of web culture is fairly universal because from its inception, it's global. YouTube is an incredibly global site. A hit like Gangnam Style was so big because it was easy to enjoy even without understanding the lyrics. That's true of web culture. There's an advantage to being a web-first publication and being able to speak that language.

    Any interesting cultural differences you've observed so far?

    In the U.K., the cultural difference is not so great, and there's not the same language barrier. But if you look at the posts the U.K. team is doing, they do have a different sensibility. BuzzFeed in the U.S. is very enthusiastic and largely positive. They have a bit of a "no haters" policy. Similar to the original Office, the sensibility in the U.K. is a little more satirical and biting. They have developed their own sensibility and have approached things in a different way.

    One of the greatest Internet clichés of all time is cats. In France, people might click on cute cuddly things, but they don't share them. They would much rather share something with a political or contrarian take, and that has affected the way the French editor thinks about translating and what kind of content to create herself.

    Have advertisers in international markets caught onto this whole native advertising and sponsored content trend, or are you going to be the trailblazers there?

    In a lot of places we're going to be trailblazers. The conversations about native advertising are similar to what we saw in the U.S. two to three years ago. In some places, it's not even at that point. The way the digital market is developing is very similar in Brazil and Germany to what we saw here, and this notion of social advertising is still fairly new.

    Will you build out local sales teams, or sell ads to American companies with global presence, such as your first deal with Intel in Latin America?

    Ideally for us it will be a mix in each market. A lot of our brands that we work with currently are also global brands. Other media companies like The Mail online and The Guardian have been expanding their global footprint a lot, and as brands are starting to think about unifying their global message, we'd like to continue working with them.