微信收费惹众怒.doc

微信收费引发众怒 2013-04-03 来源:WSJ【大 中 小】 Outrage Online Over Rumored Threat to Beloved App China’s state-run telecom companies are no strangers to angry customers, who complain loudly and often about poor service or hidden charges. But the companies experienced a new level of consumer rage over the weekend as rumors emerged that they’re working on a plan to charge for the use of the country’s most popular free mobile application, which they did not develop and do not operate.中国国有电信运营商已经不是第一次惹怒客户了。消费者常常会大声控诉其服务差或隐性收费。不过在上周末，这些运营商感受到了消费者的又一股冲天怒气，原因是有传言称，运营商在制定计划，准备对中国一款人气极旺的免费移动应用软件的使用收费。该软件不是这些运营商开发和运营的。The application in question is WeChat, a messaging and social media program created by China’s largest listed Internet company Tencent. Since its introduction two years ago, the app, which allows users to send voice and text messages and also share photos with groups of contacts, has accrued more than 300 million users.上述软件其实就是微信(WeChat)，中国最大的上市互联网公司腾讯(Tencent)创建的可传送消息的社交媒体平台。自从两年前发布以来，微信用户目前已超三亿。用户可利用这款软件发送语音和文本信息，还可建群并与之互享图片。 In what would amount to both a tribute and a threat to WeChat’s success, Chinese media have reported in recent weeks that China’s three telecom service providers have been meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to work out a way to charge for the service. Those rumors took on new weight over the weekend when Miao Wei, the head of MIIT, was quoted by business magazine Caixin as saying that it was possible that a small charge would be added (in Chinese).中文媒体近几周报道称，中国三大电信服务提供商一直在与中国工业和信息化部（简称工信部）协商，欲找到有关微信收费的办法。这既是对微信获得成功的褒奖，也是对它的威胁。这些谣言在上周末愈传愈烈，当时商业杂志《财新》援引工信部部长苗圩的话说，有可能对微信进行小幅收费。MIIT declined to comment when contacted by China Real Time on Monday and has so far made no mention of any potential charges for WeChat on its website.《华尔街日报》“中国实时报”栏目记者周一联系了工信部。该部拒绝置评，到目前为止也没有在官网上提到任何有关微信可能收费的事。The remark nevertheless helped push Tencent’s shares down 1.5% on Monday and drew almost universal outrage from users on China’s oth