打破垄断：用交易所模式管理叫车平台

Uber has tried hard to destroy itself. Its failure to do so — despite every infraction short of assaulting the customers — shows the powerful forces turning the ride-hailing app into a monopoly. Such dominance is good for neither drivers nor passengers. There is, however, an elegant answer: to copy the very symbol of free market capitalism and treat Uber like what it truly is, a stock exchange.

优步(Uber)正在作死。之所以屡屡出事(就差出现攻击顾客的事件了)还没有倒闭，显示出将这一叫车应用变为一家垄断企业的强大力量。这种支配地位对司机和乘客都不是好事。然而，有一个优雅的解决方案是：复制自由市场资本主义的典型标志，把优步当作一家证券交易所(它实质上就是)。

Online platforms such as Uber for rides, eBay for auctions or Airbnb for hotels enjoy a network effect. This very quickly results in one player in the market. The more drivers on Uber’s taxi-hailing app, the better for riders; once the riders are using Uber, the drivers can go nowhere else. That network effect underpins its $70bn valuation, forced Uber to sell its China operation to local leader Didi Chuxing, and explains why behaviour such as founder Travis Kalanick’s sweary tirade at a driver does little business harm.

叫车应用优步、拍卖网站eBay、共享民宿网站爱彼迎(Airbnb)等在线平台拥有网络效应。这很快就会导致市场上一家独大。优步叫车应用上的司机越多，对乘客越有利;一旦乘客都使用优步，司机们便无他处可去。这种网络效应支撑着优步700亿美元的估值，也迫使优步将其在华业务出售给中国本土市场领导者滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)，还可以解释为什么创始人特拉维斯•卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)对一名优步司机进行人身攻击的行为，没有对优步造成多少伤害。

Platforms are one species of the superstar companies taking an increasing share of total income in the economy, according to economist David Autor and colleagues. A dominant Uber is bad for riders, who get no choice or innovation; bad for drivers, who face a monopoly employer; bad for competitors, who have no chance no matter how good their product; bad, in short, for everyone except a few founding investors who capture most of the value in the global taxi industry, forever, simply by moving aggressively on a fairly obvious idea.

根据经济学教授戴维•奥托尔(David Autor)及其同事的研究，在线平台这类超级明星公司正在拿走经济总收入中越来越大的份额。支配着市场的优步对乘客有害，因为后者没有了选择，也享受不到创新;对司机有害，因为后者面对一个垄断雇主;对竞争对手有害，因为无论后者的产品多好，都没机会赢;简言之，这样的优步对所有人都有害，除了对少数创始投资者——他们永久性地占据了全球出租车行业的大多数价值，仅仅因为大胆实施了一个很大程度上没有新意的想法。

Monopoly ruins capitalism. But traditional antitrust measures — ordering a break-up or regulating prices or conduct — are powerless before the network effect. Europe is fining Google €2.4bn for abuse of its dominance in web search. The Democratic party in the US wants tougher scrutiny of mergers. Neither will make much difference to platforms such as Uber.

垄断会毁灭资本主义。但传统的反垄断措施——要求拆分垄断企业、或监管价格或企业行为——在网络效应面前不起作用。谷歌因滥用网络搜索领域的支配地位在欧洲被罚24亿欧元。美国民主党希望对并购进行更严格的审查。这些举措都不会对优步等在线平台产生多大影响。

What we need is a shift in perspective, a change in our understanding of what a business like Uber really is: not a smartphone app, not a taxi-hailing service, not a software company, but a marketplace where buyers meet sellers in order to trade. Uber, a classic middleman, has inserted itself between the two.

我们需要转换视角，改变我们对优步企业本质的理解：优步不是一款智能手机应用，不是一种叫车服务，不是一家软件公司，而是一个集市：想要做成交易的买家和卖家在这里会面。优步是一个典型的中间商，已占据了买卖双方之间的位置。

There is a fine, historical model of how to run a fair and open market. Stock exchanges evolved out of the physical marketplace of a coffee shop, but online platforms need the modern version that began in 1975, when Congress created the National Market System in order to boost competition in equity trading. It should pass a similar law for online platforms.

如何运营一个公平、开放的市场，有一种完善的传统模式。最早的证券交易所就是咖啡馆的实体店铺，但在线平台需要参照的是1975年开始的现代版交易所，当时美国国会创建了全国市场体系(National Market System)，以促进股票交易的竞争。国会应该为在线平台通过一部类似的法律。

The NMS has several rules but two matter a lot. The access rule says markets must maintain electronic links to share buy and sell orders. The order protection rule says brokers must send orders to the venue with the best price. Together, they turn multiple stock exchanges into a single composite market. Everyone can see and trade with everyone else.

全国市场体系有多条规则，但其中有两条最重要。接入规则规定，各市场必须允许人们用电子方式接入、查询买卖订单。订单保护规则规定，经纪人必须将订单发给价格最优的交易所。这两条规则合起来，将多个证券交易所变成了一个综合市场。每个人都可以相互看到和交易。

Almost exactly the same rules would work for ride sharing. The access rule would require Uber and its rivals to provide each other with feeds of bids — that is, geo-located passengers looking for a ride — and feeds of offers — drivers looking for a passenger. The order protection rule would require Uber to match riders with the closest available driver, whether that driver was using their own app or a different one, such as Lyft.

相同的规则几乎完全适用于叫车领域。接入规则将要求优步及竞争对手互相提供需求信息(即处于某一位置、正在找车的乘客)和供给信息(正在找乘客的司机)。订单保护规则将要求优步将乘客与距离最近的可接单司机进行匹配，无论这个司机使用的是优步，还是Lyft等别的应用。

For a passenger, that means when they open their Uber app, they can see and hail cars driving for Uber, Lyft or any other provider. Likewise for drivers. All the market’s liquidity is available through every provider. The network effect becomes irrelevant. The monopoly is broken.

对乘客而言，这意味着当他们打开优步叫车应用时，他们可以看到并呼叫优步、Lyft或其他任何服务提供商旗下的汽车。对司机而言也一样。通过每一家服务提供商，都可以接入整个市场的资源。网络效应变得无关紧要。垄断被打破了。

Competition would sweep the market with profound results. Existing operators would give up loss-leader pricing. New services would spring up to connect riders and drivers to the market: if Uber’s chief executive swore at a driver, the driver could easily go elsewhere. A genuine market price would emerge for the brokerage service that apps provide.

竞争将会给这一市场带来深远影响。现有运营商将放弃“赔本赚吆喝”的定价策略。将乘客与司机连入这一市场的新服务将涌现：如果优步首席执行官对一名司机进行人身攻击，这名司机可以很容易地到转投其他服务。叫车应用提供的经纪服务将形成真正的市场价格。

Turning platforms into exchanges would need a certain amount of infrastructure: a settlement system, for example, so passengers using one app could pay drivers using another, leave feedback or resolve disputes. But if it is possible to link trillions of dollars in trading across thousands of equities on dozens of exchanges, then it is possible to do the same for ride-sharing.

将在线平台变为交易所需要一定的基础设施：例如一个结算系统，这样使用一款应用的乘客可以付款给使用别的应用的司机，留下反馈或解决纠纷。但如果可以做到将数十个交易所数以千计股票的数万亿美元交易相互连接，那么将同样的模式复制到叫车服务上也可以实现。

Just as in financial markets, exchanges work best when a product is standardised, but the principle extends to other platforms with a network effect. Luigi Zingales and Guy Rolnick of the University of Chicago have made a similar proposal for social networks: that data portability is required, so a user can access all their Twitter data from Facebook, or vice versa.

正如金融市场一样，当一种产品标准化的时候，交易所才能发挥最佳作用，但这一原则同样适用于其他具有网络效应的平台。芝加哥大学(University of Chicago)的路易吉•津加莱斯(Luigi Zingales)和盖伊•罗尔尼克(Guy Rolnick)对社交网络提出了类似的建议：数据应该是可移动的，这样用户就能够从Facebook访问自己所有的Twitter数据，反之亦然。

The case to act is especially strong in Europe, where foreign players dominate ride sharing or it is not allowed at all. Moving to an exchange would offer a fresh start.

在外国企业主导叫车市场的欧洲，采取行动的理由尤其充分。转为交易所模式将带来一个全新的开始。

Ride sharing and other online platforms have brought great benefits for buyers and sellers alike. To wreck that with regulation would be wrong. But shifting to an exchange makes the transaction more efficient, not less. In a world of rising discontent about wage stagnation and the fairness of the capitalist system, this is a liberal, free-market answer. The Silicon Valley trend of the past few years is an “Uber for everything”. Let us have an exchange for everything instead.

叫车平台及其他在线平台给买家和卖家都带来了巨大好处。用监管来破坏这一切是不对的。但转变为交易所式管理会使交易更高效，而不是使效率降低。在一个对工资停滞和资本主义体系的公平性日益不满的世界，这是一个自由主义的、自由市场式解决方案。硅谷过去几年的趋势是“一切都优步化”(Uber for everything)。让我们转而把一切都“交易所化”。