更好的产品和更低的价格，鱼和熊掌可兼得

编者按：本文编译自 Sarah Tavel 的博文《How to build an enduring, multi-billion dollar business》。 Tavel 是前 Pinterest 产品经理，现 Greylock 合伙人。

译者戴汨，愉悦资本创始合伙人（midai@joycapital.com.cn, 微信 midai2008）。

关于创建伟大的公司，很多人都提过 10 倍产品的概念，但是 10 倍产品并不够，10 倍产品并且更加便宜才是消费者的杀手。至于如果更加便宜，则需要颠覆现有的行业成本结构。

Enjoy：

In my last post, I wrote that Uber built a multi-billion dollar business by using mobile to create a 10x better product than the incumbent (taxis), and did so at a lower price. The “and”, as I wrote, is everything.  

上一篇文章里，我写了Uber是如何利用移动技术创造一个比现有产品（出租车）好10倍的产品从而成为一家几十亿美金的公司，并且实现了更低的价格。如我所写，“并且”这个词，才是一切。 

What’s exciting to me is that Uber is not the first, nor will it be the last. Indeed, when you start to look for it, you realize “[10x product] and save people money” is the undercurrent running through dozens of breakout companies ranging from Airbnb (a Greylock company) to WhatsApp.  

让我兴奋的是，Uber并不是第一个这样的公司，也不会是最后一个。事实上，当你开始研究它，你会发现”10倍产品并且帮人省钱“才是从Airbnb到WhatsApp这些突破性的公司所拥有的共同特性。 

What’s Amazon? Endless selection/convenience and the best price.  

亚马逊是什么？无尽的选择和便利，并且最好的价格。 

Remember Netflix’s original marketing? More selection/convenience than your neighborhood Blockbuster, and no late fees. 

还记得Netflix最初的广告？ 比你小区的Blockbuster店更多的选择和便利，并且没有滞纳金。 

Airbnb is all about unique accommodations and it’scheaper than a hotel.  

Airbnb的全部就是：独特的住宿体验，并且比酒店便宜。 

Skype introduced presence/chat etc, and free international calls. WhatsApp did to international SMS what Skype did to international calls.  

Skype推出了在线/聊天功能等，并且免费的国际电话。Whatapp对国际短信做的事，和Skype对国际电话做的事如出一辙。 

Alibaba, Craigslist, CreditKarma, eBay, Expedia, Poshmark, Priceline, Orbitz, Shutterfly, Transferwise, TurboTax, …. I could go on. (Oh, and if you’re building one, I’d obviously love to hear from you: tavel@greylock.com.)  

Alibaba, Craigslist, CreditKarma, eBay, Expedia, Poshmark, Priceline, Orbitz, Shutterfly, Transferwise, TurboTax等等，我可以一直往下列举。 他们都一样。

It shouldn’t be a surprise that 10x + cheaper is such a killer combo for consumers. Who doesn’t want something better, cheaper? It also happens to be a great catalyst for word of mouth. People love to talk about a new service they discovered that’s better and saved them money — telling a friend how to save $20 can feel like actually giving the friend $20.  

丝毫不奇怪，10倍产品+便宜对消费者而言就是杀手级的组合。谁不希望东西更好、更便宜。这样的产品对口碑传播也具有巨大的催化作用。如果有这样的新服务，人们都喜欢谈论——因为告诉一个朋友如何节省20美金感觉就像给了他们20美金。 

So how did they do it? Or perhaps more pointedly, how can you do it? 

那么这些公司如何做到的？或者更重要的是，你如何做到呢？ 

To me, there are two key ingredients:  

我认为，有两个关键要素。 

1. It’s about the [10x product]. Saving money is pouring gas on the fire. （10倍产品先行，省钱就像火上浇油） 

As my former Pinterest colleague David Rubin pointed out to me, your service shouldn’t lead with “saving money”. You must create an offering that is so compelling, it stands by itself in the consumer’s mind. 

正如我以前Pinterest的同事大卫·鲁宾指出的，你的服务不应该以“省钱”为先行。你必须创建一个产品，它本身引人注目，可以占领消费者的心智。 

Case in point: when I first started to talk to people about my thesis, they’d push back. “Uber is just so much better than a taxi.” “Amazon is all about convenience.” “Airbnb is experiences you can’t get at a hotel.” Of course, they’re right, but it’s the “and” that accelerated the behavior change for most people. The 10x product is what kept those people as customers. 

当我第一次和人们谈论我的观点的时候，他们会反击。 “Uber的成功就是在于比出租车好太多。”“亚马逊的一切就是方便。”“Airbnb成功就是在于你不能从酒店得到的体验。”当然，他们是对的，但是只有“并且”的存在才能加速改变大部分人的消费习惯。从根本而言，10倍的产品让人们成为顾客。 

If you can get people to take your price advantage for granted, you’ve won. If on the other hand, your brand becomes more identified with saving money, then that’s likely because your offering isn’t sufficiently differentiated. Saving money is the feature. This puts incredible downward pressure on a company’s unit economics. It’s a lot harder to build an enduring business if you’re forced to constantly optimize for price. Think: flash sale and deal sites. 

如果你可以让人们把你的价格优势当做理所当然的，你就赢了。如果是另一方面，你的品牌变得更加等同于省钱，那么这可能是因为你的产品没有足够的差异化。省钱变成了主要特征。这将给公司的单位经济造成难以置信的下行压力。如果你被迫不断优化价格，你就很难很难建立一个持久的业务。想想闪购和团购网站。

The one exception I’d add here is that “free” is its own 10x product. If you can offer something for free that used to cost lots of people money (I’m looking at you Skype and WhatsApp), growth will be the least of your worries. 

我需要补充的唯一例外是：“免费”本身就是10倍的产品。如果你能让原来花钱的产品变得免费（比如Skype和WhatsApp），增长就无需任何担心。 

2. Use technology to recast incumbent cost structures.（采用技术重构现有者的成本结构）

Okay, so you’ve got a 10x service. That’s the easy part. Providing the 10x product cheaper in a sustainable way is where the rubber hits the road.  

好了，你已经有了一个10倍的服务。这是比较容易的部分。以可持续的方式更加便宜的提供了10倍的产品才是实际挑战。 

The key is to use technology to recast incumbent cost structures. This creates a structural cost advantage, and if you have economies of scale or network effects, an advantage that can endure as you grow. 

关键是要利用技术来重塑行业现有者的成本结构。这将创建一个结构性的成本优势，如果你有规模效应或者网络效应，当你增长的时候这个优势就将持续存在。 

Here are some of the strategies companies have used to do this: 

以下是一些公司已经采用的的战略： 

• E-Commerce （电子商务） 

E-Commerce companies disrupted brick and mortar retailers by centralizing operations and benefiting from economies of scale. 

电子商务公司通过集中的运营实现规模化优势，颠覆了线下的实体零售。 

• Sharing economy （共享经济） 
  

The “sharing” economy enables companies to unlock latent value in underutilized assets, and by doing so disrupts asset heavy approaches. 

共享经济通过解放闲置资产的潜在价值颠覆了重资产的运营模式。 

• Peer to peer marketplaces （P2P交易市场） 

P2P marketplaces eliminate broker fees and middlemen, letting them pass savings to participants in their marketplace and reducing operation costs. 

P2P交易市场消除了经纪人费和中间人，把节省的费用交给了市场的参与者，降低了运营成本。

• “Full stack” startups （一体化公司） 

More broadly, “full stack” startups use technology to fundamentally rethink services and disrupt the incumbents. 

更广阔的看，一体化公司采用技术从根本上重新构建服务，颠覆现有的玩家。

• Emerging: AI, virtual reality, others?（未来：AI， VR，其他？） 

Fast forward, and I’ve got to imagine that in addition to the existing techniques I mentioned, emerging technologies like AI and virtual reality will create a new class of 10x products that save consumers money. 

往前看，除了现有的技术，新的技术如AI和VR会创造新的10倍产品品类，并且为消费者省钱。

For example, imagine not having to travel to the Serengeti because you can have an experience in virtual reality that’s just like being on a safari, or getting a prescription almost immediately because you’ve been diagnosed by a neural network. 

例如，想象一下你不再需要去塞伦盖蒂公园（坦桑尼亚），因为你可以在虚拟现实中体验，就像是亲临了野生公园的旅行；或者，你可以立即收到治疗处方，因为你已经被神经网络诊断过了。 

It’s hard not to get excited for future startups capitalizing on these strategies. 

一想到未来的创业公司可以利用这些技术，我没有理由不感到兴奋。