亞馬遜公司（Amazon）：搭建數字媒體和商務之橋

????如果說Facebook是社交聯系的最終平臺，那么亞馬遜就應該是媒體和商務的終極平臺。亞馬遜已經在重新定義自身方面取得了驚人的成就。它最初是一家書商，后來成為一家零售商，并且開始代表其他零售商，但最重要的是，亞馬遜如今已經演變為一家媒體和設備公司。

????盡管如此，漫無目的的做法并不會幫助亞馬遜成為嫁接數字媒體和商務的主導性平臺。亞馬遜的產品名錄中含有巨額資產，無論是實體貨物，還是數字產品。它還擁有設備，它們是通往消費者的獨特渠道的設備——至少目前是這樣。但要釋放潛力，亞馬遜需要將其平臺延伸至商業交易領域，無論這種交易發生在何地。

????除了數字商品，亞馬遜還應該致力于數字貨幣和消費者管理的研發；收購地理定位社交網站Square將起到巨大的推動作用，它最終將幫助杰夫?貝索斯及其團隊為世界各地的交易提供動力。亞馬遜之于商業交易（商業的操作系統），就猶如Facebook之于社會交往。實際上，亞馬遜擁有為所有的商業，而不僅僅是餐飲業提供OpenTable式服務的機遇。它已經有了貨物和客戶關系。它所需要的，僅僅是把注意力放在更大的機會上面而已。

雅虎公司（Yahoo）：明確品牌真正的價值所在

????一方面，雅虎是目前最令人印象深刻的全數字媒體公司。它擁有龐大的消費群體、廣泛的產品組合、一份無與倫比的遺產（它曾經是第一代互聯網公司的超級明星）和獨特的亞洲市場深入度。然而，它也是市場上最令人失望的數字媒體公司，雅虎的品牌對于它的大多數用戶來說已經變得越來越莫名其妙。

????近來，人們主要關注的是雅虎的財務狀況。但不管最終是誰收購這家公司，它的視野都必須超越融合、剝離和成本削減等財務問題。相反，收購者必須搞清楚如何把握雅虎的核心。而這一切都歸結到一個關鍵問題：雅虎能提供哪些東西才能保證每天都能吸引受眾的關注？

????迄今為止，雅虎的絕招一直是其電郵服務。雅虎郵箱（Yahoo Mail）為雅虎帶來了約75%的媒體流量。但雅虎郵箱的流量目前并未持續增長。網絡趨勢調查公司康姆斯科(ComScore)的數據顯示，去年，雅虎郵箱的流量略有萎縮。所以，雅虎目前的選擇是，創新溝通服務，以超越Gmail、Skype等網絡溝通服務；抑或，辛勤工作，開始再次探尋雅虎真正代表的事物。這家公司植根深厚。它是受眾尋求趣聞軼事，閑情逸致，以消遣時日的天然品牌。底線是，雅虎必須有能力執行以上兩種選擇，但愿它不要等著了結財務問題之后才開始著手做這些事情。

華盛頓郵報：重塑受打擊最嚴重的媒體類別

????如果我們必須得點出受打擊最嚴重的媒體行業，那無疑就是報紙了。唐?格雷厄姆最近說，這一行業正在“土崩瓦解”。但他并沒有眼睜睜地看著這一切發生，而是充滿干勁地進行干預。格雷厄姆及其團隊重振報業的決心給我留下了難以磨滅的印象，尤其是在我跟其他幾乎癱瘓的報業機構進行了交談之后。《華盛頓郵報》（Washington Post）正在把增勢最迅猛的互聯網趨勢，即社交媒體，融入它的業務。由于這一舉動事關《華盛頓郵報》這一極具價值，備受尊崇的品牌，其風險顯然非常大。然而，唐?格雷厄姆及其首席數字官維杰?拉文德蘭并非出于恐懼才采取措施，而是在主動利用機遇，去接觸、發展和保留核心受眾。與此同時，他們正放低身段，積極吸引不再購買報紙的年輕受眾?！度A盛頓郵報》社交閱覽器（The Washington Post Social Reader）就是一個最顯著的例子。搶先行消費者一步，在社交網絡上創造出一種人們自己都沒有意識到的全新體驗，這是相當大膽的一步棋（爆料：我的公司Wetpaint與《華盛頓郵報》存在合作關系）。

????未來10年，數字媒體領域還將涌現出一些令人驚嘆的人才。這些未來之星將利用技術變革帶來的這些驚人變化，構筑出令人神往的數字媒體天空。

????本文作者Ben Elowitz 是下一代網絡出版商Wetpaint公司創始人之一，公司首席執行官。寫有探討數字媒體未來的博客Digital Quarters和簡報Media Success 。在Wetpaint之前，他跟人合伙創建了藍色尼羅河公司（Blue Nile）。

????譯者：任文科

Amazon (AMZN): Fully bridge digital media and commerce.

????If Facebook is the ultimate platform for social connectivity, it's pretty clear that Amazon should be the ultimate platform for media and commerce. Amazon has already made amazing progress in redefining itself. It started as a bookseller, became a retailer, began representing other retailers and, most importantly, has morphed into a media and device company. And, as if that's not enough, its Web Services power tons of other companies that make the Internet fascinating.

????That said, a scattershot approach won't help Amazon become the single defining platform that bridges digital media and commerce. Amazon has tremendous assets in its catalogue, in terms of both physical and digital goods. And it also has devices that give it a unique channel to the consumer -- for the time being, at least. But to fulfill its true potential, Amazon needs to extend its platform all the way to commercial transactions, wherever they happen.

????Beyond digital goods, Amazon should be working on digital currency and customer management; an acquisition of Square would be a tremendous accelerator here, and it would ultimately help Jeff Bezos and his team power transactions wherever in the world they take place. What Facebook is to our social transactions, Amazon should be to our commercial ones -- an OS for commerce. Indeed, Amazon has the opportunity to provide OpenTable-like services, for all commerce, not just for the restaurant industry. It's already got the goods and the customer relationships.

Yahoo (YHOO): Decide what the brand really stands for.

????On one hand, Yahoo is the most impressive all-digital media company there is. It has tremendous access to a huge audience of consumers, a broad product portfolio, an unrivaled heritage as a first-generation superstar and a unique reach into Asia. And yet, it's also the most disappointing digital media company in the marketplace, so much so that its brand increasingly stands for nothing in particular to most of its audience.

????Of late, attention has been focused on Yahoo from a financial point of view. But whoever eventually buys the company must look beyond integration, splitting and cost cutting. Instead, the acquirer will have to figure out what to do with Yahoo's core. And it all comes down to one key question: What can Yahoo provide to its audience to earn their attention every day?

????To date, the hook has been email. Yahoo Mail is responsible for about 75% of Yahoo's media traffic. But Yahoo Mail isn't growing. In the last year, it shrank slightly (<1 %), according to data from comScore. So, for Yahoo, the choices are to innovate in communication to leapfrog Gmail, Skype, and the lot; or else to do the hard work and start figuring out again what Yahoo really stands for. The company has great roots. It has a natural brand for serendipitous discovery, for fun and interesting news to make your day. The bottom line is that Yahoo should be able to execute on both the options listed above, hopefully without waiting for the financial dust to settle.

Washington Post (WPO): Re-inventing media's most ravaged category.

????If we had to name the most ravaged sector of media, it would certainly have to be newspapers. Don Graham recently said the industry is "collapsing." But, he's not just watching it happen; he's actively and energetically intervening. I've been incredibly impressed by the way Graham and his team are up for re-inventing the category, especially as I've talked to other organizations that are nearly paralyzed. Instead, WaPo is applying the greatest growth trend of the Internet -- social media -- to its business. With its inordinately valuable and trusted brand at stake in the Washington Post, the risks are clearly high. Rather than acting out of fear, Don and his Chief Digital Officer, Vijay Ravindran, are taking aggressive advantage of opportunities to engage, grow and retain their core audience. At the same time, they're downshifting to the younger audience that just isn't buying newspapers. The Washington Post Social Reader is the flagship example, and it's a bold move to jump ahead of the consumer and create a new experience for people that they didn't know they needed, all on the social Web. [Full disclosure: My company Wetpaint works with the Post.]

????We will see other awesome and amazing talents emerge in digital media over the next decade. These greats-in-the-making will help build on the staggering changes that technological change has wrought.

????Ben Elowitz is co-founder and CEO of next-generation Web publisher Wetpaint, and author of the Digital Quarters blog and Media Success newsletter about the future of digital media. Prior to Wetpaint, Elowitz co-founded Blue Nile.