The owner of TikTok, the world’s hottest social media app at the moment, is preparing to launch its own smartphone, reports the Financial Times.

抖音目前是全球最火的社交應用，據《金融時報》報道，它的母公司正準備推出自己的智能手機。

The FT says TikTok owner ByteDance will leverage the patents and technology it acquired when it bought Chinese boutique smartphone maker Smartisan earlier this year.

《金融時報》稱抖音母公司字節跳動科技有限公司今年早些時候收購了中國精品智能手機制造商錘子科技公司，而他們將利用的專利和技術正是來自這家公司。

That’s according to two sources with knowledge of ByteDance’s plans, the FT says.

《金融時報》稱消息來源是兩位了解字節跳動計劃的人士。

While in the U.S. ByteDance is primarily known for its insanely popular video streaming platform TikTok, the company also has other popular apps in China including news aggregator Toutiao, a work collaboration tool called Lark, an instant messenger called Feiliao, and an upcoming music streaming app.

在美國字節跳動公司最火的是現下正流行的視頻平臺“抖音”，這家公司在中國還有其他流行的應用程序，包括新聞聚合器“今日頭條”、辦公套件Lark、即時通訊工具“飛聊”，還有一個即將推出的音樂流媒體應用。

So where does a ByteDance smartphone come into the picture? By offering its own smartphone and preinstalling its family of apps on it, ByteDance can greatly expand the number of users of its entire app ecosystem.

那么字節跳動公司的智能手機會從哪兒入手呢？字節跳動公司通過推出自己的智能手機，并在手機里預安裝所有本公司的應用，就能大幅提高應用程序的總體用戶數量。

Smartphone app pre-installs have long been a popular way for software companies in China to increase their apps’ user bases, and with the popularity of TikTok, it wants to leverage that app’s star power to push a smartphone with the company’s other apps on it.

在中國智能手機預裝應用程序一直是軟件公司提高應用程序用戶群的流行方式。抖音大火，它的母公司想利用這款應用的明星效應來推出一款預裝了該公司其他應用的手機。

Even though the smartphone market in China is already crowded by bigger players like Huawei, Apple, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi, the move makes sense.

即使中國的智能手機市場已被更大的供應商擠占，如華為、蘋果、Vivo，Oppo和小米，但該公司此舉也合情合理。

After all, the more a company diversifies its offerings, the less risk the company has if one of its apps flounder in the future. And while TikTok clearly dominates the social media landscape right now, apps that cater to the whims of teens are also susceptible to teenagers’ fickle behaviors.

畢竟一家公司產品的經營范圍越大，將來某款應用發展不好時公司承受的風險就越小。雖然抖音現在占據社交網絡的頭把交椅，但這些一時能滿足青少年興致的應用也會因他們的善變而受到影響。

What teens can consider hot one moment, they can shun the next when a newer app comes along. If ByteDance can expand the user bases of its other apps, their growth could buffer any decline in TikTok’s use in the future.

青少年們一時特別喜歡一個應用，等出了新的應用他們又會喜新厭舊。如果字節跳動公司能擴大其他應用的用戶群，將來抖音熱度下降時其他應用的發展也會彌補一些。

重點單詞

ecosystem   n. 生態系統

fickle   adj. 變幻無常的，輕浮的，（愛情或友情上）易變的

shun   v. 避開，規避，避免

susceptible   adj. 易受外界影響的，易受感染的

landscape   n. 風景，山水，風景畫   v. 美化景觀

flounder   v. 掙扎，躊躇，笨拙而錯亂地說或做  n. 掙扎，錯亂的

messenger   n. 報信者，先驅

expand   v. 增加，詳述，擴展，使 ... 膨脹，

platform  n. 平臺，站臺，月臺，講臺，(政黨的)政綱

decline   n. 衰微，跌落; 晚年