This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
Facebook is the world's biggest social network. It has over nine hundred million users worldwide. And it reported three point seven billion dollars in sales for last year.
Facebook是全球最大的社交网络，在全球范围内拥有超过9亿用户，其公布的去年的销售额为37亿美元。
The company has been privately held since two thousand four. That was when Mark Zuckerberg and several classmates at Harvard University started Facebook as a business. But on May eighteenth, Facebook becomes a publicly traded company. That means its shares will be listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, and sold to the public.
自2004年以来该公司一直为私人持有。当时马克·扎克伯格和哈佛大学的几位同学开创了Facebook。但5月18日Facebook将成为一家上市公司。这意味着其股票将在纳斯达克证券交易所上市并向公众出售。
Interest in the stock has been building since Facebook announced details of its initial public offering, or IPO, earlier this year. The IPO will make billionaires of the company's founders, including Mr. Zuckerberg. Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder, has been strongly criticized for giving up his United States citizenship. He will avoid a fifteen percent tax on the value of his shares by claiming to be a citizen of Singapore.
自今年早些时候Facebook公布其首次公开募股（以下简称为IPO）细节以后，公众对该股票建立了浓厚兴趣。这次IPO将使得包括扎克伯格在内的公司创始人成为亿万富翁。作为该公司联合创始人之一的爱德华·萨维林（Eduardo Saverin）因为放弃其美国国籍受到强烈批评。萨维林通过宣称自己成为新加坡公民，将避免缴纳其股票价值15%的税收。
This week, Facebook told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it wanted to increase the number of shares being offered to over four hundred twenty million. The company had earlier said it planned to offer three hundred thirty-seven million. The starting price has been set at between thirty-four and thirty-eight dollars -- also an increase. Now, some financial experts say Facebook could raise sixteen billion dollars, making it one of the biggest IPOs ever.
本周，Facebook对美国证券和交易委员会表示，希望将股票发行数量增加到4.2亿股。该公司早些时候曾表示计划发行3.37亿股。股票发行价格定在34到38美元之间，这也有所提高。目前，一些金融专家称，Facebook能够募集到160亿美元，这使之成为有史以来最大一次IPO。
Facebook says most of its money comes from online advertising. But the company also says it expects to earn money from fees charged on the sales of virtual goods. These are digital products used in social games, not physical goods. Facebook says it sees important income coming from this new market, which could reach fourteen billion dollars by twenty sixteen.
Facebook表示，其资金大部分来源于网络广告。但该公司还表示，它预计将从虚拟商品销售的收费中盈利。虚拟商品是指社交游戏中使用的数字化产品，而不是实物商品。Facebook表示，它认为到2016年，来自这一新的市场的重要收入将达到140亿美元。
Not everyone is pleased. General Motors ended its advertising agreement with Facebook this week. The carmaker said it did not see results from the millions of dollars it spent on advertising with Facebook.
并非所有人都看好Facebook。通用汽车本周结束了它与Facebook的广告协议。这家汽车制造商表示未能从投入到Facebook的数百万美元广告费上看到任何结果。
And Facebook has been criticized for some recent business decisions. It offered one billion dollars to buy Instagram, an application for sharing photographs. The deal requires government approval and has yet to be finalized.
而Facebook最近的一些商业决策也饱受批评。该公司耗资10亿美元收购了Instagram，它是一个照片分享应用程序。这一交易需要获得政府批准尚有待敲定。
So is Facebook worth the price of the stock? That will be for investors to decide.
Facebook股票值这个价吗？这将由投资者决定。
(51VOA.COM对本文翻译享有全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)