You’ve heard of the sharing economy? How about the subscription¹ economy?

你一定听说过共享经济吧？那么你知道订阅式经济吗？

It’s actually not that new: Businesses have been selling monthly subscriptions² for all sorts of goods and services for years—magazines like Fortune come to mind. But more recently, all sorts of unexpected industries have started dabbling³ in subscription-based business models, offering anything from online software to toothbrushes to genome sequencing for a flat monthly fee.

实际上，这种模式并不新鲜：多年以来，许多公司一直在销售按月订阅的各种商品和服务，比如《财富》杂志（Fortune）。但最近，各种令人意想不到的行业纷纷开始采用订阅式商业模式，按每月固定费率提供从在线软件到牙刷，再到基因组测序等各种商品和服务。

One of the companies leading this charge is Zuora, a Foster City, Calif.-based startup founded by former WebEx and Salesforce.com CRM 0.84% executives. The company sells software that helps other firms move towards a subscription-based revenue business model, including tools for billing, accounting⁴ and analytics. This week, Zuora unveiled the latest version of what it calls “relationship business management” software—a suite⁵ that lets companies transition and maintain a shift from a traditional to a subscription-based revenue model. (And yes, Zuora sells its product on a subscription basis.)

而这方面的领军者之一是来自加州福斯特市的初创公司祖睿科技（Zuora）。这家公司由原网讯公司（WebEx）和客户关系管理服务公司Salesforce.com的高管们组建而成。它销售的软件帮助其他公司进一步推行订阅式商业模式，包括计费、会计和分析工具。本周，祖睿科技推出了最新版的“业务关系管理”软件——这套软件帮助公司完成从传统收入模式向订阅式收入模式的转变。（没错，祖睿科技也是采用订阅的方式销售自己产品。）

“[Relationship business management solutions] are an emerging class of software focused on building, managing and optimizing⁶ the ongoing⁷ customer relationships that are the lifeblood of a subscription businesses,” the company says in a recent press release.

这家公司在最近的新闻发布会中表示：“（业务关系管理解决方案）是一种聚焦于建立、管理和优化订阅式企业生命线，也就是动态客户关系的新兴系列软件。”

But the real news is that more and more industries are dipping their toes—a rare few even jumping in head-first—to a subscription-based, recurring⁸ revenue model. At an event hosted by Zuora this week, several of these companies came together to discuss the shifting landscape and its opportunities and challenges. At the obvious top of the subscription-based model list are cloud software companies like Salesforce.com and Box, which have always charged a monthly per-user fee for their online enterprise products. But this week’s event was also attended by a telecom firm, an online toothbrush seller and a biotechnology company, among others. Their reasoning? People today would rather subscribe⁹ to services than pony¹⁰ up the cash to own products.

但真正的新闻在于，越来越多的行业正在涉足订阅式经常性收入模式，虽然很少有公司会不计后果地跳进来。在本周祖睿科技举办的一次活动上，几家进行这类尝试的公司共同讨论了模式转变的趋势，以及所面临的机遇与挑战。订阅式商业模式处于领先的是云服务公司Salesforce.com和Box，他们从最开始便采取对用户按月收费的方式。但在本周的活动上，还出现了一家电信公司，一家在线牙刷经销商，以及一家生物科技公司。他们为什么也来参加此次活动呢？如今，人们宁愿订阅服务，也不愿意支付现金来购买产品。

Innovators like Netflix NFLX 0.42% , Zipcar CAR 2.28% and Spotify have certainly proven that subscriptions can work for more than just software. Should all industries make the switch?

奈飞（Netflix）、网上租车公司Zipcar和流媒体服务公司Spotify等创新型公司，已经证明了订阅不仅仅适用于软件行业。那么，是不是所有行业都应该转变商业模式？

The answer is complicated. Subscriptions should certainly be an option for consumers, regardless of the product type. Consumer behavior, especially among younger people, is changing, and the need to own and house goods—from music to cars to physical documents—is waning¹¹. While Wall Street grapples with how to evaluate some of the subscription-only companies (à la Box), it has clearly worked up an appetite for a recurring revenue model that gives companies all sorts of new ways to engage with old and new customers. But transitioning isn’t easy, and each company needs to evaluate the needs of its customer base—and how subscriptions could potentially open the door to new users.

这个问题比较复杂。不论哪种产品，订阅都只是消费者的一种选择。消费者的行为在不断变化，尤其是年轻一代消费者。不论是音乐、汽车还是物理文档，对消费者来说，拥有和储存商品的必要性正在减弱。华尔街对于如何评估以订阅为唯一收入来源的公司一直存在争议，但它作为一种经常性收入模式却引起了人们浓厚的兴趣，因为这种收入模式可以给所有类型的公司提供一种新的方式，吸引新老客户。要完成转变却并不容易，每家公司必须评估各自客户群体的需求，以及如何通过订阅来吸引新用户。

Case in point: Last year, Adobe¹² Systems ADBE 2.20% decided¹³ to transition its software suite for creatives to the cloud. The move was far from flawless—a recent hours-long outage irked users—but the results have mostly been positive. The company says 20% of customers that are purchasing the updated online tools weren’t Adobe customers before the switch. And now that the software is cloud-based, Adobe can better track how customers are using it and constantly push updates to individual users.

这方面有一个很好的例子：去年，Adobe系统公司（Adobe Systems）决定将创意软件套件向云软件转型。这次转型谈不上完美——最近一次长达数小时的服务中断令用户大为恼火——但结果总体令人满意。这家公司表示，购买升级版在线工具的消费者有20%是转型之后的新客户。通过转型云软件业务，Adobe可以更好地跟踪用户对产品的使用，向用户持续推送软件更新。

“We were really trapped inside the box that we shipped—both literally¹⁴ and figuratively,” David Wadhwani, SVP and GM of Adobe’s digital media division, said at this week’s event. (Adobe is not a Zuora customer.)

在本周的活动上，Adobe系统公司高级副总裁兼数字媒体部门总经理戴维o瓦德瓦尼说：“过去，我们真的是被我们自己的包装盒给困住了，无论是盒子本身，还是象征意义上的盒子来说，都是如此。”（Adobe不是祖睿科技的客户。）

Other companies who have made the switch have found they’re able to attract a broader customer base by offering a subscription-based model, which has a much lower upfront cost to consumers. But the transition is sometimes easier on the customer than on the company, where the transformation¹⁵ to a new business model can be incredibly disruptive to the way sales and marketing¹⁶ is run. (Incentivizing and commissioning salespeople¹⁷ with this model is particularly challenging).

其他完成转型的公司发现，通过提供订阅模式可以吸引更多客户，因为在该模式中，消费者的预付成本更低。但有时候，消费者的转变要比公司转型容易得多。公司采用新业务模式对销售和市场营销的运营模式带来的颠覆性干煸超乎人们的想象。（在这种模式下，对销售人员进行物质激励和任命，尤其具有挑战性。）

“It is an organizational issue,” says Mark Field, CTO and VP of software services at LifeTech, a biotech company owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO 0.68% . “Our processes were set up to support selling instruments.”

商务科技公司LifeTech首席技术官兼软件服务副总裁马克o菲尔德认为：“这是一个组织结构问题。我们流程的最终目的是要为仪器销售提供支持。”LifeTech公司的母公司是赛默飞世尔科技公司（Thermo Fisher Scientific）。

Zuora and its investors¹⁸ are, of course, extremely bullish on the growth of the subscription economy, and believe there are lots of untapped industries that will also jump on the bandwagon, from manufacturing to legal services to education. And even if you’re not buying your toothbrush via a monthly subscription service, chances are you’re already part of the subscription economy yourself. The way we consume movies, listen to music, or even drive around in cars, is changing. Zuora hopes the trend will continue.

当然，祖睿科技及其投资者非常看好订阅式经济的发展前景。他们相信，不论是制造业、法律服务业还是教育行业，这些未经开发的行业也将跟随潮流。即便你没有通过按月订阅服务购买牙刷，但你可能早已成为订阅式经济的一份子。我们看电影、听音乐或驾车出行的方式正在发生变化。祖睿科技希望，这个趋势能够持续下去。