2. 外语
  3. Recently Broadpoint Communications, a fledg-ling(刚起步的)media company, started handing out free long-distance telephone calls. In

Recently Broadpoint Communications, a fledg-ling(刚起步的)media company, started handing out free long-distance telephone calls. In

admin2013-07-02  39
问题     Recently Broadpoint Communications, a fledg-ling(刚起步的)media company, started handing out free long-distance telephone calls. In Britain, Dix-ons, an electrical retailer, is giving away Internet access.

    No wonder there has been a ravenous(贪婪的)response. The switchboard at Idealab, the company behind the computer offer, was jammed as a million people called on the day the offer was launched. Broadpoint has signed up 100,000 people in just under five weeks while Dixon’s Freeserve has become Britain’s biggest Internet-service provider after only six months.
    The beneficiaries of such offers will soon learn there is a bill. Although many do not yet realize it, they are giving away a wealth of information about their incomes, hobbies and shopping habits. This is used to direct advertisements, which they have to endure as part of the original deal. Broadpoint’s callers get two minutes of free talking time in return for listening to one 10-15-second spot. The unlucky computer-owners cannot remove the advertisements dancing around their screen.
    And the more they use their machines the harder they will find the advertisements to ignore. Advertisers can afford to be so generous only because the more they know about someone, the better they can target him with precise commercial messages. Even such a genteel(上流的)organization as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is using Broadpoint to approach three groups of customers in entirely different ways. Retired people are tempted by the appeal of the classics. Professionals hear about the exclusivity and sophistication of the concert hall. College students are asked to believe it is cool to tell their tuttis from their double-stops.
    Yet consumers may be underselling themselves. By handing out personal details piecemeal to lots of sources, they are failing to extract full economic value from the information. As well as receiving too many ads, they may suffer breaches of privacy, a particular problem on the web. Advertisers could do better, too. Even the most trusted are collecting only a very partial picture of their customers, and nothing about the customers of rivals.
    There may be a better approach, say John Hagel, a management consultancy. Mr. Hagel describes "companies will become the caretakers and brokers of information about consumers, selling it to businesses while protecting consumers’ privacy. "
    These firms, which the authors inevitably dub "infomediaries", would collect all available information about consumers, including tracking the websites they visit, where they shop and what they buy in the physical world. They would then sell relevant morsels(only with permission)of this data for a cash fee that would be handed back to the consumer. As brokers, the firms could also use the data directly to look for products or services that genuinely suit the clients. In such cases they would take a cut of the products’ prices.
The two examples in the first paragraph are to demonstrate______.
选项 A、big companies are always generous to their customers
B、free lunches are a common means employed in business
C、newly-established companies are eager to open up the market
D、consumers are especially interested in Internet products
答案B
解析 推理判断题。第一段中列举了大公司进行慷慨的大奉送来吸引消费者，其中有刚刚起步的宽点，还有英国的Dixons，而第二段即指出这种大奉送所产生的结果，如：Dixons在短短六个月的时间里就成为英国最大的网络服务供应商，这说明商家的大奉送是有利可图的，它们把这作为一种促销手段，故[B]正确；[A]只是一种表面假象；[C]、[D]过于片面。
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