You’ve heard of the sharing economy? How about the subscription economy?你一定听闻过共享经济吧？那么你告诉订阅者式经济吗？It’s actually not that new: Businesses have been selling monthly subscriptions 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 dabbling in subscription-based business models, offering anything from online software to toothbrushes to genome sequencing for a flat monthly fee.实质上，这种模式并不新鲜：多年以来，许多公司仍然在销售按月订阅者的各种商品和服务，比如《财富》杂志（Fortune）。但最近，各种令人意想不到的行业争相开始使用订阅者式商业模式，按每月相同费率获取从在线软件到牙刷，再行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, accounting and analytics. This week, Zuora unveiled the latest version of what it calls “relationship business management” software—a suite 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的高管们重新组建而出。它销售的软件协助其他公司更进一步实行订阅者式商业模式，还包括计费、会计学和分析工具。

本周，祖睿科技发售了最新版的“业务关系管理”软件——这套软件协助公司已完成从传统收益模式向订阅者式收益模式的改变。（到底，祖睿科技也是使用订阅者的方式销售自己产品。）“[Relationship business management solutions] are an emerging class of software focused on building, managing and optimizing the ongoing 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回应：“（业务关系管理解决方案）是一种探讨于创建、管理和优化订阅者式企业生命线，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, recurring 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 subscribe to services than pony up the cash to own products.但确实的新闻在于，更加多的行业正在投身于订阅者式经常性收益模式，虽然很少有公司不会不计后果地跳进来。

在本周祖睿科技举行的一次活动上，几家展开这类尝试的公司联合辩论了模式改变的趋势，以及所面对的机遇与挑战。订阅者式商业模式正处于领先的是云服务公司Salesforce.com和Box，他们从最开始之后采行对用户按月收费的方式。

但在本周的活动上，还经常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。他们为什么也来参与此次活动呢？如今，人们宁愿订阅者服务，也不不愿支付现金来出售产品。

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，早已证明了订阅者某种程度限于于软件行业。那么，是不是所有行业都应当改变商业模式？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 waning. 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，订阅者都只是消费者的一种自由选择。消费者的不道德在大大变化，特别是在是年轻一代消费者。

不论是音乐、汽车还是物理文档，对消费者来说，享有和储存商品的必要性正在弱化。华尔街对于如何评估以订阅者为唯一收益来源的公司仍然不存在争议，但它作为一种经常性收益模式却引发了人们浓烈的兴趣，因为这种收益模式可以给所有类型的公司获取一种新的方式，更有新的老客户。要已完成改变却并不更容易，每家公司必需评估各自客户群体的市场需求，以及如何通过订阅者来更有新的用户。

Case in point: Last year, Adobe Systems ADBE 2.20% decided 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）要求将创新软件套件向云软件转型。这次转型谈不上极致——最近一次长达数小时的服务中断令其用户深感恼怒——但结果总体令人满意。

这家公司回应，出售Ultra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可以更佳地追踪用户对产品的用于，向用户持续启动时软件改版。“We were really trapped inside the box that we shipped—both literally 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瓦德瓦尼说道：“过去，我们知道是被我们自己的包装盒给吞噬了，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 transformation to a new business model can be incredibly disruptive to the way sales and marketing is run. (Incentivizing and commissioning salespeople with this model is particularly challenging).其他已完成转型的公司找到，通过获取订阅者模式可以更有更加多客户，因为在该模式中，消费者的预付成本更加较低。但有时候，消费者的改变要比公司转型更容易得多。

公司使用新的业务模式对销售和市场营销的运营模式带给的颠覆性干煸惊人人们的想象。（在这种模式下，对销售人员展开物质鼓舞和任命，特别是在具备挑战性。

）“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首席技术官兼任软件服务副总裁马克o菲尔德指出：“这是一个的组织结构问题。我们流程的最后目的是要为仪器销售获取反对。”LifeTech公司的母公司是赛默飞世尔科技公司（Thermo Fisher Scientific）。

Zuora and its investors 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十分寄予厚望订阅者式经济的发展前景。他们坚信，不论是制造业、法律服务业还是教育行业，这些予以研发的行业也将追随潮流。

即便你没通过按月订阅者服务出售牙刷，但你有可能早就沦为订阅者式经济的一份子。我们看电影、听音乐或驾车上下班的方式正在发生变化。祖睿科技期望，这个趋势需要持续下去。

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