碧儿·杰赛普(Beau )是个19岁的英国姑娘,但小小年纪已经是一个小有成就的“企业家”:她通过给中国宝宝取英文名,已经赚了上百万元。
据美国CNBC新闻网报道:
A 19-year-old girl has a as and CEO of Name, a to with names for their .
现年19岁的杰赛普创建了一个叫的网站,并担任该网站CEO,由此大赚了一笔。这是一个专门为中国家长提供在文化含义上适合宝宝的英文名的网站。
amass:/ə'mæs/(尤指大量)积累,积聚
Beau was to start the in 2015, when she was still in high . She has since named a total of 687,000 (and ) and up of over £300,000 ( 2.7 yuan).
杰索普在2015年萌生了通过起名字创业的念头,当时她还在读高中。迄今为止,她一共为68.7万名婴儿取名,这一数字还在继续增长,收入估计超过30万英镑(约合270万元人民币)。
and :(数量)继续增长
:大量获得(利润)
这个创意起源于一次机缘巧合。
几年前,杰索普和她的父亲在中国旅行时,父亲的一位生意伙伴王女士向她寻求帮助,请她给3岁的女儿起名。
"I was and ," said. "It like a thing to do.”
“我感到荣幸和惊讶,”杰塞普说。“我觉得这是一件非常重要的事情。”
为了给小女孩取一个合适的名字,杰赛普问了王女士对女儿的期许,经过慎重考虑后,给她取名“Eliza”——这是受《窈窕淑女》(My Fair Lady)中女主角名字的启发。
《窈窕淑女》赫本饰演的Eliza
"She was happy with it and took the name away," said.
杰塞普说:“她对这个名字很满意,并立刻接受了这个取名建议。”
也正因为这样一个偶然的机会,杰赛普嗅到了商机。
"It to me that if Mrs Wang this , then maybe other would as well."
“我突然想到,如果王女士需要这项服务,那么也许其他父母也会有这种需求。”
杰赛普了解到,中国人取英文名通常比较随意,常常是英文课的老师给取的。
, those names would be self- or given by . But, due to , the to them can be , often in and , noted, like “” and “”.
杰赛普说,一般来说,这些英文名都是中国人自己取的或是老师给选的。但由于语言障碍,他们对这些名字的研究能力有限,所以常常出现一些令人遗憾的,甚至贻笑大方的滑稽名字,比如“劳力士·王”“甘道夫·吴”等。
杰赛普在度假回来立刻研究起了这门生意。她在之前学过7年中文,能够读、写和说中文,这无疑帮了大忙。
After from her , out some and there wasn't a baby- to the .
杰赛普度假回来后做了一些调查研究,发现市场上并没有专门针对华人的婴儿命名业务。
Her next step was to her to lend her £1,500 ( 13,000 yuan). used the money to hire a and spent the rest on .
她的下一步是说服父亲借给她1500英镑(约合1.3万元人民币)。杰塞普用这笔钱雇了一个网站设计师,其余的钱都花在了微信的推广上。
In her spare time, she set to work a with more than 4,000 names, to each five she felt best that name, such as "" and "".
在业余时间,她开始充实一个包含4000多个名字的数据库,并给每个名字附上她认为最能代表这个名字的5个特征,比如“诚实”和“乐观”。
很多人问她:
“?”
“你哪来这么多时间给这么多宝宝取名字?”
她的答案就是,用算法。
“Much like has time to find for all at once, I use an . ”“就像谷歌能做到同一时间找出所有人想搜索的东西,我使用了一种算法。”
/'ælgə'rɪðəm/:演算法
said the was "labor-" , take care of the heavy .
杰塞普表示,这一过程最初是“劳动密集型”的,但现在算法可以完成所有繁重的工作。
杰塞普的网站的思路是通过人的品质来选择相应的英文名。
The works by users to five from a list of 12 that they would most like their child to . An then three - names to those five .
该网站要求用户从12个最希望孩子体现的特征中选出5个。然后,算法会选择出3个与这5个特征相匹配的男孩或女孩的名字。
整个过程只需三分钟。
一张宝宝照片+英文名图源:凤凰网
"I three names for the to from and I them to their and in this ," said.
杰塞普说:“我给家长们提供了三个合适的名字供他们选择,我鼓励他们让朋友和家人参与这个决定。”
目前,这项服务收费9.98元。
, the for free. But after 162,000 , she a fee of 5.3 yuan (now to 9.94 yuan).
最初,杰塞普免费提供这项服务。但在为16.2万名婴儿取名后,她收取5.3元的费用(现在涨到了9.98元)。
She that she never the to grow so , but was not by the .
她解释说,她从未预料到公司会发展得如此之快,但对用户们展现的巨大兴趣并不感到意外。
"China is a the West and East. It's a that's ," she said.
她说:“中国正成为连接东西方的重要全球化经济体,这项服务已经变得越来越有必要。”
如今,杰瑟普在伦敦政治经济学院( of )读社会人类学(),大学学费完全自理,不用家长负担。
关于杰塞普的视频被上传到微博后,她的故事在中国网民中引发了讨论。
A web user "Maybe we can sell names to ."