BAT 中國"網(wǎng)霸"的三國志
9月，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)在紐約上市，成為以市值衡量的全球第二大互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司，僅次于谷歌(Google)。這并非偶然。在市值最高的全球十大互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司中，3家來自中國，其他則來自美國。
Together, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent form what is know in China as “BAT”. These economicjuggernauts that have come to dominate the internet in China are operating almost along thelines of Japan’s keiretsu, which are alliances of businesses with similar interests or that haveshareholdings in one another. They are also rapidly branching out into offline sectors, such astransport, travel, retail and banking.
在中國，百度(Baidu)、阿里巴巴和騰訊(Tencent)被合稱為“BAT”。這些巨頭主宰了中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，它們的經(jīng)營模式與日本的“經(jīng)連體系”(keiretsu)非常相似，后者是由利益相似或者互相控股的企業(yè)組成的聯(lián)盟。它們還迅速延展到線下行業(yè)，比如交通、旅游、零售和銀行業(yè)。
Whether the rapid growth of the Chinese internet is just a bubble or a stable trend is open toquestion. However, for the time being at least, BAT has become the nucleus of an internetindustry that is starting to rival the US, creating what is essentially a US-China duopoly. Thethree Chinese companies also benefit from what has become known as the “Great Firewall”, asmost of the top US companies, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, are excluded fromoperating in China.
中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的飛速發(fā)展到底是泡沫，還是一種穩(wěn)定趨勢，還須拭目以待。然而，至少就目前來看，BAT已經(jīng)成為了中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)的核心，而中國的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)已經(jīng)開始與美國相匹敵，基本上形成了一種中美雙頭壟斷的格局。這3家中國企業(yè)也受益于廣為人知的“長城防火墻”(Great Firewall)。依靠這個防火墻，中國把美國的多數(shù)領(lǐng)頭企業(yè)，如谷歌、Facebook和Twitter拒之門外。
However, no Chinese internet company has yet made the leap from China to become a globalbrand. For now, it is enough for them be dominant in China, which had 632m internet usersas of June, 527m of whom go online using mobile devices. The potential of the forecastconsumption boom, as China moves from an investment-driven economy to a consumption-driven one, is enough to attract investments such as the $25bn sunk into Alibaba in its initialpublic offering, the largest ever.
然而，目前還沒有哪家中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)跳出中國，成為一個全球品牌。目前來看，它們能在中國占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位就足夠了。6月的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，中國有6.32億網(wǎng)民，其中5.27億網(wǎng)民使用移動設(shè)備上網(wǎng)。隨著中國經(jīng)濟(jì)從投資驅(qū)動型轉(zhuǎn)為消費驅(qū)動型，預(yù)計將出現(xiàn)的消費熱潮蘊(yùn)含的潛力，足以吸引大筆投資，比如阿里巴巴在首次公開募股(IPO)中籌得250億美元，這也是目前規(guī)模最大的一次IPO。
The internet is the most dynamic part of China’s budding private sector, though it remainssolidly under the control of the state. Foreigners hold large shareholdings in Alibaba, Tencentand Baidu and dozens of other internet companies. But these stakes are largely theoretical atbest and owned via “variable interest entities”, or VIEs, which guarantee a payment streamfrom, but not ownership of, the licence-holding vehicles in China. These VIE’s are technicallyillegal, though Chinese courts turn a blind eye to the practice, and owners know their largeholding only exists thanks to the tacit consent of the state.
互聯(lián)網(wǎng)是中國嶄露頭角的私營部門中最活躍的部分，盡管其依然處于國家的嚴(yán)密控制之下。外國投資者持有阿里巴巴、騰訊、百度及其他數(shù)十家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)的大量股份。但大體上，這些股份充其量不過是理論上的，是通過“可變利益實體”(variable interest entities, VIE)持有的，這保證持股人從持有許可證的中國企業(yè)那里得到支付流，但并不保證對企業(yè)的所有權(quán)。這些VIE理論上是違法的，但中國的法院對這種做法睜一只眼閉一只眼，而持股人也知道，他們持有的大量股份全都仰賴政府的默許。
Nimble private internet companies, able to dance circles around the inefficient state-ownedenterprises, have begun impromptu liberalising of whole sectors such as financial services.Alibaba’s fund company Yu’e Bao is China’s biggest online money market fund, with Rmb574bn($93.8bn) worth of assets
私營互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)非常靈活，能將低效的國企遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)甩在后面。在并無事先謀劃的情況下，這些企業(yè)已經(jīng)開始在一些領(lǐng)域掀起整個行業(yè)的自由化，比如金融服務(wù)業(yè)。阿里巴巴的基金公司余額寶(Yu’e Bao)是中國最大的在線貨幣市場基金，資產(chǎn)總值達(dá)到5740億元人民幣(合938億美元)。
The internet is a phenomenal wealth generator. Five of the 10 richest men in China are techmoguls, up from none three years ago, according to the Hurun China Rich List, which trackswealthy individuals. In September, Alibaba founder Jack Ma joined the list in first place andbecame one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a 7.8 per cent stake in a $230bn company.
互聯(lián)網(wǎng)也制造了非凡的財富。根據(jù)追蹤富人的《胡潤中國百富榜》(Hurun China Rich List)，中國最富有的10人中，5名是IT業(yè)大亨，而3年前他們還未能進(jìn)入榜單。9月，憑借在當(dāng)時市值2300億美元的公司中7.8%的持股，阿里巴巴創(chuàng)始人馬云(Jack Ma)一躍登上榜單首位，也成為全球最富裕的人之一。
Competition between internet companies is fierce, however. With the entire industry switchingfrom desktop devices to mobile ones, many companies risk being left behind if they don’t have a“killer app” that will act as a gateway for mobile users.
不過，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)之間的競爭非常激烈。隨著整個互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)從桌面設(shè)備轉(zhuǎn)至移動設(shè)備，對許多企業(yè)來說，如果他們沒有一款“殺手級應(yīng)用”，作為移動用戶接入的通道的話，就有可能落在后面。
Alibaba has been searching for just such a feature to challenge the currently undisputedleadership of Tencent, whose WeChat instant messenger has 350m monthly users. WeChatand Tencent’s other messenger, QQ, are the two most popular mobile apps in China,according to iResearch, a Beijing-based internet research firm.
阿里巴巴一直在尋求推出這樣一款應(yīng)用，來挑戰(zhàn)目前騰訊無可爭議的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)地位，騰訊的即時消息應(yīng)用微信(WeChat)有3.5億月活躍用戶。根據(jù)北京互聯(lián)網(wǎng)咨詢公司艾瑞咨詢(iResearch)的數(shù)據(jù)，微信和騰訊旗下的另一款消息應(yīng)用QQ是中國最受歡迎的兩款移動應(yīng)用。
In June, Alibaba bought UCWeb, a popular mobile browser company, and the two havedeveloped Shenme, a mobile search engine. They are also working with Quixey, a US-basedcompany in which Alibaba has invested, to design a mobile gateway using Quixey’s app searchengine. Francis Bea of PapayaMobile, a Chinese mobile technology company, says Alibaba isattempting to mirror Tencent’s success with WeChat. He says: “In as highly competitive amarket as China, there is potential for the mobile internet to disrupt established internetplayers if they don’t manage the transition from desktop to mobile.”
6月份，阿里巴巴收購了人氣頗高的移動瀏覽器公司UC優(yōu)視(UCWeb)，兩家公司已聯(lián)手開發(fā)移動搜索引擎“神馬”。阿里巴巴還在與所投資的美國公司Quixey合作，擬利用Quixey的應(yīng)用搜索引擎，設(shè)計一個類似的移動門戶應(yīng)用。中國移動技術(shù)公司木瓜移動(PapayaMobile)的弗朗西斯•貝亞(Francis Bea)表示，阿里巴巴試圖復(fù)制騰訊在微信上取得的成功。他說：“在中國這樣高度競爭性的市場，如果當(dāng)前已確立市場地位的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)不能處理好從桌面端到移動端的轉(zhuǎn)移，移動互聯(lián)網(wǎng)可能使它們陷入困境。”
Alibaba has spent an estimated $6bn-$8bn in the space of a year on full acquisitions of, orinvestments in, companies including mobile providers, chain stores, an internet TV company, amaker of electrical appliances, a movie producer, a digital broadcaster and a professionalChinese football team.
在僅一年之中，據(jù)估計阿里巴巴已經(jīng)花去60億到80億美元，對企業(yè)進(jìn)行全資收購或者投資。這些企業(yè)包括移動運(yùn)營商、連鎖店、網(wǎng)絡(luò)電視公司、電子設(shè)備制造商、影視制作公司、數(shù)字電視臺，甚至還有一支中國職業(yè)足球隊。
While attention has focused on Alibaba’s acquisitions, Tencent and Baidu have been on similarspending sprees. Baidu is betting that its stake in Qunar, China’s top travel website by users,and mobile app store 91Wireless.com, will complement its popular search engine to carry itinto the mobile age. Tencent has taken a stake in JD.com, China’s second-largest ecommerceplatform, and mobile-friendly companies such as restaurant review site Dianping and SouthKorea’s CJ Games.
盡管人們的關(guān)注點集中在阿里巴巴的收購上，但騰訊和百度也進(jìn)行了類似的大筆支出。百度投資了用戶數(shù)量最多的國內(nèi)旅行網(wǎng)站去哪兒(Qunar)和移動應(yīng)用商店91無線(91 Wireless.com)，希望二者能與其廣受歡迎的搜索引擎相互補(bǔ)充，將其帶入移動時代。騰訊則入股中國第二大電商平臺京東(JD.com)，以及一些適應(yīng)移動時代的企業(yè)，如餐館點評網(wǎng)站大眾點評網(wǎng)(Dianping)和韓國游戲開發(fā)商CJ Games。
