中國(guó)和西方科技巨頭的東南亞對(duì)決

When Sea Limited launched its prospectus to list on the New York Stock Exchange last month, the South East Asian ecommerce and gaming group sparked a war of words — or rather numbers — with Lazada, which disputed its rival’s claims to be the region’s top dog.

上個(gè)月，當(dāng)Sea Limited公布在紐約證交所(NYSE)上市的招股說(shuō)明書(shū)時(shí)，這家東南亞電商和游戲集團(tuán)引發(fā)了一場(chǎng)與Lazada公司的關(guān)于用詞(更確切地說(shuō)是數(shù)字)的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，后者對(duì)其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手聲稱(chēng)自己是該地區(qū)老大的說(shuō)法提出了質(zhì)疑。

The spat, between companies respectively backed by China’s tech giants Tencent and Alibaba, was part of a proxy war and shone a light on what Bain & Co dubs a “clash of the titans”: a broader battle for share in this market of 200m digital consumers, who last year spent $50bn online, according to the consultancy.

這兩家公司分別由中國(guó)科技巨頭騰訊(Tencent)和阿里巴巴(Alibaba)支持，它們之間的口角可以說(shuō)是一場(chǎng)代理人之戰(zhàn)，暴露了貝恩咨詢公司(Bain & Co.)所說(shuō)的“巨頭之間的沖突”——一場(chǎng)更廣泛的、在這個(gè)擁有2億網(wǎng)絡(luò)消費(fèi)者(去年在線上支出了500億美元)的市場(chǎng)上爭(zhēng)奪份額的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。

It involves not just Chinese and local players but also multinationals such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, the latter rolling up in Singapore earlier this year. This showdown in Southeast Asia comes after Chinese and Western players have neatly carved up the major markets: the multinationals controlling the US and Europe and Alibaba and Tencent ruling the roost in China, where Facebook, Google’s search engine and Twitter are all blocked.

這場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)不僅牽涉到中國(guó)企業(yè)和當(dāng)?shù)仄髽I(yè)，還涉及谷歌(Google)、Facebook和亞馬遜(Amazon)等跨國(guó)企業(yè)。今年早些時(shí)候亞馬遜已進(jìn)軍新加坡。東南亞對(duì)決之前，中國(guó)和西方企業(yè)已干凈利索地瓜分了主要市場(chǎng)：幾家跨國(guó)科技巨頭控制著美國(guó)和歐洲，阿里巴巴和騰訊在Facebook、谷歌搜索引擎和Twitter都被禁止的中國(guó)稱(chēng)雄。

“The importance of Asia is coming to the forefront,” says Karim Temsamani, president of Google’s Asia-Pacific operations.

谷歌亞太業(yè)務(wù)總裁卡里姆•泰姆薩曼尼(Karim Temsamani)表示，“亞洲的重要性正在突出。”

“Half the world’s population is here and household wealth is set to grow faster than anywhere else over the next 15 years. This is the centre of the world again, and companies that understand the people here and the way they use technology are going to win in this region.”

“世界一半人口都在這里，未來(lái)15年這里的家庭財(cái)富增速將超過(guò)其他所有地區(qū)。這里再次成為世界的中心，那些了解這里的人及其使用技術(shù)的方式的企業(yè)將在該地區(qū)取得勝利。”

As well as customers, both sides are fighting over investments. In the past few months, Alibaba has lifted its stake in Lazada to 83 per cent and bought into Indonesian ecommerce group Tokopedia; Tencent has reportedly invested in Indonesia’s ride-hailing start-up Go-Jek, while Expedia put money into regional online travel group Traveloka.

除了爭(zhēng)奪客戶外，雙方也在競(jìng)相投資。過(guò)去幾個(gè)月，阿里巴巴把對(duì)Lazada的持股增加至83%，并且投資了印度尼西亞電商集團(tuán)Tokopedia;騰訊據(jù)稱(chēng)投資了印尼叫車(chē)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)Go-Jek;Expedia投資了該地區(qū)的在線旅游集團(tuán)Traveloka。

“There’s a lot of deal activity now,” says Florian Hoppe, partner at Bain & Co in Singapore. “It’s clearly an escalating battle and the impacted sectors are getting broader and broader.”

“現(xiàn)在有很多交易活動(dòng)，”貝恩公司駐新加坡合伙人弗洛里安•霍珀(Florian Hoppe)表示，“這明顯是一場(chǎng)日益白熱化的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，受影響的領(lǐng)域越來(lái)越多。”

That wide frontline sees the groups stretching their tentacles into the ecosystems around ecommerce, such as payments and logistics, while offering other services to keep consumers hooked within a single app — such as gaming, food delivery and messaging — to capture more of their time and money.

在這條廣泛的戰(zhàn)線上，這些企業(yè)把觸角伸向圍繞支付和物流等電商服務(wù)的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，同時(shí)它們還提供其他服務(wù)——比如游戲、外賣(mài)和通訊服務(wù)——把消費(fèi)者牢牢吸引到單一應(yīng)用內(nèi)，以此進(jìn)一步贏得客戶的時(shí)間和金錢(qián)。

These models mirror those pioneered by Tencent and Alibaba in China. The Western multinationals, while increasingly flirting with similar models, are counting on customising their international offerings to capitalise on the region.

這些模式復(fù)制了騰訊和阿里巴巴在中國(guó)開(kāi)創(chuàng)的模式。日益嘗試類(lèi)似模式的西方跨國(guó)企業(yè)，正依靠提供定制化的國(guó)際服務(wù)在該地區(qū)獲利。

The US groups, says Mr Hoppe, are enjoying record quarters in the region on the back of growth there. “Facebook is playing a massive role on mobile, and YouTube is a real asset [for Google] out here. They are making good money on ads, and benefit from the fragmentation of the ecosystem, as recommendations and search matter a lot more in Southeast Asia than in mature online markets with dominant digital players.”

霍珀表示，在東南亞經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)的背景下，美國(guó)企業(yè)正在該地區(qū)享受創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的季度業(yè)績(jī)。“Facebook正在移動(dòng)領(lǐng)域大展拳腳，YouTube是(谷歌)在這里的實(shí)際資產(chǎn)。它們?cè)趶V告上賺得盆滿缽滿，并從生態(tài)系統(tǒng)碎片化中獲益，因?yàn)楸绕鹨呀?jīng)有主導(dǎo)性數(shù)字企業(yè)的成熟線上市場(chǎng)，推薦和搜索服務(wù)在東南亞重要得多。”

Mobile ad spending in the six countries that make up Southeast Asia — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore — is expected to reach $1.4bn next year and surpass $2bn in 2020, according to eMarketer. Sea, formerly known as Garena, controversially includes Taiwan in its greater Southeast Asia definition.

據(jù)eMarketer預(yù)計(jì)，印尼、馬來(lái)西亞、越南、菲律賓、泰國(guó)和新加坡這六個(gè)東南亞國(guó)家的移動(dòng)廣告支出明年有望達(dá)到14億美元，并在2020年超過(guò)20億美元。原名Garena的Sea在大東南亞區(qū)的定義中納入了臺(tái)灣，此舉頗具爭(zhēng)議。

The region, notes Max Bittner, Lazada chief executive, is far from homogenous — it has different languages, religions and cultures — but what the countries have in common is “an exploding middle class, comparable to China a decade ago”.

Lazada首席執(zhí)行官馬克斯•比特納(Max Bittner)指出，該地區(qū)各國(guó)差異很大——擁有不同的語(yǔ)言、宗教和文化——但各國(guó)的相同之處在于“中產(chǎn)階級(jí)爆炸式的增長(zhǎng)，可以與10年前的中國(guó)相媲美”。

“In Southeast Asia, this middle class explosion is happening simultaneously with the ongoing smartphone revolution, and all the growth in retail is driven solely by ecommerce,” he adds, noting that the catalyst was the $100 smartphones that began going on sale in late 2012.

“在東南亞，與中產(chǎn)階級(jí)激增同時(shí)出現(xiàn)的是正在進(jìn)行中的智能手機(jī)革命，電子商務(wù)獨(dú)自推動(dòng)了全部的零售業(yè)增長(zhǎng)，”他補(bǔ)充稱(chēng)，并指出這一發(fā)展的催化劑是2012年末市面上開(kāi)始銷(xiāo)售的100美元的智能手機(jī)。

Making money on ecommerce is a tougher proposition, notes one player: “We’ve seen competitors come and go quite frequently over the past five years.”

通過(guò)電子商務(wù)賺錢(qián)是一件更難做到的事，一名業(yè)內(nèi)人士指出：“在過(guò)去5年里，我們看到競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者相當(dāng)頻繁地進(jìn)入和退出。”

Sea’s initial public offering prospectus makes the same point, warning “we may fail to monetise our business effectively” and “we have a history of net losses and we may not achieve profitability in the future”. Its operating loss grew to $205m in its latest fiscal year and $150.5m in the first six months of this year.

Sea的首次公開(kāi)發(fā)行(IPO)招股說(shuō)明書(shū)提出了相同的觀點(diǎn)，警告稱(chēng)“我們也許無(wú)法有效把業(yè)務(wù)變現(xiàn)”，并且“我們有一段凈虧損的歷史，在未來(lái)也許不會(huì)實(shí)現(xiàn)盈利”。上一財(cái)年，該公司的營(yíng)業(yè)虧損增加至2.05億美元，今年上半年則為1.505億美元。

This partly reflects bloated operating and marketing costs. Logistics are tough — unlike the US or Europe, some of these markets lack a large efficient postal network or big regional players like UPS or DHL — and the land-grab means companies are using big subsidies to woo customers.

這部分反映出過(guò)高的經(jīng)營(yíng)與營(yíng)銷(xiāo)成本。物流很艱難，與美國(guó)或歐洲不同，這些市場(chǎng)中有一些缺少一個(gè)高效的大型郵政網(wǎng)絡(luò)或諸如聯(lián)合包裹(UPS)、敦豪(DHL)的大型地區(qū)性物流公司。而圈地意味著，各公司在用高額補(bǔ)貼招徠顧客。

Analysts and investors note that connections and local knowledge hands an advantage to domestic players. Tiang Lim Foo of Seed-Plus, an early-stage investor, says it was local knowledge that helped Indonesia’s Go-Jek, as it filled its fleet with motorbikes in traffic-jammed Indonesian cities, reducing Uber to the sidelines.

分析師和投資者指出，人脈關(guān)系和本地知識(shí)賦予了本土企業(yè)一種優(yōu)勢(shì)。早期投資機(jī)構(gòu)Seed-Plus的Tiang Lim Foo說(shuō)，正是本地知識(shí)幫助了印尼的Go-Jek，該公司在交通擁堵的印尼城市里用摩托車(chē)組建了車(chē)隊(duì)，把優(yōu)步(Uber)擠到了市場(chǎng)邊緣。

Amazon, meanwhile, whose entry into Singapore earlier this year was marred by being forced to halt orders when demand exceeded its ability to ship goods, has been reduced to co-opting Uber cars to deliver, according to local players.

另一方面，本地人士表示，今年早些時(shí)候進(jìn)入新加坡的亞馬遜出師不利，由于需求超過(guò)貨物配送能力，其被迫暫停訂單，如今不得不用優(yōu)步的車(chē)輛配送貨物。

With a big and growing market at stake, there is little to suggest any reining in of spending any time soon, as competition for online business in the region intensifies.

事關(guān)這樣一個(gè)龐大、不斷增長(zhǎng)的市場(chǎng)，面對(duì)該地區(qū)在線業(yè)務(wù)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的加劇，各公司短期內(nèi)幾乎沒(méi)有抑制支出的絲毫跡象。

As Sea warns would-be investors in its prospectus, this means the odds of success are weighted in favour of the biggest players: “As ecommerce in [Greater South East Asia] is relatively new, competition for market share is particularly intense . . . Global ecommerce companies . . . in particular may have greater access to financial, technological and marketing resources than we do.”

正如Sea在招股說(shuō)明書(shū)中警告潛在投資者的那樣，這意味著，大公司擁有更大的成功機(jī)會(huì)：“由于電子商務(wù)在(大東南亞地區(qū))相對(duì)較新，市場(chǎng)份額爭(zhēng)奪尤其激烈……尤其是，跟我們相比，全球性電商公司可能獲得更多的金融、技術(shù)和營(yíng)銷(xiāo)資源。”

Groups vie for Southeast Asia cloud advantage 延伸閱讀：各集團(tuán)在東南亞爭(zhēng)奪云優(yōu)勢(shì)

Behind all ecosystems looms the cloud — vast data centres capable of storing the troves of data thrown off by gamers, shoppers and all the other users of internet services offered by the big US, Chinese and local players.

所有生態(tài)系統(tǒng)背后都籠罩著云——即巨型數(shù)據(jù)中心，能夠存儲(chǔ)游戲玩家、購(gòu)物者、以及大型美國(guó)、中國(guó)和當(dāng)?shù)毓咎峁┑幕ヂ?lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)的所有其他用戶產(chǎn)生的海量數(shù)據(jù)。

Demand for cloud services is compounded by different regulatory regimes across the region, some of which require local data to be held onshore. Google, one of the big cloud providers globally, clearly intends to be a player in Southeast Asia too — toilet cubicles at its Singapore offices were recently plastered with ads appealing: “Google Cloud team is looking for customer engineers in APAC”.

該地區(qū)各國(guó)的不同監(jiān)管體制使對(duì)于云服務(wù)的需求復(fù)雜化。有些國(guó)家要求把本地?cái)?shù)據(jù)存儲(chǔ)于境內(nèi)。作為全球范圍內(nèi)的大型云服務(wù)提供者之一，谷歌明顯打算也在東南亞成為本地公司——不久前其新加坡辦公室的衛(wèi)生間隔間貼上了廣告：“谷歌云團(tuán)隊(duì)正在亞太地區(qū)尋找客戶工程師”。

Sea’s IPO filing, lamenting the region’s lack of qualified technical talent, notes its dependence on third-party data centre providers, echoing Snap’s admission of reliance on Google’s cloud services in its own IPO documentation earlier this year.

Sea在IPO申請(qǐng)中哀嘆該地區(qū)缺乏合格的技術(shù)人才，指出了其對(duì)第三方數(shù)據(jù)中心提供商的依賴(lài)，跟Snap在今年早些時(shí)候自己的IPO文件中承認(rèn)對(duì)谷歌云服務(wù)的依賴(lài)類(lèi)似。

Thus, the aggressive hiring of engineers and building of data centres, particularly by Alibaba and Google.

所以，各公司都在大張旗鼓地招聘工程師，建造數(shù)據(jù)中心，尤其是阿里巴巴和谷歌。

“There’s an arms race with cloud,” says Niranjan Arasaratnam, Singapore-based global head of the TMT sector for Linklaters, the legal firm. “Microsoft, [Amazon Web Services] and Google are all pushing [ahead], but my money’s on Alibaba and Tencent, because they will have the connections and cash and know-how to grow that business.”

“云領(lǐng)域發(fā)生了一場(chǎng)軍備競(jìng)賽，”年利達(dá)律師事務(wù)所(Linklaters)駐新加坡的全球TMT行業(yè)主管尼蘭詹•阿拉薩拉特納姆(Niranjan Arasaratnam)說(shuō)，“微軟、亞馬遜網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)(Amazon Web Services)和谷歌都在向前沖刺，但我的資金投給了阿里巴巴和騰訊，因?yàn)樗鼈儗碛邪l(fā)展云業(yè)務(wù)的人脈、資金和專(zhuān)業(yè)知識(shí)。”