Lex專欄：騰訊——平安無事的中國科技公司

Facebook’s biggest challenge is to convince the public that further growth will not obliterate society. Tencent, with a HK$4.4tn ($560bn) market cap, faces no such difficulty in persuading investors that its growth can stick.

Facebook眼下最大的挑戰(zhàn)是如何讓公眾相信，它進一步發(fā)展不會毀滅社會。相比之下，擁有4.4萬億港元(合5600億美元)市值的騰訊(Tencent)可以毫不困難地說服投資者，它能夠保持增長。

On Wednesday the group announced annual revenues of Rmb237bn ($37bn) — 56 per cent more than the prior year. This undershot market predictions, but profit margins gained slightly. Some had feared pressures from growth investments and China’s merciless online competition could increase.

騰訊在周三公布全年實現(xiàn)收入2377億元人民幣(合370億美元)，較上一年增長56%。收入水平?jīng)]有達到市場預期，但利潤率略微上升。有些人原本擔心，為了提升增長所做的一些投資，以及中國在線市場殘酷的競爭，可能使騰訊承受著更大的壓力。

While the group’s core gaming business suffered a weak quarter, investors should take heart from the fourth quarter’s advertising revenues, which were higher by half than a year ago, comprising almost a fifth of the total. In the past the group was criticised for not growing the segment aggressively enough.

盡管騰訊核心的游戲業(yè)務在第四季度表現(xiàn)稍遜，但投資者應該會感到欣喜的是，該季度廣告收入比上年同期增長了一半，幾乎占總收入的五分之一。在過去，騰訊曾被批評沒有大力發(fā)展廣告業(yè)務。

Its gaming heritage has infused the company with confidence in subscription-based content businesses. Tencent operates video, music and online reading businesses and has vowed to expand these, in part by acquisition. Earlier this month the company trumpeted investments of more than $1bn in the two leading providers of live gaming video streams, where aficionados can watch other gamers perform.

多年經(jīng)營游戲積累下來的經(jīng)驗讓騰訊對開展訂閱內容業(yè)務充滿信心。騰訊經(jīng)營視頻、音樂和在線閱讀等業(yè)務，并承諾要通過收購等方式來擴大這些業(yè)務。本月早些時候，騰訊宣布對兩個領先的游戲直播平臺投資逾10億美元。

Tencent must justify its price-to-earnings ratio with explosive growth. It has widened by a third to 40 since early 2017. Limits to this speedy growth will come from domestic competition. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent fight each other in ecommerce, artificial intelligence, advertising and the cloud. A privacy backlash by users and regulators against American online groups is likely to spell further problems for the Chinese firms, already subject to increased scrutiny in lucrative western markets.

騰訊必須以迅猛增長來佐證其高市盈率。自2017年初以來，騰訊股票市盈率提高了三分之一，達到40倍。國內競爭將限制這種快速增長。百度(Baidu)、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊在電子商務、人工智能、廣告和云等領域彼此廝殺。美國網(wǎng)絡集團因隱私權問題招致用戶和監(jiān)管機構的反彈，這可能預示著中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司未來還會遭遇到什么問題。在充滿賺錢機會的西方市場，中國公司已經(jīng)受到了嚴厲審查。

Until then, Tencent has many fronts on which it can continue increasing revenue. Chinese tech valuations should also get a boost simply because they have so far avoided the scandals engulfing Silicon Valley.

在那之前，騰訊還可以在很多方面繼續(xù)擴大收入。硅谷深陷種種丑聞，而中國科技公司至今沒有曝出任何類似的丑聞，單憑這一點就可以給它們的估值帶來一個提振。