China’s Internet Giants: Three Kingdoms,

Two Empires

中国互联网大佬：三国鼎立，两帝称霸

 

China’s internet giants battle at

home and abroad

国内外中国互联网大佬点燃战争

There was a time, not that long

ago, when China’s big internet companies were diissed by investors in Silicon

Valley as marginal firms with a tendency to copy Western products. Not any

more. Today they are monsters with increasingly hefty international ambitions.

 

就在不久前，硅谷的投资者根本没有认真对待中国的大型互联网公司，认为他们只是一些边缘公司，通常复制西方商品。时光飞逝，今天这样的中国互联网公司早已成长为野兽，在国际市场上的野心不断扩大。

 

Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce

group, handles more transactions each year than do eBay and Amazon combined.

Jack Ma, its chairman, pledges to serve 2bn consumers around the world within

20 years. Tencent, which specialises in online games and social media, is now

the world’s tenth most valuable public firm, worth some $275bn. Pony Ma (no

relation), its chairman, wants China to “preside over the global tech

revolution of the future”. But as the two firms become global forces, the third

member of China’s “BAT” trio of internet giants, Baidu, an online-search firm

that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to

avoid censorship, is lagging behind.

 

阿里巴巴，中国大型电子商务集团，每年的交易量超过EBay和亚马逊之和，董事会主席马云承诺在20年内为世界20亿消费者提供服务。腾讯企业专注于网络游戏和社交媒体，目前是世界上十大最宝贵的上市公司，市值约2750亿美元。腾讯公司专注于网络游戏和社交媒体，目前是世界上十大最宝贵的上市公司，市值约2750亿美元。老板马化腾（马云不是亲戚）期待着中国“领导未来的全球信息革命”。三大中国互联网巨头“中国互联网巨头”BAT第三名是百度。在谷歌退出中国后，百度主宰了中国大陆的免费搜索市场，以防止审查制度退出。此外，两大巨头已经成为国际大企业，但百度落后于人。

 

All three firms differ from their

Western peers in important ways. First, Western companies usually prefer to

focus on a few core areas, whereas Chinese internet firms typically try to do

everything from cloud computing to digital payments. When this works, as with

Tencent’s wildly successful app, WeChat, the results can be impressive.

 

这三家公司在几个重要方面都不同于西方同行。首先，西方公司通常关注几个核心领域，而中国的互联网公司通常涉足广泛，从云计算到数字支付。首先，西方公司通常专注于几个核心领域，而中国互联网公司通常涉及广泛的领域，从云计算到数字支付。一旦这种尝试成功，结论将相当可观。腾讯成功应用微信就是这样。

 

Second, with the exception of

political censorship, the internet sector in China is lightly regulated.

Facebook, Apple and Google, in contrast, face increasing scrutiny. Chinese

internet firms can achieve market domination of a sort that would attract close

attention in other markets.

 

第二，除了接受政治审查，中国互联网行业的控制相对宽松；而Facebook、苹果和谷歌正面临着日益严格的思考。以中国互联网公司的市场主导地位，在其他市场，将受到监管机构的高度关注。

 

The third difference is that they

can succeed on a rapid and massive scale because the state-dominated economy is

so inefficient. Often there is not even a physical infrastructure to leapfrog – so-called third-tier cities, for example, often

lack big retail centres. Nationwide there is one shopping mall per 1.2m people.

 

第三个区别是，由于国家主导经济效率低下，中国互联网公司可以迅速取得规模成功。例如，在所谓的三线城市，公司发展中通常没有实体组织，通常缺乏大型零售核心。例如，在所谓的三线城市，公司发展中通常没有实体组织，通常缺乏大型零售核心。中国每120万人就有一个大型购物中心。

 

A huge home market has not stopped

the trio from fighting bloody turf wars among each other. The outcome to this

battle is rapidly becoming clear. Tencent and Alibaba are surging ahead; a

series of own goals has left Baidu far behind. The common jibe about Baidu

among local experts is that it is becoming the Yahoo of China, a once-dominant

search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of management

blunders.

 

如此巨大的中国市场，但仍未能阻止这三巨头互相争夺地界。这场战斗的结果正在迅速而明亮。这场战斗的结果正在迅速而明亮。腾讯和阿里巴巴是最好的，而百度因为自己的一系列乌龙球而远远落后。中国专家最常用来嘲笑百度的说法之一就是它正在成为中国的雅虎。雅虎曾经是一个在市场上占据主导地位的搜索老板，因为缺乏创新和一系列的管理错误而堕落。

 

Its revenue growth fell to 6.3% in

2016, down from 35% in 2015 and 54% in 2014. The firm gets some nine-tenths of

its revenues from online ads, but this income is plunging as marketers redirect

spending from search ads on Baidu to social-media networks like WeChat and

mobile-commerce platforms run by Alibaba. Meanwhile, Baidu is burning cash

trying to keep its various big bets on artificial intelligence (AI), online

video, virtual and augmented-reality technologies, and “online to offline”

(O2O) services going. One of China’s most respected business consultants is

pessimistic about its future: “There is very little chance they’ll be relevant

in five years.”

 

2016年，百度的收入增长率下降到6.3%，远低于2015年的35%和2014年的54%。公司收入约90%来自在线广告，但由于商店将花在百度搜索广告上的钱转移到微信等社交网络网络和阿里巴巴运营的移动商务平台，百度的收入大幅下降。该公司的收入约为90%来自在线广告，但百度的收入大幅下降，因为该店将其在百度搜索广告上的资金转移到微信等社交网络和阿里巴巴运营的移动商务平台上。与此同时，百度仍在花钱维持其几个大赌注：人工智能（AI）、在线视频、虚拟和增强现实技术及其“线上到线下”(O2O）服务。中国最受尊敬的商业顾问之一对百度的未来持悲观态度：“五年后百度可能什么都没发生。”

 

Of the other two giants, Tencent is

probably the most fearsome. It already has higher revenues and profits than

Alibaba. Its value is set to climb as it ramps up advertising on WeChat

(provided that does not provoke a backlash from users). Its main weapon against

Alibaba is its stake in JD.com, the country’s second-biggest e-commerce firm,

led by Richard Liu, one of China’s most aggressive and successful serial

entrepreneurs.

 

至于其他两个大佬，腾讯可能是最令人生畏的，其收入和利润已经超过了阿里巴巴。随着腾讯在微信上广告的不断增长(只要没有引起客户的反对)，其价值必然会上升。随着腾讯在微信上广告的不断增长（只要没有引起客户的反对），其价值将不可避免地上升。腾讯对阿里巴巴的重要武器是其在京东的股权。京东是中国第二大电子商务公司，领导人刘强东是中国最优秀的连续创业者之一。

 

JD.com has adopted an expensive

“asset-heavy” business model akin to Amazon’s in America. Thus far, its vast

investments in warehouses, logistics and couriers have not come anywhere near

toppling Alibaba. But last year the company saw its revenues rise to $37.5bn,

up from $28bn the previous year. Its share of China’s business-to-consumer

market rose to 25% in 2016, up from 18% at the end of 2014. If Mr Liu’s

investments in infrastructure start to pay off, much of Alibaba’s future

domestic growth could be at risk.

 

京东实施了高成本的“重资产”商业模式，类似于美国的亚马逊。到目前为止，JD.COM在仓储、物流、快递等方面的巨额投资还远远超过了阿里巴巴。到目前为止，京东在仓储、物流和快递方面的巨额投资还远远超过了阿里巴巴。但去年，京东的收入已经上升到去年的375亿美元。2014年底，他在中国B2C市场的份额为18%，2016年攀升至25%。如果刘强东对基础设施的投资逐渐有效，阿里巴巴未来在中国的增长可能面临风险。

 

That threat may explain why Mr Ma

is not content with Alibaba’s overall 70% share of the local e-commerce market.

In 2016 it spent $1bn to win control of Lazada, South-East Asia’s biggest

e-commerce firm. In March Lazada launched a new service for Singaporeans

directly to shop on Taobao, one of Alibaba’s two domestic e-commerce platforms

(the other is Tmall).

 

上述威协或许可以解释为什么阿里巴巴在中国电商市场的份额已经达到70%，但马云并不满意。2016年，阿里巴巴在东南亚大型电子商务公司Lazada上投资了10亿美元。2016年，阿里巴巴花费10亿美元投资东南亚大型电子商务公司Lazada。3月，Lazada推出了新的服务，方便新加坡人直接在淘宝上购物（淘宝是阿里巴巴的两个中国电子商务平台之一，另一个是天猫）。

 

Mr Ma last year persuaded the G20

summit of leading countries to endorse his proposal for an “electronic world

trade platform” (eWTP), to make it easier for all businesses to trade across

borders. In March Alibaba launched a “digital free-trade zone” as part of the

initiative, in Malaysia. This public-private partnership, which involves

simplifying both logistics and payments, will help all merchants.

 

去年，为方便小企业进行跨境贸易，马云说服二十国集团首脑会议接受他提出的“电子世界贸易平台”（eWTP）。今年3月，阿里巴巴在马来西亚推出了一个EWTP项目“数据自由贸易”，简化了物流和支付，并根据公私合作促进了小企业。

 

Mr Ma’s chief weapon for going

global, however, is Ant Financial, which was spun out of Alibaba before the

latter’s $25bn flotation in 2014 in New York. In China the unit offers services

ranging from online banking to investment products; it even runs the mainland’s

first proper consumer credit-scoring agency, Sesame Credit, which uses big data

to work out the creditworthiness of punters. Ant already has more than 450m

customers in China and is going overseas with gusto.

 

但是，蚂蚁金融是马云走向世界的重要武器。阿里巴巴于2014年在纽约发售，融资250亿美元，蚂蚁金融在此之前就脱离了集团。阿里巴巴于2014年在纽约出售，融资250亿美元，蚂蚁金融在此之前已经离开了该集团。在中国，蚂蚁金融提供从在线银行到投资产品的各种服务。它甚至管理着芝麻信用，中国大陆第一个严格意义上的客户综合评分组织，利用大数据来决定客户的信用状况。蚂蚁金融在中国拥有超过4.5亿客户，并以高情绪进入海外市场。

 

It has investments in local

online-payments firms in Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea.

In America Ant is in a frenzied bidding and lobbying war with Euronet, an

American rival, to buy MoneyGram International, a money-transfer firm. On April

17th Ant raised its initial offer for MoneyGram by over a third to $1.2bn, topping

Euronet’s bid.

 

蚂蚁金服投资了泰国、菲律宾、新加坡和韩国的在线支付公司。在美国，快速汇金是回收汇款服务提供商（MoneyGram International），蚂蚁正在与美国竞争对手Euronet展开疯狂的回收和劝诫战。在美国，快速汇金是回收汇款服务提供商（MoneyGram International），蚂蚁正在与美国竞争对手euronet展开一场疯狂的回收和劝诫战。4月17日，蚂蚁首次将速汇金的价格提高了三分之一以上，达到12亿美元，高于euronet的价格。

 

Tencent is also making bold

acquisitions abroad. A consortium that it led spent $8.6bn to acquire Finland’s

Supercell last year, a deal that turned Tencent into the world’s biggest

purveyor of online games. Together with Foxconn, a contract-manufacturing

giant, the firm invested $175m last year into Hike Messenger, an Indian

messaging app akin to America’s WhatsApp. It was also an early investor in

America’s Snapchat, another popular messaging app, whose parent company Snap

went public in March.

 

腾讯也敢于在海外回收。去年，由腾讯领导的财团以86亿美元收购了芬兰的Supercell，使腾讯成为世界上最大的网络游戏公司。去年，腾讯领导的财团以86亿美元收购了芬兰的Supercell，使腾讯成为世界上最大的网络游戏公司。去年，腾讯还与OEM富士康合作，利用Hike利用印度的即时消息 Messenger(类似美国的Whatsapp)投资1.75亿美元。腾讯也是另一个流行的即时消息应用——美国Snapchat的初始投资者，Snapchat总公司Snap于3月发布。

 

One reason for these purchases is

that Tencent’s earlier efforts to promote WeChat abroad (including a splashy

advertising campaign in Europe featuring Lionel Messi, a footballer) flopped.

Established social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp proved too entrenched

to dislodge. They also did some copying of their own: once they adopted some of

WeChat’s innovations, Western consumers had little reason to switch to the

Chinese network.

 

这一系列投资行动有一个原因:腾讯早些时候在海外推广微信的努力被打败(包括在欧洲高价开展的广告活动，还邀请了足球运动员梅西代言)。事实上，Facebook和Whatsapp这样完美的社交网络的地位是坚不可摧的。事实上，像Facebook和Whatsapp这样完美的社交网络的地位是坚不可摧的。此外，这些社交媒体本身也复制了微信的一些做法，一旦他们利用微信的突破，西方客户就没有理由改变中国的社交媒体。

 

Such investments have been in

Tencent’s core areas, away from turf occupied by Alibaba and Baidu. Sometimes,

the trio end up co-operating, if not by design. All three BAT firms are backers

of Didi Chuxing, a ride-hailing firm with global pretensions of its own. But in

other ways their domestic war is spilling into foreign markets.

 

腾讯的这些投资一直处于核心领域，避开阿里巴巴和百度的地盘。有时候，三巨头不是故意的，而是成为了合作伙伴。有时候，这不是故意的，但三巨头也成了合作伙伴。BAT投资了滴滴，一家打算进入国际市场的在线叫车公司。但是在其它方面，三巨头在中国的战争开始蔓延到国际市场。

 

India is one such battleground. In

April, together with eBay and Microsoft, Tencent invested $1.4bn into Flipkart,

a leading Indian online retailer. Alibaba and Ant together are reported to have

invested nearly $900m in Paytm, India’s top online-payments firm; in February,

Paytm launched an e-commerce portal akin to Alibaba’s Tmall to take on Flipkart

and Amazon in India.

 

印度是他们在海外的战场。今年4月，腾讯与ebay和微软合作，向印度领先的网络零售商Flipkart投资14亿美元。今年4月，腾讯与ebay和微软合作，向印度领先的在线零售商Flipkart投资14亿美元。阿里巴巴和蚂蚁金融投资了印度最大的在线支付公司Paytm近9亿美元。今年2月，Paytm在印度推出了一个类似阿里巴巴天猫的电子商务门户，与Flipkart和亚马逊印度对抗。

 

Elsewhere, Tencent unveiled a

service in March that will allow firms in Europe to use WeChat to sell on the

mainland. This will let them sell directly into China, avoiding red tape.

Tencent also recently invested $1.8bn in America’s Tesla, a pioneer in electric

and autonomous vehicles. That is a particular challenge to Baidu, which is

betting its future on machine learning and AI.

 

在其他方面，今年3月，腾讯发布了一项服务，允许欧洲企业通过微信在大陆销售。这样，这些企业就可以直接进入中国，避免繁琐的审批流程。这样，这些企业就可以直接进入中国，避免了繁琐的审批流程。腾讯最近向电动和无人驾驶汽车的先驱美国特斯拉投资了18亿美元。这对百度来说是一个考验，它把自己的未来赌在机器学习和人工智能上。

 

Baidu’s push abroad is mainly a way

to get access to talent in these fields. The firm has just started its first

recruiting campaign at top American universities, including Stanford University

and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It has a respected AI laboratory

in Silicon Valley, despite the recent departure of Andrew Ng, an AI expert. But

Baidu does not have the same firepower as Alibaba and Tencent. It tried but has

failed to conquer foreign markets such as Japan with its search engine. In

April it opened up its self-driving technology to rivals, as Tesla did in 2014,

but it has a long way to go before it makes an impact in autonomous driving.

 

百度推广国外市场的关键是在这些领域获得人才。最近，百度在斯坦福大学、麻省理工学院等美国顶尖大学开始了首次招聘活动。尽管人工智能专家吴恩达最近已经离开，但百度在硅谷有一个很有威望的人工智能实验室。但百度并没有阿里巴巴和腾讯那么强大。它的搜索引擎试图吸引日本和其他国际市场，但失败了。4月，百度向敌人开放了自己的无人驾驶技术，就像2014年特斯拉的做法一样。但百度在这一领域的知名度还有很长的路要走。

 

Grandiose BAT statements about

global aims should be taken with a pinch of salt. It would be an error to

neglect the profitable domestic market. Goldman Sachs, an investment bank,

reckons that China’s online retail market will more than double in size by

2020, to $1.7trn. As Duncan Clark, author of a recent book on Alibaba, points

out, whatever headlines Mr Ma and other internet bosses make with their

overseas ventures, “it takes a lot to get away from the sheer gravity of

China.” But at home and abroad, one thing is clear: China’s internet titans

cannot be ignored.

 

不能完全相信与BAT相关的全球目标豪言壮语。忽视有利可图的中国市场相当于犯错。忽视有利可图的中国市场相当于犯错。投资银行高盛认为，到2020年，中国的在线零售市场容量将至少翻一番，达到1.7亿美元。和邓肯·克拉克一样（Duncan Clark）最近在阿里巴巴的书中指出，无论马云和其他互联网巨头在国外扩张过程中做出了什么引人注目的行为，“摆脱中国市场的强大引力并不容易。”但无论是在国内还是国外，都有一点很明显：中国的互联网大佬不容忽视。

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