01 阿里巴巴的商業(yè)帝國(guó)到底有多大？馬云的小目標(biāo)：另建一個(gè)“WTO”

馬云希望阿里巴巴能成為世界第五大經(jīng)濟(jì)體，目標(biāo)擁有20億用戶。雖然阿里巴巴迄今尚未在歐美市場(chǎng)站穩(wěn)腳跟，但人們依舊難以低估其國(guó)際化愿景。

馬云的小目標(biāo)：另造一個(gè)“WTO”

Alibaba is the company that likes to think it’s a country. Jack Ma, the former English teacher who founded the group, works the stage like a seasoned diplomat. At the G20 meeting of global leaders in Hangzhou last year, Mr Ma hosted Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Italy’s then premier Matteo Renzi.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)是一家公司，但它喜歡自認(rèn)為是一個(gè)國(guó)家。阿里巴巴創(chuàng)始人、當(dāng)過英語(yǔ)老師的馬云(Jack Ma)像老練的外交官一樣長(zhǎng)袖善舞。在去年的二十國(guó)集團(tuán)(G20)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人杭州峰會(huì)上，澳大利亞的馬爾科姆·特恩布爾(Malcolm Turnbull)、加拿大的賈斯廷·特魯多(Justin Trudeau)和意大利時(shí)任總理馬泰奧·倫齊(Matteo Renzi)相繼成為馬云的座上賓。

In January he became the first Chinese businessman to sit down publicly with Donald Trump after the US election — a full month before the US president spoke to Chinese president Xi Jinping. Since then he has met the leaders of Argentina, Australia, Israel, Malaysia and Pakistan.

今年1月，他成為美國(guó)大選后首位與唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)公開會(huì)面的中國(guó)商人——比這位美國(guó)總統(tǒng)與中國(guó)國(guó)家主席習(xí)近平首次通電話早了整整一個(gè)月。在那之后，馬云又分別與阿根廷、澳大利亞、以色列、馬來西亞和巴基斯坦的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人見了面。

Mr Ma’s ambitions for Alibaba, the ecommerce company worth $309bn that began life in his Hangzhou apartment, are equally global. Come 2036, he wants sales across its platform to be bigger than the gross domestic product of the world’s fifth-biggest economy, outranked only by the US, China, Japan and the EU. It is aiming for 2bn customers, which on current numbers would be one in every four people on the planet.

馬云對(duì)阿里巴巴的期望也同樣國(guó)際化。這家市值3090億美元的電商公司，誕生于馬云位于杭州的公寓里。到2036年，他希望阿里巴巴平臺(tái)整體銷售額超過世界第五大經(jīng)濟(jì)體的國(guó)內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值(GDP)，僅居于美國(guó)、中國(guó)、日本和歐盟(EU)之后。阿里巴巴的目標(biāo)是擁有20億用戶，按照目前的數(shù)字計(jì)算，這相當(dāng)于四分之一的地球人口。

To achieve these goals, he has proposed ideas that sound more like the projects of a politician than a business leader. In order to strengthen the company’s crucial technology backbone, he pledged in March that “we will build Alibaba’s own ‘Nasa’”, a reference to the US space agency that masterminded the moon landings.

為實(shí)現(xiàn)這些目標(biāo)，他提出了一些聽上去更像出自政治家（而非企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人）之口的設(shè)想。為增強(qiáng)阿里巴巴關(guān)鍵的核心技術(shù)，他在3月宣誓：“我們將建立阿里巴巴的‘Nasa’。”Nasa是美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局，曾策劃了登月行動(dòng)。

With global trade talks stalling, he has also unveiled a trading platform he hopes will serve as a sort of World Trade Organization for small and medium sized businesses. “I think for the next 10 to 20 years, globalisation should be driven by business people,” he said last month. He calls the project “e-WTO”.

在全球貿(mào)易談判停滯不前的背景下，他還宣布將推動(dòng)建立一個(gè)貿(mào)易平臺(tái)，希望該平臺(tái)成為中小企業(yè)的世貿(mào)組織(WTO)。他上個(gè)月說，未來十到二十年，驅(qū)動(dòng)全球化的將是商人。他稱這個(gè)計(jì)劃為“e-WTO”。

In China, Alibaba’s tentacles reach into almost every aspect of life: shopping, finance, chatting, healthcare, entertainment and news. You can go for weeks in China without cash, swiping your phone to pay for coffee, clothing or utility bills. So ubiquitous is Alipay, its online payment platform, that even some rough sleepers accept it.

在中國(guó)，阿里巴巴的觸角伸到了生活的幾乎方方面面：購(gòu)物、金融、聊天、醫(yī)療、娛樂和新聞。在中國(guó)，你個(gè)把月沒有現(xiàn)金也能過得好好的，你可以用手機(jī)付款買咖啡、買衣服、繳納水電燃?xì)赓M(fèi)。阿里巴巴的在線支付平臺(tái)支付寶(Alipay)如此普及，就連一些無家可歸者都接受這種支付方式。

A couple of cousins in search of easy money in Hangzhou netted only about Rmb2,000 ($300) from robbing three stores, proof that Alipay and rival WeixinPay have disrupted the business of burglary.

一對(duì)來杭州搶劫的表兄弟搶了3家店，才搶了不到2000元人民幣（合300美元）。支付寶和它的對(duì)手微信支付(WeixinPay)對(duì)搶劫這一行的顛覆由此可見一斑。

Alibaba is responsible for one-tenth of China’s retail sales and has the biggest money market fund (Yu’e Bao has Rmb1.14trn under management). It is the company that chased eBay out of China and bested Yahoo, acquiring its operations there in 2005.

阿里巴巴占中國(guó)零售總額的十分之一，旗下?lián)碛腥珖?guó)最大的貨幣市場(chǎng)基金——余額寶(Yu’e Bao)資產(chǎn)管理規(guī)模達(dá)1.14萬(wàn)億元人民幣。正是這家公司將eBay趕出了中國(guó)，打敗了雅虎(Yahoo)，在2005年收購(gòu)了雅虎中國(guó)全部業(yè)務(wù)。

阿里巴巴的商業(yè)帝國(guó)

Alibaba.com, the original platform, along with Taobao, AliExpress, 1688.com, TMall.com and Tmall Global provides portals for business-to-business sales and for brands to sell to consumers, as Amazon does in the west. It also replicates the function of Ebay. Juhuasuan offers flash sales on various products. Cainiao is the logistics arm of Alibaba.

最早的平臺(tái)Alibaba.com與淘寶(Taobao)、全球速賣通(AliExpress)、1688.com、天貓(TMall.com)及天貓國(guó)際(Tmall Global)一道為“企業(yè)對(duì)企業(yè)”(B2B)銷售以及品牌商家對(duì)消費(fèi)者銷售（正如西方的亞馬遜）提供門戶。阿里巴巴還復(fù)制了eBay的功能。聚劃算(Juhuasuan)提供針對(duì)各種產(chǎn)品的閃購(gòu)。菜鳥(Cainiao)是阿里巴巴旗下的物流業(yè)務(wù)。

Joe Tsai, executive vice-chairman, describes the group as “a big incubator of ideas”. Those futuristic visions include facial recognition payment and one stop consultation-to-pharmacy online healthcare services. Alibaba’s M&A team is constantly on the prowl for investments: as well as myriad start-ups it has stakes in Snap and Lyft.

阿里巴巴集團(tuán)執(zhí)行副主席蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)將該集團(tuán)形容為一個(gè)“大型的創(chuàng)意孵化器”。未來愿景包括研發(fā)人臉識(shí)別支付、推出從咨詢到藥店的一站式在線醫(yī)療服務(wù)。阿里巴巴的并購(gòu)團(tuán)隊(duì)一直在尋覓投資機(jī)會(huì)：既入股Snap、Lyft，也投資了眾多初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。

Not all its operations make money. Its cloud business may be among the biggest new ventures, but it loses 8 cents on every dollar. Cainiao, the logistics platform that underpins the asset-lite ecommerce operation and delivers 57m packages a day, bleeds cash. Alibaba Pictures is warning of losses of $140m.

阿里巴巴并非所有的業(yè)務(wù)都賺錢。云業(yè)務(wù)或許是集團(tuán)旗下最大的新冒險(xiǎn)項(xiàng)目之一，但該業(yè)務(wù)每創(chuàng)造一美元營(yíng)收要虧損8美分。支撐輕資產(chǎn)電商運(yùn)營(yíng)、日投送5700萬(wàn)個(gè)包裹的物流平臺(tái)菜鳥也在消耗大量現(xiàn)金。阿里影業(yè)(Alibaba Pictures)警告將虧損1.4億美元。

That does not faze Alibaba, which uses its ecommerce operation to finance new and fledgling businesses and build its own ecosystem.

阿里巴巴并不擔(dān)心這些，它利用電商業(yè)務(wù)為新開展和羽翼未豐的業(yè)務(wù)提供資金，構(gòu)建自己的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。

The formula seems to be working: for the past fiscal year to the end of March, it increased revenues 56 per cent to $23bn and generated net income of $6bn, making it considerably more profitable than Amazon.

這一模式似乎已經(jīng)奏效：在3月底結(jié)束的上一財(cái)年，阿里巴巴營(yíng)收增長(zhǎng)了56%至230億美元，凈利潤(rùn)達(dá)60億美元，盈利能力遠(yuǎn)超亞馬遜。

The digital media division includes the YouTube-like video site Youku Tudou, Alibaba Music, a streaming service, and Tmall TV (OTT), a smart TV and streaming business. Alibaba Pictures Group is a film and television company. It also includes Ali Sports, which promotes and markets sports and esports across China.

數(shù)字媒體部門包括類似YouTube的視頻網(wǎng)站優(yōu)酷土豆(Youku Tudou)、流媒體服務(wù)阿里音樂(Alibaba Music)和智能電視操作系統(tǒng)。阿里影業(yè)是一家影視公司。此外還有阿里體育(Ali Sports)，從事中國(guó)各地體育賽事、電子競(jìng)技的推廣和營(yíng)銷。

Outside China, Alibaba’s biggest reach is in Southeast Asia. It has a controlling stake in Lazada, the Indonesia-based ecommerce group and, together with affiliate Ant Financial, a stake in India’s PayTM which enables payments with the swipe of a phone.

在中國(guó)之外，阿里巴巴最大的業(yè)務(wù)分支在東南亞。阿里巴巴持有印度尼西亞電商集團(tuán)Lazada的控股權(quán)，并與關(guān)聯(lián)公司螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)一起入股了印度支付平臺(tái)PayTM，后者支持刷手機(jī)支付。

Beyond the region, however, Alibaba’s footprint is so far more limited and the company has been on the acquisition trail to bolster its global coverage.

不過，在這一地區(qū)之外，阿里巴巴的擴(kuò)張步伐迄今較為有限，并一直在通過收購(gòu)來擴(kuò)大其全球布局。

“Right now I’m a little bit sceptical,” says one consultant who works in the sector. “Alibaba has failed to go after Europe. A lot of other Chinese players have struggled as they’ve expanded, in the US in particular.” Alibaba’s own early American adventure fell flat. Its 11 Main boutique ecommerce operation was sold in mid-2015 after a year. At least two of its investments, in messaging app Tango and “deep-linking” search engine Quixey, have stumbled.

“我現(xiàn)在有點(diǎn)懷疑，”從事這一行業(yè)的一位咨詢師表示，“阿里巴巴進(jìn)軍歐洲已經(jīng)失敗。許多中國(guó)企業(yè)在實(shí)施擴(kuò)張之后都陷入掙扎，尤其是在美國(guó)。”阿里巴巴早期在美國(guó)的試水已告失敗。時(shí)裝電商平臺(tái)11 Main成立一年后，被阿里巴巴在2015年中出售。至少兩筆投資——對(duì)訊息應(yīng)用Tango和“深層鏈接”搜索引擎Quixey——也不順利。

The division includes Koubei, a local commerce platform, and Ele.me, an online food delivery platform. Alibaba’s online travel portal was renamed Fliggy last year, and is targeting the increasing number of Chinese who want to travel overseas.

這一部門包括本地商務(wù)平臺(tái)口碑網(wǎng)(Koubei)、在線外賣送餐平臺(tái)餓了么(Ele.me)。去年，阿里巴巴將在線旅游門戶更名為“飛豬”(Fliggy)，面向越來越多想出國(guó)旅游的中國(guó)人。

Alibaba shrugs off the mis-steps. Its aim in many of these projects, it says, is to learn as much as it can, and in any case it scores plenty of financial wins too. Jet.com, the ecommerce marketplace which it partly owned and was bought by Walmart for $3.3bn last year, is a case in point.

阿里巴巴對(duì)這些失策不以為然。它表示，投資這些項(xiàng)目的目的是為了盡可能多地學(xué)習(xí)，同時(shí)也不乏從中獲得豐厚的財(cái)務(wù)收益。Jet.com就是一個(gè)很好的例子，阿里巴巴曾經(jīng)入股的這家電商網(wǎng)站去年被沃爾瑪斥資33億美元收購(gòu)。

The group has used the growing numbers of Chinese tourists overseas to ramp up growth in Alipay’s international business. About 110,000 stores accept Alipay. It is also finding new partners. A partnership inked earlier this month with First Data makes Alipay an option for the commercial technology provider’s 4.5m US business users.

阿里巴巴還利用越來越多的中國(guó)人出境旅游來促進(jìn)支付寶國(guó)際業(yè)務(wù)的增長(zhǎng)。海外約有11萬(wàn)商家接受支付寶。它同時(shí)也在尋找新的合作方。本月早些時(shí)候支付寶與美國(guó)的First Data達(dá)成合作協(xié)議，今后這家商業(yè)技術(shù)提供商的450萬(wàn)美國(guó)企業(yè)用戶將可以選擇接受支付寶。

Richard Windsor of independent research house Radio Free Mobile says Alipay is Alibaba’s Trojan horse into the US market. If fully implemented, the First Data deal would give it 4m US outlets at one swoop — putting it on a par with ApplePay. Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, says: “Our goal is to extend reliable payment services to the over four million Chinese consumers that visit North America every year.”

獨(dú)立研究機(jī)構(gòu)Radio Free Mobile的理查德·溫莎(Richard Windsor)說，支付寶是阿里巴巴進(jìn)軍美國(guó)市場(chǎng)的“特洛伊木馬”。上述協(xié)議如果全面貫徹實(shí)施的話，將一下子讓支付寶入駐400萬(wàn)美國(guó)商戶，與蘋果的ApplePay不相上下。支付寶北美總裁蘇海爾·巴德蘭(Souheil Badran)說：“我們的目標(biāo)是為每年到訪北美的400多萬(wàn)中國(guó)消費(fèi)者提供可靠的支付服務(wù)。”

But Mr Windsor cautions that greater availability may not translate into greater usage as Alipay’s QR code payment system “l(fā)eaves a lot to be desired when it comes to easy and fun user experience” compared with alternatives in the US.

但溫莎警告，服務(wù)可獲性的擴(kuò)大不一定意味著使用的增加，因?yàn)榕c美國(guó)現(xiàn)有其他服務(wù)相比，支付寶的二維碼支付系統(tǒng)“在便利和有趣的用戶體驗(yàn)方面還有很多地方有待改進(jìn)”。

“An experience that is mediocre by developed market standards is a huge improvement on the offline experience in China, which is why I think QR codes have worked in China but failed in developed markets,” he wrote in a note to clients.

他在寫給客戶的報(bào)告中寫道：“以發(fā)達(dá)市場(chǎng)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來看平常無奇的體驗(yàn)，對(duì)中國(guó)線下體驗(yàn)而言卻是一個(gè)巨大改善，這就是我認(rèn)為二維碼在中國(guó)很成功但在發(fā)達(dá)市場(chǎng)失敗的原因。”

Ant Financial originated from Alipay, which combines an online payments system and a digital wallet. It includes wealth management, private banking, credit scoring and financial cloud computing services.

螞蟻金服源自支付寶。支付寶結(jié)合了網(wǎng)絡(luò)支付系統(tǒng)和數(shù)字錢包。螞蟻金服包括理財(cái)、私人銀行業(yè)務(wù)、信用評(píng)分和金融云計(jì)算服務(wù)。

Controversies have also dogged it overseas. There is a probe by the US Securities Exchange Commission into its metric for gross merchandise volume, and late last year Washington placed Taobao on its “notorious markets” blacklist for peddling fake goods.

阿里巴巴在海外也飽受爭(zhēng)議。美國(guó)證監(jiān)會(huì)(SEC)對(duì)其計(jì)算商品交易總額(GMV)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)進(jìn)行了調(diào)查。去年底，華盛頓方面將淘寶列入“惡名市場(chǎng)”黑名單，理由是淘寶網(wǎng)站上售賣假貨。

While recently Alibaba has taken strides towards clearing its sites of fake goods — something of a Sisyphean task — Mr Ma’s earlier quip that fakes were often of “better quality and better price than the real names” still rankles with brands and regulators.

雖然阿里巴巴近期努力清理平臺(tái)網(wǎng)站上的假貨——可以說是一項(xiàng)永無休止的任務(wù)——但馬云較早曾諷刺說“假貨比正品的質(zhì)量還好，價(jià)格也更低廉”，這仍然讓品牌商家和監(jiān)管者耿耿于懷。

Perhaps Mr Ma’s biggest global gambit is the new global trading platform that Alibaba is developing. First unveiled last year, the electronic world trade platform touches all the classic Alibaba buttons: small business, inclusivity — and the initiative seized from government by Mr Ma.

或許馬云全球棋局中最重要的一步是阿里巴巴正在開發(fā)的新的全球貿(mào)易平臺(tái)。這個(gè)“電子世界貿(mào)易平臺(tái)”(eWTP)于去年公布，擁有阿里巴巴的所有經(jīng)典特點(diǎn)：小企業(yè)、普惠——以及馬云從政府手中奪走的主動(dòng)權(quán)。

The Doha Round, the long period of trade negotiations under the WTO that started in 2001, is “such a long round, I feel sorry for these WTO guys”, Mr Ma said last month in Malaysia, the first overseas member of the platform. The eWTP will essentially provide the plumbing for cross-border trade: logistics, managing customs clearance and securing favourable tariffs.

針對(duì)WTO框架下始于2001年的多哈回合貿(mào)易談判，馬云上月在馬來西亞表示，這個(gè)回合太長(zhǎng)了，他為WTO的人感到遺憾。馬來西亞是eWTP的第一個(gè)海外成員。eWTP實(shí)際上將為跨境貿(mào)易提供管道：物流，清關(guān)管理，獲得優(yōu)惠關(guān)稅。

Alibaba Cloud is China’s largest provider of public cloud computing, offering cloud infrastructure services similar to those offered by Amazon and Microsoft. Alimama.com is an advertising and data management platform. The huge volume of consumer data from other parts of the business enables Alibaba to help merchants better target their ads.

阿里云(Alibaba Cloud)是中國(guó)最大的公共云計(jì)算提供商，提供類似亞馬遜和微軟(Microsoft)提供的云基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施服務(wù)。阿里媽媽(Alimama.com)是一個(gè)廣告和數(shù)據(jù)管理平臺(tái)。其他業(yè)務(wù)中的海量客戶數(shù)據(jù)使阿里巴巴能夠幫助商戶更好地找準(zhǔn)廣告目標(biāo)。

Alibaba kicked off its grand plan for global trade without frontiers with a bilateral deal designed to ease the passage of goods shipped by smaller businesses between China and Malaysia. The pact, established as a public-private partnership in Malaysia’s digital free trade zone, will focus on infrastructure, including a fulfilment centre and co-operation on electronic payments and financing. So far, it is strictly logistics: favourable tariffs are still under discussion.

阿里巴巴以一項(xiàng)雙邊協(xié)議啟動(dòng)其關(guān)于“無邊界全球貿(mào)易”的宏大計(jì)劃，該協(xié)議旨在為中小企業(yè)發(fā)運(yùn)的貨物在中國(guó)與馬來西亞之間通行提供便利。該協(xié)定將聚焦于包括一座訂單履行中心在內(nèi)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施以及在電子支付和融資方面的合作。雙方將通過公私合作在馬來西亞建設(shè)一個(gè)數(shù)字自由貿(mào)易區(qū)。目前為止，它仍然限于物流：優(yōu)惠關(guān)稅仍在商談中。

It is understood to be in talks aimed at making Russia the next hub — one of the biggest markets for international ecommerce site AliExpress — in a move that would be even more challenging.

據(jù)悉，阿里巴巴正在進(jìn)行旨在把俄羅斯變成下一個(gè)樞紐中心的磋商，這將更具挑戰(zhàn)性。俄羅斯是阿里巴巴旗下國(guó)際商務(wù)網(wǎng)站全球速賣通最大的市場(chǎng)之一。

詞匯總結(jié)

He was the mastermind behind the plan to acquire the explosives.

他就是密謀獲取炸藥的主謀。

He invited her to his laboratory to see if she could replicate the experiment.

他邀請(qǐng)她到他的實(shí)驗(yàn)室看她能否復(fù)制該實(shí)驗(yàn)。

She told us the story of one of Britain's most notorious country house murders.

她給我們講述了英國(guó)最有名的一起鄉(xiāng)村別墅謀殺案。