硅谷風混搭國企作派

The vibe on the Huawei campus, spread out across two square miles in the city of Shenzhen, north of Hong Kong, is more state-owned enterprise than Silicon Valley.

華爲(Huawei)總部坐落在香港以北的深圳市，整個園區佔地兩平方英里。這裏的氛圍有點硅谷的感覺，但更像是一家國有企業。

Workers clock in at 8.30am (dawdlers are sent an email), lights are dimmed at noon and noisy printing of documents prohibited until 2pm, so they can pull out cots and snooze.

員工在早上8點半上班（遲到的人會收到一封電子郵件），中午燈光調得很暗，下午1點半之前不允許有打印文件的噪聲，好讓大家可以拿出摺疊牀小睡一會兒。

The Chinese telecoms giant’s views on the bottom line betray a similarly collectivist bent: Huawei “does not pursue high profitability; we share our profits with our customers and industry partners”, it says.

這家電信設備巨頭對利潤的看法，同樣折射出一種集體主義傾向：該公司表示，華爲“不追求高利潤，我們與客戶和行業合作伙伴共享利潤”。

Yet there is an intriguing blend here of high-growth tech behemoth and a socialist indifference to making money.

然而，華爲身上體現出一種耐人尋味的混合特質：它既是一家高增長的科技巨頭，又抱着一種不在乎賺不賺錢的社會主義情懷。

The mixture has produced success for a company that brought in Rmb521.6bn ($75.6bn) in sales last year. At the same time, as revenues jumped 32 per cent, net profits barely budged, whittling margins back to 7 per cent.

正是這種混合特質成就了華爲，去年該公司銷售額高達5216億元人民幣（合756億美元）。在營收大增32%的同時，淨利潤卻是沒什麼變化，利潤率回落至7%。

Its handsets are the third most popular globally, trailing just Apple and Samsung, and are now ranked top in China, according to the IDC research firm — overtaking shipments of its nearest rival Oppo in the first quarter, with a 20 per cent share. On the enterprise side, its network infrastructure equipment is used by telecoms carriers across much of the globe, pummelling Ericsson and the Alcatel-Lucent-bolstered Nokia.

研究公司IDC的數據顯示，以市場佔有率來看，華爲的手機位居全球第三，僅落後於蘋果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)；在中國國內目前排在第一位，今年第一季度其出貨量超過實力最接近的對手Oppo，市場佔有率達20%。在企業業務方面，華爲的網絡基建設備被全球許多地區的電信運營商所採用，大挫愛立信(Ericsson)以及收購了阿爾卡特-朗訊(Alcatel-Lucent)的諾基亞(Nokia)。

But the US, rattled at the prospect of entrusting its communications network to a company founded by a former People’s Liberation Army officer and with what it sees as state links, remains a holdout here.

不過，華爲在這塊業務領域仍被美國拒之門外。該公司是由一名中國人民解放軍(PLA)的前軍官創辦的，而且在美國看來，華爲與中國政府之間牽扯不清，因而美國不放心由這樣一家公司來承建本國的通信網絡。

So great are American concerns that when Japan’s SoftBank bought Sprint Nextel in 2013, it had to pledge not to use equipment made by the employee-owned Chinese company and rip out Huawei kit used by Clearwire, a data network operator being acquired by Sprint.

就因爲美國顧慮重重，2013年日本的軟銀(SoftBank)收購Sprint Nextel時，只得承諾不使用華爲的設備——儘管華爲是一家員工持股的公司——並將淘汰Sprint當時正在收購的數據網絡運營商Clearwire所使用的華爲設備。

That did not please Masayoshi Son, according to a person close to the Japanese group’s founder. He was an early fan of Huawei telecoms gear, figuring any supplier to China’s massive carriers would achieve pricing advantages wrought by massive economies of scale.

一名接近軟銀創始人孫正義(Masayoshi Son)的人士表示，這種安排並不合孫正義的心意。作爲華爲電信設備的一名早期粉絲，孫正義認爲，中國電信運營商一律體量龐大，任何爲它們供應設備的企業都可享受到巨大規模經濟帶來的定價優勢。

Undeterred, Huawei’s sights are firmly set on the global stage. It is building out from handsets and network kit into new business lines, including cloud services, for which it is hiring about 2,000 people this year, while rolling out portable radio masts in congested areas. This month, it is set to expand in the beleaguered PC market with a new laptop, undeterred by slumping sales and the demise of smaller players.

華爲毫不氣餒，依然堅定地把目光投向全球舞臺。除了手機和網絡設備業務，華爲又在開闢新的業務線，其中雲服務業務計劃今年招聘大約2000名員工，同時推出在人流密集地區使用的可攜帶無線基站。華爲沒有被個人電腦市場銷量下滑、一些較小廠商出局的現實嚇倒，還尋求在這個當前低迷的市場擴張，並定於本月發佈一款新筆記本電腦。

“On the smartphone side, the volumes look great,” says David McQueen, research director at ABI Research, who attended Huawei’s recent analyst meeting in Shenzhen, the fishing village turned tech metropolis across the border from Hong Kong. “They need to bring it up another notch to really catch up with Apple and Samsung in the next generation.”

“在智能手機方面，華爲的銷量看起來非常大，”ABI研究中心(ABI Research)研究總監戴維?麥奎因(David McQueen)說，他參加了華爲近日在深圳舉行的分析師會議。“未來一代人時間裏，他們需要更上一層樓，才能真正追趕上蘋果和三星。”

The handset division, contributing roughly a quarter of revenues, probably lost money last year, on the back of slashed prices and ramped-up marketing spend, reckons Richard Windsor, founder of research consultancy Radio Free Mobile.

研究諮詢公司Radio Free Mobile的創始人理查德?溫莎(Richard Windsor)推測，由於降價和營銷費用增加的緣故，爲集團貢獻約三分之一營收的華爲手機業務去年很可能虧損了。

But beyond the paternalistic platitudes, Huawei has taken a tougher stance. Founder and deputy chairman Ren Zhengfei, in an internal memo published by Reuters, railed against unproductive staff.

但是，除了家長式的老生常談以外，華爲也採取了更嚴厲的作風。在由路透(Reuters)發佈的一份內部備忘錄裏，華爲創始人、副董事長任正非訓斥了工作不力的下屬。

Speaking at this month’s analyst conference, Shao Yang, president of strategy marketing at the consumer business group, said the company would slim down its handset model portfolio — which currently runs to 22 — and get out of smaller countries where it cannot gain big market share.

華爲消費者業務首席戰略官邵洋在本月的分析師會議上發表講話時透露，該公司打算精簡手機產品線（目前有22款產品），並撤出其無法奪得大片市場的較小國家。

Some advocate tougher action for the unit, which remains part of Huawei only because an abortive auction in 2008 failed to attract enough bidders. Mr Windsor suggests a tie-up with an internet titan such as Baidu or Tencent to help plug its service gap in China, and increasing the marketing of its lower-priced Honor brand in developed markets.

有些人主張對該部門採取更嚴厲的做法。其實2008年時華爲就打算處置該業務並舉行了拍賣，只是因爲未能吸引到足夠多的投標企業而流拍。溫莎建議其與百度(Baidu)或騰訊(Tecent)之類的互聯網巨頭攜手合作，以彌補自身在國內服務領域的短板，同時在發達市場大力營銷低端的榮耀(Honor)品牌。

But for now, “Huawei does not have the stomach or the resources to wade through the rivers of red ink that it will take to knock Samsung off its perch,” he wrote in a note to clients.

但就目前而言，“華爲既沒有意願也沒有資源來解決赤字，也就無法擊敗三星，”他在給客戶的一份報告中寫道。

Others point to weaknesses elsewhere in the global footprint, including south-east Asia and India. Winning share in India means spending big, says Neil Shah, director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, noting that rivals such as Oppo and Vivo are shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars on Bollywood and cricket sponsorships.

還有人指出，在包括東南亞和印度在內的其他地區，華爲的海外擴張腳步顯得乏力。對位科技市場研究(Counterpoint Technology Market Research)的董事尼爾?沙阿(Neil Shah)指出，要想在印度奪取市場份額就得燒錢，比如說華爲的競爭對手OPPO和vivo在寶萊塢和板球贊助方面已經投了數億美元。

For its part, Huawei concedes there is scope to build a stronger ecosystem. “I think we need to learn from Apple,” says Mr Shao. “The business is like a tree: components are the roots, devices the tree trunks and data, payments, content aggregation the branches.”

華爲自己承認還有空間打造更強健的生態系統。邵洋表示：“我認爲我們需要向蘋果學習。把整個業務當作一棵樹：零部件是樹根，設備是樹幹，數據、支付、內容聚合是樹枝。”

At the roots, it is manufacturing more sophisticated chips in-house; for the branches there is private cloud storage — where more than 40m photos a day are being uploaded — and mobile payments. It is also looking to beef up video offerings.

在“樹根”方面，華爲自己正在生產更精密的芯片。在“樹枝”方面，華爲提供私人云存儲服務（每天通過該服務上傳的照片超過4000萬張）和移動支付服務。此外，華爲還在尋求加強視頻服務。

Huawei Pay is another catch-up step, tapping into a $5.5tn business that is dominated by Alibaba and Tencent. But for now, it is tiny and can only be used mainly on transport; even the coffee shop on campus accepts only its rivals’ payments.

推出Huawei Pay也是一項追趕的措施，希望打進有5.5萬億美元規模、已被阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)佔據主導地位的移動支付市場。但眼下華爲這項業務規模還很小，並且主要在交通工具上使用，即便是華爲園區的咖啡店也只接受競爭對手的支付服務。

Similarly, Huawei has nearly 200m consumers using its domestic cloud. But this is far from a profitable business line in China: Alibaba, the internet group that has the biggest market share, lost $5 on every $100 of sales of cloud services last year. Tencent, also chasing a slice of the markets, took on a contract from one provincial government for one fen (Rmb0.01).

目前已有近2億用戶在使用華爲在國內的雲服務，但在中國這項業務距離實現盈利還很遙遠。拿市場份額最大的阿里巴巴來說，去年該公司的雲服務每銷售出100美元就要虧損5美元。同樣想從這個市場分一杯羹的騰訊曾以1分錢價格拿下一個地方政府的訂單。

But all the talk about the cloud, radio masts and enterprise is at the heart of the tensions at Huawei, says Mr Shah. A common theme at their investor days is that discussions about smartphones are confined to only 2-3 per cent of the time.

不過，沙阿表示，在華爲內部，所有這些有關雲服務、無線基站及企業業務的討論是引發緊張的核心因素。在投資者日，有關智能手機的討論向來只能佔2%到3%的時間。

“This shows the rotating CEOs never see consumer as a huge part of the business,” he says. “There’s some mismatch between what the consumer business is trying to drive fast and what the overall leadership team has focused on.”

沙阿表示：“這表明歷任輪值CEO從來不把消費者業務看作整體業務中的一個重頭戲。消費者業務部門試圖快速取得進展，他們的目標與上面的領導團隊所關注的東西並不對應。”

Current chief executive Eric Xu certainly shows little love for the consumer business. In another business contradiction that typifies the dichotomies within Huawei, he abruptly dismissed the smartwatch in a Gerald Ratner moment — undeterred that he led a company that made them.

目前輪值的首席執行官徐直軍(Eric Xu)就顯得對消費者業務無感。他曾突兀地表現得不把智能手錶放在眼裏，一點不考慮他所領導的公司自己在生產這類產品，簡直就是傑拉爾德?拉特納(Gerald Ratner，是一位曾因嘲笑自己企業的產品而導致企業業務一蹶不振的首席執行官——譯者注)化身，這是在公司業務上的又一個矛盾行爲，體現了華爲內部的分歧。

“I’m not a man who wears watches,” he said.” And I’ve never been optimistic about this market.”

當時他說：“我這人不戴錶，也從不看好這個市場。”