優步在中國何以知難而退
This time last year, Uber’s chief executive Travis Kalanick was on the road raising money for Uber China, seeking to conquer a market that he called “one of the largest untapped opportunities for Uber”.
去年這個時候，優步(Uber)首席執行官特拉維斯•卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)正在風塵僕僕地爲優步中國(Uber China)籌資，尋求拿下中國市場，他形容這個市場是“對優步而言最大的未開發機遇之一”。
Mr Kalanick was personally overseeing Uber’s growth in China and travelled there extensively, spending nearly one in five days in the country last year. He announced plans for Uber to expand to 50 cities, and then to 100.
卡蘭尼克親自監督優步在中國的成長，他多次前往中國，去年有近五分之一時間在中國度過。他宣佈相關計劃，擬分階段把優步擴張至50個城市和100個城市。
However, Uber’s abrupt decision to sell its Chinese unit to its rival Didi Chuxing highlights the extremely costly battle that was raging behind the scenes. Both companies were pouring money into subsidies for drivers and riderspassengers to gain market share, with Uber spending more than $1bn annually.
然而，優步突然決定將其中國業務單位出售給競爭對手滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)，突顯了幕後展開的代價極其高昂的角力。爲了贏得市場份額，兩家公司都投入大筆資金補貼司機和乘客，其中優步每年支出10億美元以上。
The peace agreement between the two bitter rivals — in which Uber will take a stake in Didi, and Didi in Uber — marks the first time Uber has thrown in the towel in any of its global markets.
根據兩個死對頭之間的和平協議，優步和滴滴將相互持股。該協議標誌着優步首次在一個海外市場認輸告退。
Selling Uber China, which had the heaviest losses of any Uber unit, is a step that puts Uber within reach of profitability, and clears the way for the company to focus on its ambitious tech-nology projects such as mapping, delivery and driverless cars.
出售優步中國（此前其承受着優步所有經營單位中最慘重的損失）是讓優步邁向盈利的一步，併爲該公司聚焦於雄心勃勃的技術項目（如測繪、遞送和無人駕駛汽車）掃清了道路。
The deal also points to the start of a new era for ride sharing: a period in which consolidation, rather than expansion, may become the rule of the day.
這筆交易還指向一個拼車新時代的開始，在這個時代，整合（而非擴張）可能成爲主流。
Over the past two years, an unprecedented glut of capital has poured into ride-hailing companies around the world, fuelling stiff competition between duplicate services.
過去兩年期間，空前大量的資本被投入世界各地的網約車企業，引發了雷同服務之間的激烈競爭。
Uber and Didi have been the two most aggressive fundraisers, achieving a collective $25bn between them, much of that within the last year.
優步和滴滴是近期兩個最積極的籌資人，實現了250億美元的籌資總額，其中大部分在過去一年籌得。
Because ride hailing is a winner-take-all market — one in which the company with the most drivers and riderspassengers gains the advantage — many companies have been pouring their venture funding into deep subsidies for passengersusers.
由於網約車是一個贏家通吃的市場（擁有最多司機和乘客的公司具有優勢），因此許多公司把自己的風險資金投入面向乘客的高額補貼。
However, now that Uber and Didi have ended their rivalry in China, admitting that these subsidy wars are unsustainable even for the most well capitalised companies, others are more likely to follow. Pressure will be particularly high on Lyft, which is Uber’s smaller competitor in the US, and on Ola, which is locked in a heavily subsidised fight with Uber in India.
然而，既然優步和滴滴叫停了它們在中國的死磕，承認這些補貼戰爭不可持續（就連資本最充足的公司也不例外），那麼其它公司更有可能效仿。受到較大壓力的公司將包括優步在美國的規模較小的競爭對手Lyft，以及正在印度與優步大打補貼戰的Ola。
The Uber-Didi deal also shows it will be much harder for investors in second-place ride-hailing companies to make the same outsized returns as those promised by the market leaders.
優步與滴滴達成的交易也表明，相比市場領軍者的誘人前景，處於第二位的網約車公司的投資者更難得到同樣超大的回報。
In return for Uber China, Uber is receiving a stake in Didi with a new class of shares that promises 18 per cent of the economic interest and 6 per cent of the voting rights.
出售優步中國後，優步將獲得一類新的滴滴股票，這部分股權將帶來18%的經濟權益和6%的投票權。
That equity stake is worth around $5bn, depending on how the economic interest is counted, based on Didi’s most recent fundraising at $28bn. Uber China’s other investors also receive a small stake.
根據最新一輪籌資使滴滴達到的280億美元估值，這部分股權價值約50億美元，取決於如何計算得出經濟權益。優步中國的其他投資者也得到小筆股份。
The terms could be considered a let-down, given that Uber has invested more than $2bn of its own money into its China operations, and had previously cited a $7bn valuation for its Uber China unit (The other investors in Uber China, including Baidu, will collectively receive an equity stake of less than 1 per cent in Didi).
這些條款可能被視爲令人失望，因爲優步已向在華業務投入逾20億美元自有資金，且之前提到優步中國的估值達到70億美元。優步中國的其他投資者——包括百度(Baidu)——總共將獲得滴滴不到1%的股權。
However, the deal does provide a graceful exit, after a period in which it had become increasingly clear that Uber was unlikely to win in China.
然而，這筆交易確實提供了一條體面的退路，此前一段時期越來越明顯的是，優步不太可能在中國勝出。
When Uber first entered the market in 2014, Mr Kalanick said its underdog position was part of the appeal.
當優步在2014年首次進入中國市場時，卡蘭尼克曾稱其弱勢地位是吸引力的一部分。
“Anytime we got into a discussion about our efforts in China, most people thought we were naive, crazy — or both,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Mondayyesterday. “We saw things differently of course.”
“每當我們被捲入一場關於我們在華努力的討論，多數人認爲我們要麼幼稚，要麼瘋了，或兩者兼而有之，”他週一在Facebook發帖寫道，“那時我們當然有不同的看法。”
However, Uber’s task in China became much harder when China’s two largest car-hailing companies, Didi and Kuaidi, merged early last year. Didi and Kuaidi had been locked in fierce competition with each other, but after the merger, they focused their firepower squarely on Uber.
然而，當中國最大的兩家網約車企業——滴滴和快的(Kuaidi)——在去年初合併後，優步在中國的任務變得困難得多。之前滴滴和快的彼此展開激烈競爭，但在合併後，它們集中火力對付優步。
Uber responded by pouring more subsidies into the market, prompting a surge in rides that pushed several Chinese cities to become Uber’s busiest anywhere in the world.
優步的迴應是向市場投入更多補貼，促使出行量激增，推動中國的幾個城市成爲優步在全球業務最繁忙的市場。
But even after years of rapid growth, Uber was still no match for Didi, which operates in more than 400 Chinese cities and runs 100m rides per week. Uber is in 60 cities and serves 40m rides per week.
但是，即使在經過多年的快速增長後，優步還是敵不過滴滴，後者在400多箇中國城市運營，每週提供1億次出行。優步在60箇中國城市運營，每週提供4000萬次出行。
Even more importantly, Didi’s extraordinary round of recent fundraising made it clear that the company had the financial firepower to keep matching whatever subsidies Uber might pour into China.
更重要的是，滴滴超高金額的最新一輪籌資表明，該公司擁有強大資金實力，能夠持續媲美優步可能投入中國的無論多少補貼。
In June, the company raised $7bn from investors in equity and debt, including an unusual $1bn investment from Apple. Not to be outdone, Uber raised $3.5bn from Saudi Arabia’s private wealth fund and issued $1.15bn in high-yield debt.
今年6月，該公司通過股份和債務從投資者處籌資70億美元，包括來自蘋果(Apple)的不尋常的10億美元投資。不甘落後的優步從沙特阿拉伯的主權財富基金籌資35億美元，併發行了11.5億美元的高收益債券。
However the final straw might have been China’s ride-hailing regulations, which formally legalised the practice just last week.
然而，壓垮優步的最後一根稻草可能是中國的網約車法規，《網絡預約出租汽車經營服務管理暫行辦法》上週正式將網約車服務合法化。
While those rules were much more permissive than previous versions, and were openly welcomed by both Uber and Didi, they also contained a clause that prohibited rides from operating below cost, effectively banning subsidies. That would have upended Uber’s current model in China.
雖然這些規則比以往的版本寬容得多，並得到優步和滴滴兩家的公開歡迎，但它們也包括一條禁止以低於成本的費用提供出行的規定，實際上禁止了補貼做法。此舉將叫停優步當前在中國實行的模式。
The rules also gave cities more control over ride-sharing, a step that could potentially make expansion to new cities more cumbersome.
這些規則也讓各城市對拼車服務擁有更大控制權，此舉可能使擴張進入新的城市變得更加繁瑣。
Talks of a deal between Didi and Uber grew serious in recent weeks, after Didi’s war chest had been filled. Pressure also mounted from Uber’s investors, concerned that the company would spend too much money on a fight it could not win, according to a person close to the situation.
滴滴完成最新一輪籌資後，有關滴滴和優步可能達成交易的說法在最近幾周變得認真起來。一名知情人士透露，來自優步投資者的壓力也不斷蓄積，他們擔心該公司在一場打不贏的戰爭中燒掉太多資金。
The terms of the agreement suggest not only a financial transaction but also a strategic alliance, with both companies taking seats on each other’s boards. This puts Didi in the unusual position of being an investor in both Uber and in Lyft, in which it took a stake last year.
協議條款似乎表明，這不僅是一筆財務交易，也是一個戰略聯盟，這兩家公司都在對方的董事會獲得席位。這使得滴滴處於既是優步投資者、也是Lyft投資者的不尋常地位；滴滴在去年入股Lyft。
A key question in its new alliance with Didi will be how closely the former rivals will work together. This could be particularly delicate if Didi decides to expand outside China, which is currently its only market.
優步與滴滴之間新聯盟的一個關鍵問題是，這兩個宿敵將以何種密切程度合作。如果滴滴決定擴張至中國（目前這是其唯一市場）以外，這個問題可能特別微妙。
For Uber, the deal draws a line under a period of subsidy-fuelled expansion that Mr Kalanick described as “irrational”. It will also free up resources for the company to focus on new tech-nology investments. A more rational era could be about to begin.
對於優步，這筆交易爲卡蘭尼克所稱的“非理性”的補貼助推的擴張時期畫上句號。它將讓該公司騰出資源專注於新技術方面的投資。一個更理性的時代可能即將開始。
