優步和滴滴正在囤積糧草 準備決戰

If you listen closely, you might be able to hear something that sounds like the continents shifting and grinding together, deep under the earth’s crust. Is there an earthquake coming? No, that’s just the sound of massive piles of cash being moved—the vast sums of money that Uber and its Chinese rival Didi Chuxing are stockpiling for their battle to own the global ride-hailing market.

如果仔細聆聽，大家也許能聽到地殼深處大陸板塊漂移擠壓的聲音。是要地震了嗎?非也。那不過是兩大堆資金挪動的聲音，更準確點說是優步及其中國競爭對手滴滴出行爲爭奪全球叫車服務市場籌集鉅款。

Just a couple of weeks ago, Uber raised $3.5 billion in financing from the investment fund belonging to Saudi Arabia’s royal family as part of a total financing worth $5 billion, one of the largest funding rounds ever raised by a venture-backed company. That investment brought the total raised by Uber to more than $10 billion, and gave it a theoretical market value of about $62 billion.

就在幾周前，沙特皇室旗下的投資基金向優步投資35億美元，優步本輪融資規模已達50億美元，成爲風投支持的公司有史以來籌集金額最大的一次。優步的總融資額也因此突破100億美元，理論上市場價值達到約620億美元。

Now there are reports that Uber is raising as much as $2 billion more, but this time it is doing so via the debt market, a somewhat more risky endeavor than the equity or venture-capital markets. One reason it may be doing so is to avoid diluting its existing equity value for existing investors, in advance of a possible initial public offering of stock next year. A debt issue of this kind also means it doesn’t have to publicly release its financial information.

目前有報道稱，優步還要再融資20億美元，不過是從債券市場，債市融資比從股市或私募市場融資風險多少要大一些。優步之所以考慮這種方式，一個原因可能是爲避免攤薄現有投資者手中的權益價值，因爲明年該公司有可能上市。此外，優步採取的債務融資方式發債無需公佈財務數據。

Not to be outdone, Didi Chuxing just finished raising $7 billion in funding from a group of investors that includes Apple and China’s top life insurance company. The round consisted of $4.5 billion in equity funding and $2.5 billion in debt, and gives the Uber competitor a theoretical market value of about $28 billion.

不甘落於下風的滴滴出行也剛剛向一羣投資者籌集了70億美元資金，包括蘋果公司和中國最大的壽險公司。滴滴此輪融資包括45億美元的股票和25億美元的債券，其理論市場價值達到280億美元左右。

But Didi’s strongest card in this rapidly accelerating game of automotive chicken may not be its growing cash hoard. The company, which was created last year by the merger of two competing taxi-hailing apps, also has some extremely powerful local investors—including China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba and its social-networking behemoth Tencent. Both reportedly put money into the latest round, and they clearly have the resources to finance a significant battle. Start your engines.

然而，在這場愈演愈烈的汽車界懦夫博弈中，滴滴的王牌不見得是持續增長的資金儲備。滴滴由兩家曾相互競爭的叫車服務商合併而成，背後的投資者有一些實力相當深厚，其中包括中國電子商務巨擘阿里巴巴和社交網絡巨無霸騰訊。據報道，阿里和騰訊都參與了滴滴的最新一輪融資，而且兩家的資源頂住一場大仗顯然不成問題。號角已吹響，點火發動引擎吧。