阿里加入智能手機大戰爲哪般

Alibaba Group announced Monday that it invested $590 million in one of China’s lesser-known smartphone makers, Meizu, a company with small market share but a long history as one of the country’s smartest device makers. In the 2000s it turned out popular Mp3 players and one of China’s first smartphones it called an iPhone-killer.

阿里巴巴集團週一宣佈，對魅族投資5.9億美元。儘管魅族在中國知名度和市場份額較弱，但在很長一段時間內，魅族是國內最聰敏的電子設備製造商之一。在本世紀的頭十年裏，魅族推出過熱門MP3播放器和中國最早的智能手機之一，當時該公司將其稱爲“iPhone殺手”。

The big investment, which earned Alibaba a minority but undisclosed stake in Meizu, comes eight months after Alibaba bought outright China’s largest mobile browser company, UCWeb. That purchase was the first signal that Alibaba wanted a piece of China’s booming smartphone landscape.

這筆鉅額投資讓阿里巴巴獲得了魅族的少數股份，但具體數量尚未披露。8個月前，阿里巴巴整體收購了中國最大的移動瀏覽器公司優視科技。此舉是阿里巴巴意欲分食中國蓬勃發展的智能手機市場的首個信號。

China’s more than 550 million smartphone users represent a lucrative market. Apple’s iPhone and products, for instance, were recently named the top luxury gift to give someone in Mainland China. Xiaomi, the most successful of China’s dozens of smartphone startups, raised money at a $46 billion valuation late last year to become the highest-valued private startup in the world—after only selling phones since 2011.

在中國，智能手機用戶超過5.5億，是一個利潤豐厚的市場。舉例來說，蘋果公司的iPhone等產品最近被評爲中國大陸首選高檔禮物。在中國的十幾家初創智能手機廠商中，最成功的是小米。在於去年年底完成融資後，小米的估值達到了460億美元，成爲世界上價值最高的私人初創企業，而它從2011年纔開始銷售智能手機。

“The (Meizu) investment like any other is ‘future betting’ on a company which has some promise and could be a dark-horse in the smartphone race,” says Counterpoint Research director Neil Shah. “Alibaba is essentially locking-in cool and bright brands to expand its ecosystem with its investment spree.”

市場研究公司Counterpoint Research董事尼爾o沙哈認爲：“這次（對魅族的）投資和其他類似行爲都是在‘押注未來’，而押注的對象是有一定前途，而且可能在智能手機競爭中成爲黑馬的公司。實際上，阿里巴巴斥巨資鎖定了一些很酷、很搶眼的品牌，以擴張自己的生態系統。”

It’s also catching up with the competition. Rival Tencent has a partnership with Xiaomi through their mutual stake in software maker Kingsoft and Qihoo, another Chinese Internet player specializing in security, invested $400 million in Shenzhen-based smartphone maker Coolpad in December. By those standards, Alibaba has been behind the game.

同時，阿里巴巴在競爭中正迎頭趕上。它的對手騰訊已經通過參股金山軟件以及奇虎360和小米成爲合作伙伴，並於去年12月向深圳智能手機廠商酷派投資4億美元。如果以此爲標準，阿里巴巴已經處於落後位置。

Alibaba said its mobile operating system, YunOS, will be integrated into Meizu’s phones that now run on Google’s free Android operating system. A handful of tiny Chinese smartphone makers use YunOS, but the system is basically unknown in China where 80% of smartphones run on Android. In pushing its own operating system, Alibaba is taking a page from Amazon’s playbook and creating a platform on which consumers are seamlessly plugged into its shopping and entertainment sites through their phone. (Only Alibaba isn’t taking the concept quite as far as Amazon—it will leave building the phones to Meizu.)

魅族手機目前使用免費的谷歌安卓操作系統。阿里巴巴表示，它的阿里雲OS移動操作系統將集成到魅族手機中。有幾家很小的中國手機廠商使用阿里雲OS，但該系統在國內基本處於默默無聞狀態——中國80%的智能手機都使用安卓系統。推廣自己的操作系統是阿里巴巴對亞馬遜Kindle Fire業務的借鑑。由此，阿里巴巴可以打造一個平臺，讓消費者的手機和阿里巴巴的購物和娛樂網站實現無縫對接（只不過阿里巴巴在這方面沒有亞馬遜走的那麼遠，它把製造手機的工作留給了魅族）。

“The investment in Meizu represents a significant expansion of the Alibaba Group ecosystem,” said Jian Wang, Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba, in a statement. An Alibaba spokeswoman declined to comment more on the deal.

阿里巴巴首席技術官王堅在一份聲明中表示，“投資魅族代表着阿里巴巴集團生態系統的一次大規模擴張。”該公司女發言人拒絕對這次投資發表其他評論。

While Alibaba gets a new (bigger) host for its operating system, Meizu gets a shot at greater sales across Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms, which can spell life or death for brands. On the biggest online shopping day last year in China, Single’s Day in November, when Alibaba’s platforms become the de facto shopping destinations, Xiaomi sold $250 million worth of phones in 24 hours. A Meizu spokesperson said the investment will help the company get more aggressive in pricing and product lines to reach its sales goal of 20 million phones this year.

阿里巴巴爲自己的操作系統找到了新的（而且是更大的）使用者，魅族則有機會通過阿里巴巴的一系列電子商務平臺提高自己的銷售規模，這對一些品牌來說是生死攸關的大事。去年雙十一期間，阿里巴巴的電商平臺成爲網購首選，小米手機則在24小時內實現了2.5億美元的銷售額。魅族發言人稱，這次投資將讓魅族在定價和產品線方面變得更大膽，從而實現今年2000萬美元的手機銷售目標。

A strong comeback for Meizu, using Alibaba’s operating system, could resurrect an old fight. More than two years ago Google protested that YunOS, also known as Aliyun, was ripping off Android’s source code. When Acer announced a phone based on the operating system, after Acer had agreed not to ship “non-compatible” Android versions, Google cried foul. Alibaba responded that its engineers spent three years developing the operating system. Acer’s phone was never released.

藉助阿里巴巴的操作系統，魅族強勢迴歸，而這有可能再次點燃熄滅已久的戰火。兩年多以前，谷歌曾指責阿里雲OS使用了安卓源代碼。當時宏碁（Acer）宣佈將推出基於阿里雲OS的手機，谷歌隨即表示強烈抗議，理由是宏碁已經同意不採用“非兼容”的安卓版本。阿里巴巴則迴應稱，阿里雲OS由自己的技術人員用了三年時間開發而成。但基於阿里雲OS 的宏碁手機並未上市。

The arguments haven’t been raised since. But Shah of Counterpoint says for Meizu, the Alibaba tie-up “could significantly improve its product portfolio, retail presence and overall visibility for its products.” That greater visibility could also bring renewed scrutiny from Google.

從那以後，這一戰事便淡出了人們的視線。但Counterpoint Research董事沙哈指出，阿里巴巴攜手魅族“可能極大地改善阿里巴巴的產品結構和零售市場佈局，以及產品的整體清晰度”。而更高的產品清晰度有可能再次引起谷歌的關注。

For now, Alibaba’s $590 million splurge on Monday earns the e-commerce giant a play in smartphones and makes the China market even more competitive than it was.

眼下，這筆5.9億美元的鉅額投資讓這家電商巨擘在智能手機領域獲得了一席之地，也讓中國市場的競爭變得比以前更加激烈。（財富中文網）