BAT 中國"網霸"的三國志

The listing of Alibaba in New York in September created the world’s second-largest internet company by market capitalisation, behind Google. This did not happen by accident. Of the top 10 internet companies in the world, ranked by market cap, three are Chinese, and the rest are from the US.

9月，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)在紐約上市，成爲以市值衡量的全球第二大互聯網公司，僅次於谷歌(Google)。這並非偶然。在市值最高的全球十大互聯網公司中，3家來自中國，其他則來自美國。

Together, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent form what is know in China as “BAT”. These economic juggernauts that have come to dominate the internet in China are operating almost along the lines of Japan’s keiretsu, which are alliances of businesses with similar interests or that have shareholdings in one another. They are also rapidly branching out into offline sectors, such as transport, travel, retail and banking.

在中國，百度(Baidu)、阿里巴巴和騰訊(Tencent)被合稱爲“BAT”。這些巨頭主宰了中國互聯網，它們的經營模式與日本的“經連體系”(keiretsu)非常相似，後者是由利益相似或者互相控股的企業組成的聯盟。它們還迅速延展到線下行業，比如交通、旅遊、零售和銀行業。

Whether the rapid growth of the Chinese internet is just a bubble or a stable trend is open to question. However, for the time being at least, BAT has become the nucleus of an internet industry that is starting to rival the US, creating what is essentially a US-China duopoly. The three Chinese companies also benefit from what has become known as the “Great Firewall”, as most of the top US companies, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, are excluded from operating in China.

中國互聯網的飛速發展到底是泡沫，還是一種穩定趨勢，還須拭目以待。然而，至少就目前來看，BAT已經成爲了中國互聯網行業的核心，而中國的互聯網行業已經開始與美國相匹敵，基本上形成了一種中美雙頭壟斷的格局。這3家中國企業也受益於廣爲人知的“長城防火牆”(Great Firewall)。依靠這個防火牆，中國把美國的多數領頭企業，如谷歌、Facebook和Twitter拒之門外。

However, no Chinese internet company has yet made the leap from China to become a global brand. For now, it is enough for them be dominant in China, which had 632m internet users as of June, 527m of whom go online using mobile devices. The potential of the forecast consumption boom, as China moves from an investment-driven economy to a consumption-driven one, is enough to attract investments such as the $25bn sunk into Alibaba in its initial public offering, the largest ever.

然而，目前還沒有哪家中國互聯網企業跳出中國，成爲一個全球品牌。目前來看，它們能在中國佔據主導地位就足夠了。6月的數據顯示，中國有6.32億網民，其中5.27億網民使用移動設備上網。隨着中國經濟從投資驅動型轉爲消費驅動型，預計將出現的消費熱潮蘊含的潛力，足以吸引大筆投資，比如阿里巴巴在首次公開募股(IPO)中籌得250億美元，這也是目前規模最大的一次IPO。

The internet is the most dynamic part of China’s budding private sector, though it remains solidly under the control of the state. Foreigners hold large shareholdings in Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu and dozens of other internet companies. But these stakes are largely theoretical at best and owned via “variable interest entities”, or VIEs, which guarantee a payment stream from, but not ownership of, the licence-holding vehicles in China. These VIE’s are technically illegal, though Chinese courts turn a blind eye to the practice, and owners know their large holding only exists thanks to the tacit consent of the state.

互聯網是中國嶄露頭角的私營部門中最活躍的部分，儘管其依然處於國家的嚴密控制之下。外國投資者持有阿里巴巴、騰訊、百度及其他數十家互聯網企業的大量股份。但大體上，這些股份充其量不過是理論上的，是通過“可變利益實體”(variable interest entities, VIE)持有的，這保證持股人從持有許可證的中國企業那裏得到支付流，但並不保證對企業的所有權。這些VIE理論上是違法的，但中國的法院對這種做法睜一隻眼閉一隻眼，而持股人也知道，他們持有的大量股份全都仰賴政府的默許。

Nimble private internet companies, able to dance circles around the inefficient state-owned enterprises, have begun impromptu liberalising of whole sectors such as financial services. Alibaba’s fund company Yu’e Bao is China’s biggest online money market fund, with Rmb574bn ($93.8bn) worth of assets

私營互聯網企業非常靈活，能將低效的國企遠遠甩在後面。在並無事先謀劃的情況下，這些企業已經開始在一些領域掀起整個行業的自由化，比如金融服務業。阿里巴巴的基金公司餘額寶(Yu’e Bao)是中國最大的在線貨幣市場基金，資產總值達到5740億元人民幣（合938億美元）。

The internet is a phenomenal wealth generator. Five of the 10 richest men in China are tech moguls, up from none three years ago, according to the Hurun China Rich List, which tracks wealthy individuals. In September, Alibaba founder Jack Ma joined the list in first place and became one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a 7.8 per cent stake in a $230bn company.

互聯網也製造了非凡的財富。根據追蹤富人的《胡潤中國百富榜》(Hurun China Rich List)，中國最富有的10人中，5名是IT業大亨，而3年前他們還未能進入榜單。9月，憑藉在當時市值2300億美元的公司中7.8%的持股，阿里巴巴創始人馬雲(Jack Ma)一躍登上榜單首位，也成爲全球最富裕的人之一。

Competition between internet companies is fierce, however. With the entire industry switching from desktop devices to mobile ones, many companies risk being left behind if they don’t have a “killer app” that will act as a gateway for mobile users.

不過，互聯網企業之間的競爭非常激烈。隨着整個互聯網行業從桌面設備轉至移動設備，對許多企業來說，如果他們沒有一款“殺手級應用”，作爲移動用戶接入的通道的話，就有可能落在後面。

Alibaba has been searching for just such a feature to challenge the currently undisputed leadership of Tencent, whose WeChat instant messenger has 350m monthly users. WeChat and Tencent’s other messenger, QQ, are the two most popular mobile apps in China, according to iResearch, a Beijing-based internet research firm.

阿里巴巴一直在尋求推出這樣一款應用，來挑戰目前騰訊無可爭議的領導地位，騰訊的即時消息應用微信(WeChat)有3.5億月活躍用戶。根據北京互聯網諮詢公司艾瑞諮詢(iResearch)的數據，微信和騰訊旗下的另一款消息應用QQ是中國最受歡迎的兩款移動應用。

In June, Alibaba bought UCWeb, a popular mobile browser company, and the two have developed Shenme, a mobile search engine. They are also working with Quixey, a US-based company in which Alibaba has invested, to design a mobile gateway using Quixey’s app search engine. Francis Bea of PapayaMobile, a Chinese mobile technology company, says Alibaba is attempting to mirror Tencent’s success with WeChat. He says: “In as highly competitive a market as China, there is potential for the mobile internet to disrupt established internet players if they don’t manage the transition from desktop to mobile.”

6月份，阿里巴巴收購了人氣頗高的移動瀏覽器公司UC優視(UCWeb)，兩家公司已聯手開發移動搜索引擎“神馬”。阿里巴巴還在與所投資的美國公司Quixey合作，擬利用Quixey的應用搜索引擎，設計一個類似的移動門戶應用。中國移動技術公司木瓜移動(PapayaMobile)的弗朗西斯•貝亞(Francis Bea)表示，阿里巴巴試圖複製騰訊在微信上取得的成功。他說：“在中國這樣高度競爭性的市場，如果當前已確立市場地位的互聯網企業不能處理好從桌面端到移動端的轉移，移動互聯網可能使它們陷入困境。”

Alibaba has spent an estimated $6bn-$8bn in the space of a year on full acquisitions of, or investments in, companies including mobile providers, chain stores, an internet TV company, a maker of electrical appliances, a movie producer, a digital broadcaster and a professional Chinese football team.

在僅一年之中，據估計阿里巴巴已經花去60億到80億美元，對企業進行全資收購或者投資。這些企業包括移動運營商、連鎖店、網絡電視公司、電子設備製造商、影視製作公司、數字電視臺，甚至還有一支中國職業足球隊。

While attention has focused on Alibaba’s acquisitions, Tencent and Baidu have been on similar spending sprees. Baidu is betting that its stake in Qunar, China’s top travel website by users, and mobile app store , will complement its popular search engine to carry it into the mobile age. Tencent has taken a stake in , China’s second-largest ecommerce platform, and mobile-friendly companies such as restaurant review site Dianping and South Korea’s CJ Games.

儘管人們的關注點集中在阿里巴巴的收購上，但騰訊和百度也進行了類似的大筆支出。百度投資了用戶數量最多的國內旅行網站去哪兒(Qunar)和移動應用商店91無線(91 )，希望二者能與其廣受歡迎的搜索引擎相互補充，將其帶入移動時代。騰訊則入股中國第二大電商平臺京東()，以及一些適應移動時代的企業，如餐館點評網站大衆點評網(Dianping)和韓國遊戲開發商CJ Games。