阿里巴巴紀錄片揭示的4個要點

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant partially owned by Yahoo and valued at $150 billion, is aiming for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange sometime in the next few months (the exact date has yet to be determined). Expected to raise more than $20 billion, the IPO could be the biggest yet on a U.S. exchange and potentially in world history. A recently released documentary by Alibaba’s former vice president Porter Erisman, an American who has spent the past several years working on the film, depicts the company’s journey since it was founded by Jack Ma 15 years ago. Here are some of the most surprising takeaways from “Crocodile in the Yangtze.”

由雅虎（Yahoo）部分持股、估值1,500億美元的中國電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴（Alibaba,）將於未來數月在紐交所上市（確切日期待定）。其首次公開募股（IPO）預計將募集200多億美元，有可能成爲美國甚至全球交易所史上規模最大的IPO。阿里巴巴前副總裁、美國人波特o埃里斯曼過去幾年一直忙於製作紀錄片《揚子江大鱷》（Crocodile in the Yangtze），它記錄了阿里巴巴自15年前由馬雲創立以來的發展歷程。這部影片已於最近發佈，《財富》選取了其中最驚人的一些場景，摘錄如下。

1. Alibaba was born amid grueling working conditions

1. 阿里巴巴誕生於艱苦的工作環境中

Similar to tech start-ups like Apple and Facebook, Alibaba started out in a tiny apartment in Hangzhou that belonged to Jack Ma, a former English teacher who quit his job to follow dreams of entrepreneurship. After a few failed business ventures, including a phone book-inspired “China Pages” website, Ma decided to pursue the e-commerce trend that was sweeping America in the late '90s. In 1999, Ma and 17 friends crowded into his apartment and built , a name they hoped would draw small businesses “to say ‘Open Sesame!’ to global trade,” Erisman narrates in the film. Sitting on chairs and couches around Ma, the 17 co-founders are shown listening to Ma’s motivational speeches. “We need to learn the hardworking spirit of the Silicon Valley,” Ma explains, implying that he expected staff to work longer days than most people. “If we have that kind of 8 am to 5 pm spirit, then we should just go and do something else.” The team plugged away in Ma’s apartment for seven months, trying to stay off competitors’ radar and reduce costs, until new investments from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company, led Alibaba to organize a public launch in 2000.

類似於其他科技創業公司[如蘋果（Apple）和Facebook]，阿里巴巴最初是在杭州的一個小公寓內創立的，那是馬雲自己的家。曾是英語老師的他爲了實現創業夢想而辭去了工作。他經歷過幾次失敗的創業，包括靈感源於電話簿的“中國黃頁”網站。此後，馬雲決定追隨90年代末席捲美國的電子商務大潮。1999年，馬雲和17位朋友擠在他的公寓內創立了阿里巴巴，他們取這個名字是希望小企業通過“芝麻開門！”這個咒語打開全球貿易之門，埃里斯曼在影片中敘述道。17位聯合創始人坐在馬雲周圍的椅子和沙發上傾聽他的勵志演講。“我們要學習硅谷的勤奮精神”，馬雲說。這其實就是在說希望自己的員工在工作中投入比大多數人更多的時間。“如果我們都是抱着朝八晚五的想法，那還是趁早走人去做別的事吧。”這個團隊在馬雲的公寓內埋頭苦幹了7個月，以避開競爭對手的注意並降低成本。直到公司得到了高盛（Goldman Sachs）和日本軟銀（SoftBank）的投資之後，阿里巴巴才於2000年正式公開亮相。

2. Alibaba has a love-hate relationship with the Chinese government

2. 阿里巴巴與中國政府：愛恨交織

Ma first ran into problems with the Chinese government with his China Pages effort, when trying to deal with strict regulations on private information. Ma explained to officials, “We are working on promoting China on the information superhighway,” but the internet was such a new concept that it was hard to get government support, and China Pages fizzled. Insistent on giving China a web presence, Ma switched gears and pursued e-commerce. “If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them. We can beat government agencies and big government companies because of our innovative spirit,” Ma says in the film. Eventually, Alibaba received government support as local officials began viewing the company as a job creator, Erisman explains in the film. Still, each time Alibaba wanted to accept a new investment—such as when Yahoo bought a 40% stake in 2005 for $1 billion – it had to be approved by the government.

馬雲在政府那裏第一次碰釘子是其“中國黃頁”網站，馬雲對政府官員解釋道，“我們致力於在信息高速公路上宣傳中國”，但是互聯網當時還是一個嶄新的概念，因此要得到政府的支持相當不易，所以“中國黃頁”項目失敗了。一心想要在互聯網上留下中國印記的他轉換了思維並開始進軍電子商務。馬雲在影片中說：“如果我們是一個好團隊而且清楚自己想要做什麼，那麼我們便可以以一當十。我們能夠打敗政府機構和大型國有公司，因爲我們有創新精神。”埃里斯曼在影片中解釋說，最終，阿里巴巴得到了政府支持，而且當地官員也開始認識到該公司能創造大量就業崗位。然而，每當阿里巴巴希望接受一筆新投資時，比如雅虎2005年曾以10億美元購買其40%的股份，它都必須獲得中國政府的批准。

3. Alibaba’s archenemy is eBay

3. 阿里巴巴的大敵：eBay

As eBay pushed further into the Chinese market during Alibaba’s early years, Ma felt threatened. In 2003 eBay acquired EachNet, a China-based auction site with a similar business model to its own. "[Ma] told me to be prepared for Alibaba's biggest challenge yet," Erisman explains. "We were going to war with eBay." To fend off eBay, Alibaba launched a new website called Taobao, a marketplace for consumer-to-consumer selling rather than business-to-business. Ma then upped the ante by waiving Taobao’s transaction fees for the first three years, while eBay kept charging. Ma hoped that by offering customers a better deal on Taobao than on eBay, his competitor would have to match it, cutting into eBay’s margins, or lose business—and back out of China altogether, according to Erisman. With the move, Alibaba “publicly declare[d] war on eBay,” Erisman narrates. For the sake of good sportsmanship, though, Ma made a ground rule that nobody was to launch any personal attacks against Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO at the time. Within a few years, eBay, after belatedly cutting fees on EachNet, ended its business in China.

在阿里巴巴早期的時候，隨着eBay進一步深入中國市場，馬雲感覺到了威脅。2003年，eBay收購了易趣網，後者是一家與eBay有着類似商業模式的中國拍賣網站。埃里斯曼解釋說：“【馬雲】要我做好準備，迎接阿里巴巴最大的挑戰。我們打算向eBay開戰。”爲了對付eBay，阿里巴巴推出了一個名爲淘寶（Taobao）的新網站，一個消費者對消費者（C2C）而不是企業對企業（B2B）的市場平臺。隨後，馬雲加大了賭注，免去當時淘寶前三年內的交易費，但eBay卻照收不誤。埃里斯曼稱，馬雲希望，如果客戶在淘寶上交易比eBay更划算，那麼他的競爭對手就不得不跟進，以此來壓縮eBay的利潤空間，否則，eBay將失去這塊業務或完全退出中國市場。埃里斯曼說：此舉意味着阿里巴巴“公開向eBay宣戰”。雖然，本着友誼第一的體育精神，馬雲定下了一條基本原則，那就是任何人都不得對eBay當時的首席執行官梅格•惠特曼發起任何人身攻擊。在短短數年內，由於遲遲不肯降低在易趣網的交易費，eBay的中國業務以失敗收場。

4. Alibaba founder Jack Ma is a rock star in China

4. 阿里巴巴創始人馬雲是中國的超級巨星

If you think Americans treat Apple founder Steve Jobs as a celebrity, that’s nothing compared to how the Chinese venerate Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who addresses stadiums filled with fans in several scenes in the film. At a party to celebrate Alibaba’s tenth anniversary, instead of taking the stage in a his usual suit-and-tie, Ma emerged singing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” dressed like a rock star in a studded red and black leather jacket, nose earring and long blond wig. Ma is also known for delivering inspirational speeches, several of which are captured in the so-called “docu-memoir.” From pick-me-up speeches in the small apartment to presentations in front of crowds of journalists and investors, Ma continues to trumpet Alibaba’s potential—even as investors initially expressed concern about Alibaba’s low profits in its early days, and questioned its viability. “They called him crazy Jack,” Erisman says. “Yes, he seemed a bit crazy. But at least it seemed he was enjoying the ride.” Next stop on that ride: A huge, and possibly record-breaking, IPO.

如果你認爲蘋果創始人史蒂夫o喬布斯在美國人那裏獲得了明星般的待遇，那麼中國人對於阿里巴巴創始人馬雲的尊崇則更是達到了無以復加的地步。在影片中的多個鏡頭中，馬雲發表演講的體育場滿是其擁躉。在慶祝阿里巴巴成立十週年的聚會上，馬雲並沒有像往常一樣身着西裝革履走上舞臺，而是打扮得像一位搖滾明星一樣，身着滿是鉚釘的紅黑相間皮夾克，戴着鼻環和長長的假髮，衝上舞臺，唱了首動畫片《獅子王》的英文主題曲《今夜你能感受到愛嗎？》（Can You Feel the Love Tonight?）。馬雲也因其勵志演講而聞名，其中有多場演講都被收入所謂的《記錄回憶錄》（docu-memoir）（華裔導演丁碧蘭拍攝的呈現華人歷史的紀錄片）。無論是在小公寓發表鼓舞士氣的演講，還是在衆多記者和投資者面前進行講演，馬雲都在一刻不停地宣揚着阿里巴巴的潛力——即便是投資者一開始擔心阿里巴巴早期利潤偏低，並質疑其可行性的時候，馬雲也是如此。埃里斯曼說：“是的，他看起來有點瘋狂。但最起碼，他似乎對這一旅程感到十分愜意。”而這一旅程的下一站便是盛大的，而且可能是創紀錄的IPO。