快的和滴滴合併留下諸多問號

Chinese internet groups Alibaba and Tencent have put aside fierce rivalry to merge their popular taxi-hailing applications.

中國互聯網集團阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)擱置了彼此間的激烈競爭，合併了各自旗下廣受歡迎的打車軟件。

Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Dache and Tencent’s Didi Dache said over the weekend they had completed a ‘strategic merger’ that leaves the two app companies operationally independent and leaves keeps both chief executives in place.

週末，阿里巴巴投資的快的打車(Kuaidi Dache)和騰訊旗下的滴滴打車(Didi Dache)表示，雙方已完成“戰略合併”。合併完成後，兩家應用公司的運營將保持獨立，兩位首席執行官仍將留任。

The combined company would be worth about $6bn, local media calculate based on recent fundraisings. Last month, Kuaidi Dache raised $600m from Japanese telecoms group Softbank and existing shareholders while Didi Dache raised $700m in December.

中國國內媒體根據近期融資數據計算得出，合併後的企業市值將達到大約60億美元。上個月，快的打車曾經從日本電信集團軟銀(Softbank)及現有股東處籌得6億美元。而滴滴打車也曾在2014年12月籌得7億美元。

The two firms are neck-and-neck in China’s competitive market, with the potential for expanding mobile payment systems the prize for their backers. Kuaidi Dache (“Speedy taxi”) had 54.4 per cent market share in China as of the third quarter, while Didi Dache (“Honk Honk Taxi”) had 44.9 per cent market, according to Analysys International, a research group.

在競爭激烈的中國打車軟件市場上，這兩家企業並駕齊驅。對於它們的投資方來說，它們的一大吸引力是可以擴大其移動支付系統的市場份額。根據研究機構易觀國際(Analysys International)的數據，快的打車佔有中國打車軟件市場54.4%的份額，而滴滴打車佔有44.9%的份額。

Although China has a series of anti-trust anti trust regulations, they have rarely been applied to major domestic companies, either state-owned or private.

雖然中國有一系列反壟斷監管規定，但是它們很少被用於重要的中國企業——不論是國企還是民企。

The two gave no detail on how they are defining a merger that entails few obvious synergies and a high degree of de facto independence.

這兩家企業幾乎沒有明顯協同效應，事實上還將保持高度獨立性，也都沒有給出此次“合併”的細節。

“The combined company expects to conduct the businesses of Kuaidi and Didi independently under separate brands. The co-CEOs are especially grateful to the company’s shareholders for their support of the company’s independent operations,” the two companies said in a statement.

它們在一份聲明中稱：“兩家公司在人員架構上保持不變，業務繼續平行發展，並將保留各自的品牌和業務獨立性。兩位聯合CEO也特別感謝雙方股東都繼續支持新公司獨立自主的治理模式。”

The duo use two incompatible payment systems: Kuaidi Dache has Alibaba’s Alipay, and Didi Dache uses Tencent’s mobile payment system. Their announcement did not say which system they would adopt, or whether they would in future accept both systems.

目前，兩家企業使用的是互不兼容的支付系統：快的打車使用的是阿里巴巴旗下的支付寶(Alipay)，而滴滴打車使用的則是騰訊的移動支付系統。它們在聲明中並未表示會採用哪種支付系統，也未指出未來是否會同時採用兩種支付系統。

In December, China’s third big Internet firm Baidu agreed to buy into US-based taxi-hailing app Uber, whose roll-out has proven controversial in many countries including China.

2014年12月，中國第三大互聯網公司百度(Baidu)曾達成協議，買入美國打車應用優步(Uber)部分股份。此前，在包括中國在內的許多國家，優步的推廣都曾引發很大爭議。

The three Internet giants each have a regional power base — Tencent in the south, Alibaba in the Yangtze Delta and Baidu in Beijing — and a history of backing very similar but rival products.

上述三家互聯網巨頭，每家都有影響力更大的“根據地”：騰訊在中國南方、阿里巴巴在長江三角洲、百度在北京一帶。歷史上，三家公司時常會投資於雷同而又競爭的產品。

Taxi-hailing apps are extremely popular in China’s largest cities, where rush-hour taxis are so hard to find that unlicensed cabs run a thriving business. Regulators have cracked down on private cars using apps in a bid to protect state-regulated taxi companies whose fares are capped. Many of China’s largest taxi companies are ultimately owned by municipal government entities.

打車應用在中國一線城市具有很高人氣。在這些城市的高峯時段，人們很難叫到出租車，這種狀況甚至帶旺了這些城市的無牌出租車。目前，監管機構在大力打擊使用打車應用的私家車，以保護受政府監管、車費有上限的出租車公司。在中國，許多規模最大的出租車公司，最終都是由市政府的下屬機構控股。