遵從網絡審查,LinkedIn進入中國

HONG KONG — For American technology companies from Microsoft to Facebook to Google, China is a difficult, even impossible, place to operate.

香港——對微軟(Microsoft)、Facebook和谷歌(Google)等美國科技公司而言，在中國開展業務並非易事，有時甚至是不可能完成的任務。

But one company, the social network LinkedIn, has found a way to do business — by being willing to compromise on the free expression that is the backbone of life on the Western Internet.

但有一家公司例外。社交網站領英(LinkedIn)已經找到了一種做生意的門道，那就是願意在言論自由——西方互聯網世界的基石——方面做出讓步。

LinkedIn's experience provides a blueprint, and perhaps a cautionary lesson, for Silicon Valley as it tries to crack the vast Chinese market. Other American tech companies are watching with great interest, wondering whether LinkedIn will find an equilibrium between free speech and Chinese law that it can live with.

領英的經驗給正竭力進軍龐大中國市場的硅谷企業提供了一種模式，或許還敲響了警鐘。其他一些美國科技公司正以極大的興趣關注着領英，想知道該公司能否在言論自由和它願意遵守的中國法律之間找到平衡。

"Over the next five years, things will continue to progress in a positive fashion over there, so it's important to be there today," said Kerry Rice, an Internet analyst at Needham, a brokerage firm. "If LinkedIn figures out how to navigate the operating environment in China, clearly other companies will try to imitate that."

“未來5年間，那裏的情況將持續改善，因此，現在就在那兒佔有一席之地是很重要的。”經紀公司Needham的互聯網分析師克里·賴斯(Kerry Rice)表示。“如果領英想出適應中國經營環境的辦法，其他公司顯然會加以模仿。”

LinkedIn's global English-language site has attracted four million Chinese members without gaining much attention from the Chinese government. But the company wanted to reach more of China's estimated 140 million professional workers, and so in February it introduced a Chinese-language version.

在沒引起中國政府多少關注的情況下，領英的全球性英文網站已經擁有了400萬中國會員。不過，中國約有1.4億專業工作者，而該公司想要進一步進入他們的視野，於是在今年2月推出了中文版領英。

The Chinese-language site has attracted about a million new members and seems to have the tacit approval of the government. It is functioning without blockages even though the authorities have cracked down on other Internet services, including Instagram and Yahoo, in reaction to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

這個中文網站已經在中國吸收了100萬新會員，而且似乎得到了政府的默許。目前它運轉正常，未遭屏蔽，而香港爆發親民主抗議活動後，中國當局已經封禁了Instagram和雅虎(Yahoo)等其他一些互聯網服務。

The secret to LinkedIn's seeming success? Aside from its willingness to play by Chinese rules on expression, the company has relinquished 7 percent of its local operation to two well-connected Chinese venture capital firms. Having such a relationship with homegrown firms is crucial for foreign web companies seeking to operate in China, experts say.

領英看似取得了成功，其祕訣何在？除了願意遵守中國的言論規則，公司還將其中文網站7%的股份，讓渡給了兩家頗有背景的中國風投公司。業內人士稱，對於在中國尋求發展的外國互聯網公司而言，和本土企業建立這樣的聯繫是至關重要的。

"The government needs to know who they can call, and as a foreign company you need to know before your site gets shut down so you have a chance to do something about it," said Duncan Clark, founder of BDA China, a consulting firm that advises foreign companies on China's tech sector. "That's worth a lot, to have that channel."

“政府裏的人需要知道他們可以給誰打電話；而作爲一家外企，你需要在自己的網站被屏蔽之前得到消息，那樣纔有機會做點什麼來挽救，”博達克諮詢有限公司(BDA China)創始人鄧肯·克拉克(Duncan Clark)說。這家公司爲外企提供中國科技行業的諮詢服務。“擁有這樣的渠道，是很有價值的。”

A spokesman for LinkedIn, Hani Durzy, said the company opened a Chinese-language site because of its "belief that the creation of economic opportunity can have a profound impact on the lives of Chinese individuals, much as it has elsewhere in the world."

領英的發言人漢尼·德爾茲(Hani Durzy)表示，公司之所以開通中文網站是因爲“相信，就像在世界其他地方一樣，在中國，它所創造的經濟機會能夠對個人產生深遠的影響。”

"While we strongly support freedom of expression," he added, "we recognized when we launched that we would need to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government in order to operate in China. So the decision to proceed in China was one that we weighed heavily."

“我們強烈支持言論自由，”他還說，“但在開通中文網站時，我們意識到，必須遵守中國政府的要求，才能在這裏立足。因此，在中國開展業務的決定經過了我們的慎重權衡。”

On the Chinese- and English-language sites in China, the company censors content that the authorities consider politically sensitive, using a combination of software algorithms and human reviewers. People whose posts are blocked get an emailed form letter advising them that a posted item contains "content prohibited in China" and "will not be seen by LinkedIn members located in China."

領英使用軟件算法和人工審閱相組合的方式，在中國境內的中文和英文網站上，對當局認爲具有政治敏感性的內容進行審查。如果發佈的內容被封禁，用戶會收到電子郵件發送的通知，稱帖子中包含“在中國遭到禁止的內容”，“將不會被LinkedIn在中國的會員看到”。

LinkedIn also does not provide Chinese-language users certain important tools — like the ability to create or join groups or to post long essays — that allow people elsewhere to have public discussions and form communities.

領英沒有爲中文用戶提供某些重要功能，比如創建或加入羣組，或是張貼長篇文章，而其他地方的用戶就可以開展公開討論、組建社區。

Although LinkedIn's strategy has given it access to Chinese speakers, analysts say it poses risks for the company's reputation and growth strategy.

雖然領英的戰略讓其接觸到了中文用戶，但分析人士表示，這對公司的聲譽和成長戰略帶來了風險。

Like many American tech companies, LinkedIn, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., has promoted itself as dedicated to free-market principles. Too much censorship could cause users to flee.

像很多美國高科技公司一樣，總部設在加州山景城的領英也宣揚自己擁護自由市場原則。過多的審查可能會導致用戶離開。

What's more, if LinkedIn's business grows larger in China, that could give the government more leverage to make demands about what type of content is permissible globally.

更重要的是，如果領英的業務在中國進一步擴大，中國政府就可能獲得更多的砝碼，對它在全球範圍內可以發佈哪些類型的內容，提出要求。

The company has already stumbled a bit in its entry into the Chinese market. It angered some non-Chinese customers, who found that posts they made in English while in China were blocked globally as part of the company's effort to protect its Chinese users from anything that could attract unwanted government scrutiny. LinkedIn moved to loosen its policy last month, allowing posts blocked in China to be seen elsewhere.

在進入中國市場的過程中，該公司已經遇到了一點波折：一些來自其他國家的用戶，發現自己在中國境內發佈的英文帖子，在全球範圍內也遭到了屏蔽，感到很憤怒。公司之所以採取這一類做法，是不想讓中國用戶接觸到任何可能會引來棘手政府審查的內容。上個月，領英放寬了這項政策，讓那些在中國被封禁的帖子可以在其他地方顯示出來。

Some also say LinkedIn has not communicated clearly how and why it is censoring content.

還有人認爲，對於領英是如何審查內容的，以及爲什麼要進行審查，它並沒有表達清楚。

For example, Bill Bishop, a media commentator and tech investor in China, said content he posted about China from a connection in the United States was blocked by the service. When he inquired why, the company inaccurately responded that it was because he had posted the item from China, when the real problem was that he had listed China as his work location.

例如，在中國生活、爲媒體發表評論並進行高科技投資的利明璋(Bill Bishop)說，自己有一次從美國聯網發佈了關於中國的內容，而領英封禁了這則帖子。當他詢問原因時，公司回答說是因爲他在中國發布了這條信息，但這個回答並不準確，真正的問題是，他把自己的工作地點列爲中國。

Other tech companies have weighed the risks of trying to satisfy the Chinese government and taken a different approach.

其他一些科技公司權衡了在滿足中國政府的要求方面的風險，選擇了不同的道路。

Google, which once acceded to China's demands to censor content in the country, noisily reversed course in 2010, moving to deliver uncensored results to Chinese users from servers in Hong Kong and souring its relationship with the authorities to this day.

對於中國提出的對境內內容進行審查的要求，谷歌曾經做過讓步，但在2010年時，該公司高調地調轉船頭，改爲從香港的服務器向中國用戶提供未經審查的結果，從而與中國當局交惡至今。

Twitter has been blocked in China for years and says it will not censor posts because to do so would "sacrifice the principles of the platform," according to Colin Crowell, the company's vice president for global public policy.

Twitter已被中國封禁多年，而公司表示，它不會審查帖子。因爲按照公司負責全球公共政策的副總裁科林·克羅韋爾(Colin Crowell)的說法，這樣做會“犧牲這個平臺的原則”。

Vine, a short-video service owned by Twitter, operates freely in China without "any special arrangement," Mr. Crowell said.

Vine是Twitter旗下的短視頻服務。克羅韋爾說，它在中國自由運作，沒有“任何特別安排”。

Although Facebook — the world's largest social network, with about 1.3 billion monthly users worldwide — is blocked in China, it hasn't given up on getting in the country. But it is trying to use commerce to pry open the door, selling ads to Chinese companies and government organizations that want to reach consumers outside China.

雖然全球月度用戶約13億的頭號社交網絡Facebook在中國遭到屏蔽，但它仍未放棄進入中國。不過它正試圖用商業來撬開中國的大門，向希望接觸海外消費者的中國企業和政府機構出售廣告。

Facebook is also studying the experience of Instagram, its separately operated photo-sharing app, which is growing quickly with only occasional blockages by the Chinese government.

Facebook還在對Instagram的經驗進行研究。Instagram是Facebook旗下單獨運營的圖片分享應用，其業務增長十分迅速，只是偶爾會被中國政府屏蔽。

"We think this is an exciting opportunity," Dan Neary, the company's vice president for Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement.

“我們認爲這是個激動人心的機遇，”公司亞太地區副總裁丹·內亞里(Dan Neary)在聲明中稱。

Analysts say LinkedIn is well positioned to be acceptable to Beijing because it can argue that it makes the employment market more efficient, ultimately spurring the economy. China's Internet regulators often argue that the main goal of development of the Internet should be to bolster economic growth.

分析人士說，領英已經做好了讓北京接受自己的準備，因爲它可以搬出這條理由：它提高了就業市場的效率，最終必將刺激經濟增長。中國的互聯網管理者經常說，發展網絡的主要目標應該是促進經濟增長。

China's closed markets have given a huge head start to four homegrown companies, which dominate the Internet there: Alibaba in e-commerce, Baidu in search, Tencent in video gaming and instant messaging and Sina in social networking.

中國封閉的市場爲四家中國本土企業提供了一個有利的開端。這四家在互聯網行業占主導地位的公司分別是：電商領域的阿里巴巴、搜索領域的百度、電腦遊戲和即時通訊領域的騰訊，以及社交網絡領域的新浪。

LinkedIn itself faces competition from local rivals like Zhaopin and , which both have more users than it does in China.

在中國，領英還面臨着智聯招聘和前程無憂等當地競爭對手的競爭，這兩家公司都在中國擁有更多用戶。

LinkedIn's partnership with two local players — China Broadband Capital and a Chinese affiliate of Sequoia Capital, an American venture capital firm — has helped it manage its relationship with government officials.

領英與兩家當地公司——中國寬帶產業基金和美國風投公司紅杉資本(Sequoia Capital)的中國子公司——的合作關係，幫它處理了公司與政府官員之間的關係。

C.B.C. was founded by Edward Tian, a well-connected investor and former entrepreneur who once ran a telecommunications company with the son of a former Chinese president, Jiang Zemin. The company has helped bring at least one other Silicon Valley company, Evernote, into China.

中國寬帶產業基金由田溯寧創立，他是一位關係網強大的投資者，以前是一名企業家，曾與前中國國家主席江澤民的兒子共同運營一家通訊公司。該公司至少還幫過一家硅谷公司印象筆記(Evernote)進入中國。

"There have been a lot of problems with companies like Facebook and Twitter," said Kevin Wang, a C.B.C. spokesman. "We think one of the key reasons is the lack of communication, even the absence of communication, between these companies and the Chinese government."

“Facebook和Twitter等公司有很多問題，”中國寬帶產業基金髮言人王志颺說。“我們認爲，關鍵原因之一，是這些公司和中國政府之間缺少溝通，甚至沒有溝通。”

The local partners have a strong incentive to help LinkedIn succeed. Under the partnership agreement, they can buy an additional 21 percent of the joint venture for $20 million if certain conditions are met.

本土合作伙伴有幫助領英獲得成功的強烈動力。根據合作協議，如果滿足了特定的條件，它們能以2000萬美元（約合1.23億元人民幣）的價格，額外購買這家合資企業20%的股份。

LinkedIn does retain control of the venture, securing the bulk of the profit as well as the risk.

領英的確保持着對該企業的控制，確保自己享有大部分利潤，也承擔着大部分風險。

Under Chinese law, the joint venture will eventually need to obtain an Internet content provider's license to keep operating. The license has some benefits, but also some downsides; once granted, the company will be required to store information about its Chinese users in China.

根據中國的法律，爲了繼續運營，這家合資企業最終需要獲得互聯網內容提供商執照。該執照會帶來一些好處，但也有一些不利的方面。一旦獲得執照，該公司將被要求存儲有關中國境內的中國用戶的信息。

Doing so would make it much easier for the government to demand information on, say, dissidents who use the service — a conundrum that tripped up Yahoo nearly a decade ago and prompted that company to essentially pull out of the country.

這麼做會讓政府更容易要求獲取使用該服務的異見人士等的信息。近十年前，正是這個難題絆倒了雅虎，促使該公司基本上退出了中國。

Despite the challenges, LinkedIn is optimistic about its efforts in China.

儘管面臨這些挑戰，領英依然對其在中國的行動持樂觀態度。

"In the end, the most important consideration for us was providing an opportunity for millions of Chinese professionals to significantly expand their economic opportunities," said Mr. Durzy, the LinkedIn spokesman. "We want to get it right in China, so we will continue to listen and learn."

“最後，我們最重要的考慮因素，是爲中國數百萬專業人士提供機會，大幅增加他們的經濟機遇，”領英發言人德爾茲說。“我們希望在中國一切順利，因此我們將繼續聽取意見並學習。"