01 阿里巴巴的商业帝国到底有多大？马云的小目标：另建一个“WTO”

马云希望阿里巴巴能成为世界第五大经济体，目标拥有20亿用户。虽然阿里巴巴迄今尚未在欧美市场站稳脚跟，但人们依旧难以低估其国际化愿景。

马云的小目标：另造一个“WTO”

Alibaba is the company that likes to think it’s a country. Jack Ma, the former English teacher who founded the group, works the stage like a seasoned diplomat. At the G20 meeting of global leaders in Hangzhou last year, Mr Ma hosted Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Italy’s then premier Matteo Renzi.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)是一家公司，但它喜欢自认为是一个国家。阿里巴巴创始人、当过英语老师的马云(Jack Ma)像老练的外交官一样长袖善舞。在去年的二十国集团(G20)领导人杭州峰会上，澳大利亚的马尔科姆·特恩布尔(Malcolm Turnbull)、加拿大的贾斯廷·特鲁多(Justin Trudeau)和意大利时任总理马泰奥·伦齐(Matteo Renzi)相继成为马云的座上宾。

In January he became the first Chinese businessman to sit down publicly with Donald Trump after the US election — a full month before the US president spoke to Chinese president Xi Jinping. Since then he has met the leaders of Argentina, Australia, Israel, Malaysia and Pakistan.

今年1月，他成为美国大选后首位与唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)公开会面的中国商人——比这位美国总统与中国国家主席习近平首次通电话早了整整一个月。在那之后，马云又分别与阿根廷、澳大利亚、以色列、马来西亚和巴基斯坦的领导人见了面。

Mr Ma’s ambitions for Alibaba, the ecommerce company worth $309bn that began life in his Hangzhou apartment, are equally global. Come 2036, he wants sales across its platform to be bigger than the gross domestic product of the world’s fifth-biggest economy, outranked only by the US, China, Japan and the EU. It is aiming for 2bn customers, which on current numbers would be one in every four people on the planet.

马云对阿里巴巴的期望也同样国际化。这家市值3090亿美元的电商公司，诞生于马云位于杭州的公寓里。到2036年，他希望阿里巴巴平台整体销售额超过世界第五大经济体的国内生产总值(GDP)，仅居于美国、中国、日本和欧盟(EU)之后。阿里巴巴的目标是拥有20亿用户，按照目前的数字计算，这相当于四分之一的地球人口。

To achieve these goals, he has proposed ideas that sound more like the projects of a politician than a business leader. In order to strengthen the company’s crucial technology backbone, he pledged in March that “we will build Alibaba’s own ‘Nasa’”, a reference to the US space agency that masterminded the moon landings.

为实现这些目标，他提出了一些听上去更像出自政治家（而非企业领导人）之口的设想。为增强阿里巴巴关键的核心技术，他在3月宣誓：“我们将建立阿里巴巴的‘Nasa’。”Nasa是美国国家航空航天局，曾策划了登月行动。

With global trade talks stalling, he has also unveiled a trading platform he hopes will serve as a sort of World Trade Organization for small and medium sized businesses. “I think for the next 10 to 20 years, globalisation should be driven by business people,” he said last month. He calls the project “e-WTO”.

在全球贸易谈判停滞不前的背景下，他还宣布将推动建立一个贸易平台，希望该平台成为中小企业的世贸组织(WTO)。他上个月说，未来十到二十年，驱动全球化的将是商人。他称这个计划为“e-WTO”。

In China, Alibaba’s tentacles reach into almost every aspect of life: shopping, finance, chatting, healthcare, entertainment and news. You can go for weeks in China without cash, swiping your phone to pay for coffee, clothing or utility bills. So ubiquitous is Alipay, its online payment platform, that even some rough sleepers accept it.

在中国，阿里巴巴的触角伸到了生活的几乎方方面面：购物、金融、聊天、医疗、娱乐和新闻。在中国，你个把月没有现金也能过得好好的，你可以用手机付款买咖啡、买衣服、缴纳水电燃气费。阿里巴巴的在线支付平台支付宝(Alipay)如此普及，就连一些无家可归者都接受这种支付方式。

A couple of cousins in search of easy money in Hangzhou netted only about Rmb2,000 ($300) from robbing three stores, proof that Alipay and rival WeixinPay have disrupted the business of burglary.

一对来杭州抢劫的表兄弟抢了3家店，才抢了不到2000元人民币（合300美元）。支付宝和它的对手微信支付(WeixinPay)对抢劫这一行的颠覆由此可见一斑。

Alibaba is responsible for one-tenth of China’s retail sales and has the biggest money market fund (Yu’e Bao has Rmb1.14trn under management). It is the company that chased eBay out of China and bested Yahoo, acquiring its operations there in 2005.

阿里巴巴占中国零售总额的十分之一，旗下拥有全国最大的货币市场基金——余额宝(Yu’e Bao)资产管理规模达1.14万亿元人民币。正是这家公司将eBay赶出了中国，打败了雅虎(Yahoo)，在2005年收购了雅虎中国全部业务。

阿里巴巴的商业帝国

Alibaba.com, the original platform, along with Taobao, AliExpress, 1688.com, TMall.com and Tmall Global provides portals for business-to-business sales and for brands to sell to consumers, as Amazon does in the west. It also replicates the function of Ebay. Juhuasuan offers flash sales on various products. Cainiao is the logistics arm of Alibaba.

最早的平台Alibaba.com与淘宝(Taobao)、全球速卖通(AliExpress)、1688.com、天猫(TMall.com)及天猫国际(Tmall Global)一道为“企业对企业”(B2B)销售以及品牌商家对消费者销售（正如西方的亚马逊）提供门户。阿里巴巴还复制了eBay的功能。聚划算(Juhuasuan)提供针对各种产品的闪购。菜鸟(Cainiao)是阿里巴巴旗下的物流业务。

Joe Tsai, executive vice-chairman, describes the group as “a big incubator of ideas”. Those futuristic visions include facial recognition payment and one stop consultation-to-pharmacy online healthcare services. Alibaba’s M&A team is constantly on the prowl for investments: as well as myriad start-ups it has stakes in Snap and Lyft.

阿里巴巴集团执行副主席蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)将该集团形容为一个“大型的创意孵化器”。未来愿景包括研发人脸识别支付、推出从咨询到药店的一站式在线医疗服务。阿里巴巴的并购团队一直在寻觅投资机会：既入股Snap、Lyft，也投资了众多初创企业。

Not all its operations make money. Its cloud business may be among the biggest new ventures, but it loses 8 cents on every dollar. Cainiao, the logistics platform that underpins the asset-lite ecommerce operation and delivers 57m packages a day, bleeds cash. Alibaba Pictures is warning of losses of $140m.

阿里巴巴并非所有的业务都赚钱。云业务或许是集团旗下最大的新冒险项目之一，但该业务每创造一美元营收要亏损8美分。支撑轻资产电商运营、日投送5700万个包裹的物流平台菜鸟也在消耗大量现金。阿里影业(Alibaba Pictures)警告将亏损1.4亿美元。

That does not faze Alibaba, which uses its ecommerce operation to finance new and fledgling businesses and build its own ecosystem.

阿里巴巴并不担心这些，它利用电商业务为新开展和羽翼未丰的业务提供资金，构建自己的生态系统。

The formula seems to be working: for the past fiscal year to the end of March, it increased revenues 56 per cent to $23bn and generated net income of $6bn, making it considerably more profitable than Amazon.

这一模式似乎已经奏效：在3月底结束的上一财年，阿里巴巴营收增长了56%至230亿美元，净利润达60亿美元，盈利能力远超亚马逊。

The digital media division includes the YouTube-like video site Youku Tudou, Alibaba Music, a streaming service, and Tmall TV (OTT), a smart TV and streaming business. Alibaba Pictures Group is a film and television company. It also includes Ali Sports, which promotes and markets sports and esports across China.

数字媒体部门包括类似YouTube的视频网站优酷土豆(Youku Tudou)、流媒体服务阿里音乐(Alibaba Music)和智能电视操作系统。阿里影业是一家影视公司。此外还有阿里体育(Ali Sports)，从事中国各地体育赛事、电子竞技的推广和营销。

Outside China, Alibaba’s biggest reach is in Southeast Asia. It has a controlling stake in Lazada, the Indonesia-based ecommerce group and, together with affiliate Ant Financial, a stake in India’s PayTM which enables payments with the swipe of a phone.

在中国之外，阿里巴巴最大的业务分支在东南亚。阿里巴巴持有印度尼西亚电商集团Lazada的控股权，并与关联公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)一起入股了印度支付平台PayTM，后者支持刷手机支付。

Beyond the region, however, Alibaba’s footprint is so far more limited and the company has been on the acquisition trail to bolster its global coverage.

不过，在这一地区之外，阿里巴巴的扩张步伐迄今较为有限，并一直在通过收购来扩大其全球布局。

“Right now I’m a little bit sceptical,” says one consultant who works in the sector. “Alibaba has failed to go after Europe. A lot of other Chinese players have struggled as they’ve expanded, in the US in particular.” Alibaba’s own early American adventure fell flat. Its 11 Main boutique ecommerce operation was sold in mid-2015 after a year. At least two of its investments, in messaging app Tango and “deep-linking” search engine Quixey, have stumbled.

“我现在有点怀疑，”从事这一行业的一位咨询师表示，“阿里巴巴进军欧洲已经失败。许多中国企业在实施扩张之后都陷入挣扎，尤其是在美国。”阿里巴巴早期在美国的试水已告失败。时装电商平台11 Main成立一年后，被阿里巴巴在2015年中出售。至少两笔投资——对讯息应用Tango和“深层链接”搜索引擎Quixey——也不顺利。

The division includes Koubei, a local commerce platform, and Ele.me, an online food delivery platform. Alibaba’s online travel portal was renamed Fliggy last year, and is targeting the increasing number of Chinese who want to travel overseas.

这一部门包括本地商务平台口碑网(Koubei)、在线外卖送餐平台饿了么(Ele.me)。去年，阿里巴巴将在线旅游门户更名为“飞猪”(Fliggy)，面向越来越多想出国旅游的中国人。

Alibaba shrugs off the mis-steps. Its aim in many of these projects, it says, is to learn as much as it can, and in any case it scores plenty of financial wins too. Jet.com, the ecommerce marketplace which it partly owned and was bought by Walmart for $3.3bn last year, is a case in point.

阿里巴巴对这些失策不以为然。它表示，投资这些项目的目的是为了尽可能多地学习，同时也不乏从中获得丰厚的财务收益。Jet.com就是一个很好的例子，阿里巴巴曾经入股的这家电商网站去年被沃尔玛斥资33亿美元收购。

The group has used the growing numbers of Chinese tourists overseas to ramp up growth in Alipay’s international business. About 110,000 stores accept Alipay. It is also finding new partners. A partnership inked earlier this month with First Data makes Alipay an option for the commercial technology provider’s 4.5m US business users.

阿里巴巴还利用越来越多的中国人出境旅游来促进支付宝国际业务的增长。海外约有11万商家接受支付宝。它同时也在寻找新的合作方。本月早些时候支付宝与美国的First Data达成合作协议，今后这家商业技术提供商的450万美国企业用户将可以选择接受支付宝。

Richard Windsor of independent research house Radio Free Mobile says Alipay is Alibaba’s Trojan horse into the US market. If fully implemented, the First Data deal would give it 4m US outlets at one swoop — putting it on a par with ApplePay. Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, says: “Our goal is to extend reliable payment services to the over four million Chinese consumers that visit North America every year.”

独立研究机构Radio Free Mobile的理查德·温莎(Richard Windsor)说，支付宝是阿里巴巴进军美国市场的“特洛伊木马”。上述协议如果全面贯彻实施的话，将一下子让支付宝入驻400万美国商户，与苹果的ApplePay不相上下。支付宝北美总裁苏海尔·巴德兰(Souheil Badran)说：“我们的目标是为每年到访北美的400多万中国消费者提供可靠的支付服务。”

But Mr Windsor cautions that greater availability may not translate into greater usage as Alipay’s QR code payment system “leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to easy and fun user experience” compared with alternatives in the US.

但温莎警告，服务可获性的扩大不一定意味着使用的增加，因为与美国现有其他服务相比，支付宝的二维码支付系统“在便利和有趣的用户体验方面还有很多地方有待改进”。

“An experience that is mediocre by developed market standards is a huge improvement on the offline experience in China, which is why I think QR codes have worked in China but failed in developed markets,” he wrote in a note to clients.

他在写给客户的报告中写道：“以发达市场标准来看平常无奇的体验，对中国线下体验而言却是一个巨大改善，这就是我认为二维码在中国很成功但在发达市场失败的原因。”

Ant Financial originated from Alipay, which combines an online payments system and a digital wallet. It includes wealth management, private banking, credit scoring and financial cloud computing services.

蚂蚁金服源自支付宝。支付宝结合了网络支付系统和数字钱包。蚂蚁金服包括理财、私人银行业务、信用评分和金融云计算服务。

Controversies have also dogged it overseas. There is a probe by the US Securities Exchange Commission into its metric for gross merchandise volume, and late last year Washington placed Taobao on its “notorious markets” blacklist for peddling fake goods.

阿里巴巴在海外也饱受争议。美国证监会(SEC)对其计算商品交易总额(GMV)的标准进行了调查。去年底，华盛顿方面将淘宝列入“恶名市场”黑名单，理由是淘宝网站上售卖假货。

While recently Alibaba has taken strides towards clearing its sites of fake goods — something of a Sisyphean task — Mr Ma’s earlier quip that fakes were often of “better quality and better price than the real names” still rankles with brands and regulators.

虽然阿里巴巴近期努力清理平台网站上的假货——可以说是一项永无休止的任务——但马云较早曾讽刺说“假货比正品的质量还好，价格也更低廉”，这仍然让品牌商家和监管者耿耿于怀。

Perhaps Mr Ma’s biggest global gambit is the new global trading platform that Alibaba is developing. First unveiled last year, the electronic world trade platform touches all the classic Alibaba buttons: small business, inclusivity — and the initiative seized from government by Mr Ma.

或许马云全球棋局中最重要的一步是阿里巴巴正在开发的新的全球贸易平台。这个“电子世界贸易平台”(eWTP)于去年公布，拥有阿里巴巴的所有经典特点：小企业、普惠——以及马云从政府手中夺走的主动权。

The Doha Round, the long period of trade negotiations under the WTO that started in 2001, is “such a long round, I feel sorry for these WTO guys”, Mr Ma said last month in Malaysia, the first overseas member of the platform. The eWTP will essentially provide the plumbing for cross-border trade: logistics, managing customs clearance and securing favourable tariffs.

针对WTO框架下始于2001年的多哈回合贸易谈判，马云上月在马来西亚表示，这个回合太长了，他为WTO的人感到遗憾。马来西亚是eWTP的第一个海外成员。eWTP实际上将为跨境贸易提供管道：物流，清关管理，获得优惠关税。

Alibaba Cloud is China’s largest provider of public cloud computing, offering cloud infrastructure services similar to those offered by Amazon and Microsoft. Alimama.com is an advertising and data management platform. The huge volume of consumer data from other parts of the business enables Alibaba to help merchants better target their ads.

阿里云(Alibaba Cloud)是中国最大的公共云计算提供商，提供类似亚马逊和微软(Microsoft)提供的云基础设施服务。阿里妈妈(Alimama.com)是一个广告和数据管理平台。其他业务中的海量客户数据使阿里巴巴能够帮助商户更好地找准广告目标。

Alibaba kicked off its grand plan for global trade without frontiers with a bilateral deal designed to ease the passage of goods shipped by smaller businesses between China and Malaysia. The pact, established as a public-private partnership in Malaysia’s digital free trade zone, will focus on infrastructure, including a fulfilment centre and co-operation on electronic payments and financing. So far, it is strictly logistics: favourable tariffs are still under discussion.

阿里巴巴以一项双边协议启动其关于“无边界全球贸易”的宏大计划，该协议旨在为中小企业发运的货物在中国与马来西亚之间通行提供便利。该协定将聚焦于包括一座订单履行中心在内的基础设施以及在电子支付和融资方面的合作。双方将通过公私合作在马来西亚建设一个数字自由贸易区。目前为止，它仍然限于物流：优惠关税仍在商谈中。

It is understood to be in talks aimed at making Russia the next hub — one of the biggest markets for international ecommerce site AliExpress — in a move that would be even more challenging.

据悉，阿里巴巴正在进行旨在把俄罗斯变成下一个枢纽中心的磋商，这将更具挑战性。俄罗斯是阿里巴巴旗下国际商务网站全球速卖通最大的市场之一。

词汇总结

He was the mastermind behind the plan to acquire the explosives.

他就是密谋获取炸药的主谋。

He invited her to his laboratory to see if she could replicate the experiment.

他邀请她到他的实验室看她能否复制该实验。

She told us the story of one of Britain's most notorious country house murders.

她给我们讲述了英国最有名的一起乡村别墅谋杀案。