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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Holding Group continued its streak of deals yesterday, paying $1.22 billion for an 18.5% stake in one of China's most popular online video sites Youku Tudou. Part Youtube, part Netflix, Youku Tudou offers an array of content from self-produced talk shows and dramas to syndicated foreign shows like The Good Wife, and user created content.
中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Holding Group)续写了其交易记录，该公司已同意斥资12.2亿美元收购优酷土豆(Youku Tudou)18.5%的股份。作为中国最受欢迎的视频网站之一，优酷土豆兼具Youtube和Netflix的特点，提供的视频内容丰富多样，既有自创的脱口秀和戏剧，也有购买了播出权的海外节目（比如美剧《傲骨贤妻》(The Good Wife)）以及用户自创内容。
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Youku Tudou Founder and Chief Executive Victor Koo said the company held talks with a few companies in parallel, eventually deciding on Alibaba after a series of meetings in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong in recent months. Koo spoke about how his company will make use of the funds, the rash of recent deals in China's Internet sector, and the government's recent crackdown on four American TV shows. The following is an edited excerpt of the interview.
Reuters在接受《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)采访时，优酷土豆的创始人兼首席执行长古永锵(Victor Koo)表示，优酷土豆与数家公司进行过洽谈，最近几个月在上海、北京和香港举行了一系列会谈后，最终决定引入阿里巴巴的投资。古永锵谈到了优酷土豆将如何使用这笔资金、中国互联网行业最近的一系列交易以及政府最近禁播四部美剧的问题。
WSJD: What was the motivation for taking the investment from Alibaba?
《华尔街日报》：接受阿里巴巴的投资是出于什么样的动机？
Koo: When we first really considered a strategic investment, we talked to all potential partners and indicated Youku Tudou is an independently operated company so we were looking for strategic investments to take us to the next step. The strategic investment itself will help us accelerate our progress as well as the whole development of our Internet entertainment media platform.
古永锵：在我们第一次真正考虑引入战略投资时，我们就与所有的潜在合作伙伴都进行了磋商，并表明优酷土豆是一家独立经营的公司，所以我们正在寻找战略投资以便使公司进入下一个阶段。这笔战略投资本身将有助于加快优酷土豆的进步以及我们的互联网娱乐媒体平台的整体发展。
We've been around now for 7 or 8 years and we're looking at this as an important strategic step to progress us to the next level with financial resources, strategic resources...because we see these opportunities happening around us, we want to leverage the market opportunity that is in front of us.
公司成立至今已有七、八年的时间，我们将引入战略投资视为通过财务资源和战略资源使公司发展到一个新水平的重要战略步骤，因为我们看到了身边的这些机会，我们希望利用摆在我们面前的市场机遇。
WSJD: What is Alibaba's motivation for making more investments into media and entertainment in China?
《华尔街日报》：阿里巴巴在中国媒体和娱乐领域进行更多投资的动机是什么？
Koo: From their perspective, clearly the whole area of video as well as entertainment media is a growth sector as China moves to a consumer-led economy. This is an area where traditionally they have not focused, and they really felt that by investing in Youku Tudou they [can leverage that]. I think we have a lot of common vision and common goals in terms of what [the video and entertainment industry] can be in China.
古永锵：从阿里巴巴的角度看，随着中国向消费拉动的经济转变，整个视频及娱乐媒体行业显然是一个增长领域。这也是一个阿里巴巴之前未侧重的领域，而且阿里巴巴也确实认为，通过投资优酷土豆，他们将能够撬动该领域。我认为我们和阿里巴巴对于中国视频和娱乐行业的发展前景有很多共同的看法和目标。
For example, the U.S. and Europe have a very developed media entertainment business, but in Asia you look at Korea for example, it's a relatively small country but its culture and entertainment industry has widespread influence in Asia as well as the rest of the world. China has a huge population and a very sizable Internet space...that kind of reach can create a lot of interesting opportunities. With our base, I think whether it's in terms of content and how it ties with Alibaba's businesses in terms of commerce, big data, cloud as well as payment, there are a lot of interesting areas we will explore together.
例如，美国和欧洲拥有一个非常发达的媒体娱乐行业；在亚洲，以韩国为例，虽然韩国是一个相对较小的国家，但其文化和娱乐业对亚洲乃至全球其他地方都有广泛影响。中国拥有巨大的人口以及相当可观的网络空间，能创造大量有意思的机会。凭藉优酷土豆的用户数，我认为不管是内容，还是在与阿里巴巴的商务、大数据、云以及支付业务的合作方式方面，两家公司都有很多可以共同探索的有趣领域。
WSJD: What is your view on the recent crackdown by the government on several popular U.S. television shows including 'The Good Wife,' which you feature on your site?
《华尔街日报》：你如何看待中国政府近期要求包括优酷土豆热播剧《傲骨贤妻》在内的多部热门美剧在网站下线一事？
Koo: Besides our strength in web-based original content, syndication is also an area where we started global syndication earlier than any of our competitors and have the broadest library here. Overall, what we see is that the regulatory authorities are highly supportive of this and of course there may be isolated incidents or content [that have problems] -- that is something that as an industry we need to cooperate and work with under the overall framework here in China. And so we don't see that as a widespread phenomenon. I think it's new enough that we're also having communication [with the government].
古永锵：我们除了在网络原创内容方面很有优势之外，全球整合动作也比竞争对手们先行一步，而且在这方面拥有最广泛的视频库。总体而言，我们看到的是监管机构对此高度支持。当然，一些特例事件或者有问题的内容也是可能存在的，这一行业需要我们在遵守中国整体框架的前提下同心协力、共同建设。因此，我们不觉得此次美剧被下架会是普遍现象。在我看来，这件事尚属首次，我们也在和政府进行沟通。
WSJD: What ' s going on in China ' s Internet sector now with all these big deals?
《华尔街日报》：伴随着这些大手笔交易的发生，中国的互联网领域将迎来何种时代？
Koo: I've recently talked about the 20 years of the Chinese Internet -- in my view there are a couple of inflection points in these 20 years and 2013 and 2014 is definitely one of those inflection points. I think in five to ten years when people look back [they will see] this is the beginning of the multi-screen age, and mobile Internet and smart TVs, all these things are coming together.
古永锵：我最近一直在讲中国互联网的20年发展史。在我看来，这20年来有好几次重大拐点，2013年、2014年毫无疑问就是其中之一。我认为五到十年之后，那时的人们回看现在这段时期时，会觉得它拉开了多屏时代的序幕，移动网络、智能电视等等事物都在不断涌现出来。
So you've seen an acceleration of industry growth as well as an acceleration of strategic cooperation of different forms, investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and mergers and so forth. These kinds of strategic tie-ups [happen] when you see a market opportunity and a market inflection that has encouraged the key players in the industry to be more open-minded or more proactive in terms of thinking outside the box and being more strategic.
因此你可以看到，视频行业的发展正在加快，不同形式的策略性合作、投资、伙伴关系、收购、合并等等也正在加速展开。当你捕捉到市场机会和市场变化时，这些策略性合作就会发生，要求行业内的重要参与者心态必须更加开放、跳出条条框框的思考必须更有前瞻性、更具有战略眼光。
WSJD: How will this affect Youku Tudou's cooperation with other companies?
《华尔街日报》：这将如何影响优酷土豆和其他公司的合作？
Koo: Youku Tudou has an open cooperation strategy and that will continue to be the case, so we work with a wide variety of screen manufacturers, whether it's smart TVs or set-top boxes because we have the leading content software service and user base in terms of video.
古永锵：优酷土豆拥有开放的合作策略，并且将继续贯彻下去。有鉴于此，许多屏幕制造商都是我们的合作对象，无论是智能电视还是机顶盒，因为我们在视频行业拥有领先的内容软件服务和庞大的用户基础。
