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The listing of Alibaba in New York in September created the world’s second-largest internet company by market capitalisation, behind Google. This did not happen by accident. Of the top 10 internet companies in the world, ranked by market cap, three are Chinese, and the rest are from the US.
9月，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)在纽约上市，成为以市值衡量的全球第二大互联网公司，仅次于谷歌(Google)。这并非偶然。在市值最高的全球十大互联网公司中，3家来自中国，其他则来自美国。
Together, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent form what is know in China as “BAT”. These economic juggernauts that have come to dominate the internet in China are operating almost along the lines of Japan’s keiretsu, which are alliances of businesses with similar interests or that have shareholdings in one another. They are also rapidly branching out into offline sectors, such as transport, travel, retail and banking.
在中国，百度(Baidu)、阿里巴巴和腾讯(Tencent)被合称为“BAT”。这些巨头主宰了中国互联网，它们的经营模式与日本的“经连体系”(keiretsu)非常相似，后者是由利益相似或者互相控股的企业组成的联盟。它们还迅速延展到线下行业，比如交通、旅游、零售和银行业。
Whether the rapid growth of the Chinese internet is just a bubble or a stable trend is open to question. However, for the time being at least, BAT has become the nucleus of an internet industry that is starting to rival the US, creating what is essentially a US-China duopoly. The three Chinese companies also benefit from what has become known as the “Great Firewall”, as most of the top US companies, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, are excluded from operating in China.
中国互联网的飞速发展到底是泡沫，还是一种稳定趋势，还须拭目以待。然而，至少就目前来看，BAT已经成为了中国互联网行业的核心，而中国的互联网行业已经开始与美国相匹敌，基本上形成了一种中美双头垄断的格局。这3家中国企业也受益于广为人知的“长城防火墙”(Great Firewall)。依靠这个防火墙，中国把美国的多数领头企业，如谷歌、Facebook和Twitter拒之门外。
However, no Chinese internet company has yet made the leap from China to become a global brand. For now, it is enough for them be dominant in China, which had 632m internet users as of June, 527m of whom go online using mobile devices. The potential of the forecast consumption boom, as China moves from an investment-driven economy to a consumption-driven one, is enough to attract investments such as the $25bn sunk into Alibaba in its initial public offering, the largest ever.
然而，目前还没有哪家中国互联网企业跳出中国，成为一个全球品牌。目前来看，它们能在中国占据主导地位就足够了。6月的数据显示，中国有6.32亿网民，其中5.27亿网民使用移动设备上网。随着中国经济从投资驱动型转为消费驱动型，预计将出现的消费热潮蕴含的潜力，足以吸引大笔投资，比如阿里巴巴在首次公开募股(IPO)中筹得250亿美元，这也是目前规模最大的一次IPO。
The internet is the most dynamic part of China’s budding private sector, though it remains solidly under the control of the state. Foreigners hold large shareholdings in Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu and dozens of other internet companies. But these stakes are largely theoretical at best and owned via “variable interest entities”, or VIEs, which guarantee a payment stream from, but not ownership of, the licence-holding vehicles in China. These VIE’s are technically illegal, though Chinese courts turn a blind eye to the practice, and owners know their large holding only exists thanks to the tacit consent of the state.
互联网是中国崭露头角的私营部门中最活跃的部分，尽管其依然处于国家的严密控制之下。外国投资者持有阿里巴巴、腾讯、百度及其他数十家互联网企业的大量股份。但大体上，这些股份充其量不过是理论上的，是通过“可变利益实体”(variable interest entities, VIE)持有的，这保证持股人从持有许可证的中国企业那里得到支付流，但并不保证对企业的所有权。这些VIE理论上是违法的，但中国的法院对这种做法睁一只眼闭一只眼，而持股人也知道，他们持有的大量股份全都仰赖政府的默许。
Nimble private internet companies, able to dance circles around the inefficient state-owned enterprises, have begun impromptu liberalising of whole sectors such as financial services. Alibaba’s fund company Yu’e Bao is China’s biggest online money market fund, with Rmb574bn ($93.8bn) worth of assets
私营互联网企业非常灵活，能将低效的国企远远甩在后面。在并无事先谋划的情况下，这些企业已经开始在一些领域掀起整个行业的自由化，比如金融服务业。阿里巴巴的基金公司余额宝(Yu’e Bao)是中国最大的在线货币市场基金，资产总值达到5740亿元人民币（合938亿美元）。
The internet is a phenomenal wealth generator. Five of the 10 richest men in China are tech moguls, up from none three years ago, according to the Hurun China Rich List, which tracks wealthy individuals. In September, Alibaba founder Jack Ma joined the list in first place and became one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a 7.8 per cent stake in a $230bn company.
互联网也制造了非凡的财富。根据追踪富人的《胡润中国百富榜》(Hurun China Rich List)，中国最富有的10人中，5名是IT业大亨，而3年前他们还未能进入榜单。9月，凭借在当时市值2300亿美元的公司中7.8%的持股，阿里巴巴创始人马云(Jack Ma)一跃登上榜单首位，也成为全球最富裕的人之一。
Competition between internet companies is fierce, however. With the entire industry switching from desktop devices to mobile ones, many companies risk being left behind if they don’t have a “killer app” that will act as a gateway for mobile users.
不过，互联网企业之间的竞争非常激烈。随着整个互联网行业从桌面设备转至移动设备，对许多企业来说，如果他们没有一款“杀手级应用”，作为移动用户接入的通道的话，就有可能落在后面。
Alibaba has been searching for just such a feature to challenge the currently undisputed leadership of Tencent, whose WeChat instant messenger has 350m monthly users. WeChat and Tencent’s other messenger, QQ, are the two most popular mobile apps in China, according to iResearch, a Beijing-based internet research firm.
阿里巴巴一直在寻求推出这样一款应用，来挑战目前腾讯无可争议的领导地位，腾讯的即时消息应用微信(WeChat)有3.5亿月活跃用户。根据北京互联网咨询公司艾瑞咨询(iResearch)的数据，微信和腾讯旗下的另一款消息应用QQ是中国最受欢迎的两款移动应用。
In June, Alibaba bought UCWeb, a popular mobile browser company, and the two have developed Shenme, a mobile search engine. They are also working with Quixey, a US-based company in which Alibaba has invested, to design a mobile gateway using Quixey’s app search engine. Francis Bea of PapayaMobile, a Chinese mobile technology company, says Alibaba is attempting to mirror Tencent’s success with WeChat. He says: “In as highly competitive a market as China, there is potential for the mobile internet to disrupt established internet players if they don’t manage the transition from desktop to mobile.”
6月份，阿里巴巴收购了人气颇高的移动浏览器公司UC优视(UCWeb)，两家公司已联手开发移动搜索引擎“神马”。阿里巴巴还在与所投资的美国公司Quixey合作，拟利用Quixey的应用搜索引擎，设计一个类似的移动门户应用。中国移动技术公司木瓜移动(PapayaMobile)的弗朗西斯•贝亚(Francis Bea)表示，阿里巴巴试图复制腾讯在微信上取得的成功。他说：“在中国这样高度竞争性的市场，如果当前已确立市场地位的互联网企业不能处理好从桌面端到移动端的转移，移动互联网可能使它们陷入困境。”
Alibaba has spent an estimated $6bn-$8bn in the space of a year on full acquisitions of, or investments in, companies including mobile providers, chain stores, an internet TV company, a maker of electrical appliances, a movie producer, a digital broadcaster and a professional Chinese football team.
在仅一年之中，据估计阿里巴巴已经花去60亿到80亿美元，对企业进行全资收购或者投资。这些企业包括移动运营商、连锁店、网络电视公司、电子设备制造商、影视制作公司、数字电视台，甚至还有一支中国职业足球队。
While attention has focused on Alibaba’s acquisitions, Tencent and Baidu have been on similar spending sprees. Baidu is betting that its stake in Qunar, China’s top travel website by users, and mobile app store 91Wireless.com, will complement its popular search engine to carry it into the mobile age. Tencent has taken a stake in JD.com, China’s second-largest ecommerce platform, and mobile-friendly companies such as restaurant review site Dianping and South Korea’s CJ Games.
尽管人们的关注点集中在阿里巴巴的收购上，但腾讯和百度也进行了类似的大笔支出。百度投资了用户数量最多的国内旅行网站去哪儿(Qunar)和移动应用商店91无线(91 Wireless.com)，希望二者能与其广受欢迎的搜索引擎相互补充，将其带入移动时代。腾讯则入股中国第二大电商平台京东(JD.com)，以及一些适应移动时代的企业，如餐馆点评网站大众点评网(Dianping)和韩国游戏开发商CJ Games。
