讀《FT·金融時(shí)報(bào)》學(xué)英語(yǔ)：騰訊：中國(guó)“殺手級(jí)應(yīng)用”制造大廠

一位銀行人士表示，騰訊是“社會(huì)企業(yè)巨擘”。匯豐銀行互聯(lián)網(wǎng)分析師認(rèn)為，騰訊擁有“全球最多的殺手級(jí)應(yīng)用”。

Xu Ye is a thoroughly modern metropolitan millennial.She reads science and cultural articles on the way into work, takes and dispatches orders from her boss, lunches on organic produce in an NGO-run community garden and picks up artisanal bread on the way home.
徐燁（音譯）是十分現(xiàn)代的都市“千禧一代”。她在上班途中閱讀科學(xué)文化類的文章，到了公司聽(tīng)老板吩咐辦事，午餐吃的是非政府組織(NGO)管理的一個(gè)社區(qū)花園生產(chǎn)的有機(jī)食物，下班后順路買(mǎi)手工面包帶回家。

By Chinese standards, she says, her life in Shanghai is “peculiar”.But in one key respect it is utterly typical: like hundreds of millions of her compatriots, she carries out much of her daily life over Weixin, a wildly popular messaging app, on her smartphone.
她說(shuō)，按照中國(guó)人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，她在上海的生活有些“古怪”。但她在一個(gè)重要的方面卻是再典型不過(guò)了：與數(shù)億同胞一樣，她每天花很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間在她智能手機(jī)上安裝的微信(Weixin)上度過(guò)，這是一款非常受歡迎的即時(shí)通訊應(yīng)用。

Her connected lifestyle is largely thanks to Tencent, a $225bn internet company whose social platforms have become a part of the very fabric of Chinese lives.For people like Ms.Xu, Tencent's myriad apps and services offer a way to work, play and pay.
她的“互聯(lián)生活”在很大程度上要?dú)w功于騰訊(Tencent)，這是一家市值高達(dá)2250億美元的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司，它的社交平臺(tái)已成為中國(guó)人生活中的一部分。對(duì)于徐燁等許許多多的人而言，騰訊的眾多應(yīng)用和服務(wù)為他們提供了工作、玩樂(lè)和付款的手段。

It is, says one banker, “a social enterprise powerhouse”: under one roof, it has amassed China's answer to Facebook, WhatsApp, Spotify, Kindle and ApplePay.Chi Tsang, internet analyst at HSBC, says Tencent has “the most killer apps in the world”.Weixin, along with the WeChat app outside China, has 846m active monthly subscribers.
一位銀行人士表示，它是“社會(huì)企業(yè)巨擘”：?jiǎn)螁我患夜揪蛥R集了中國(guó)版的Facebook、WhatsApp、Spotify、Kindle和ApplePay。匯豐銀行(HSBC)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)分析師曾琪(Chi Tsang)表示，騰訊擁有“全球最多的殺手級(jí)應(yīng)用”。微信加上海外版的WeChat總共擁有8.46億月度活躍用戶。

Tencent also has a huge multibillion investment portfolio, ranging from stakes in Didi Chuxing, China's biggest ride-sharing company, through to start-ups.It dabbles in artificial intelligence, electric cars and bike sharing.Its posse of champion hackers managed to gain remote control of Tesla's Model S, forcing the US carmaker to roll out a security patch.
騰訊還有為數(shù)眾多的大手筆投資，持有中國(guó)最大駕乘共享公司滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)的股份，也參股了多家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。騰訊還涉足人工智能、電動(dòng)汽車(chē)和共享單車(chē)領(lǐng)域。騰訊的頂級(jí)黑客成功地遠(yuǎn)程控制了特斯拉(Tesla)的Model S，迫使這家美國(guó)汽車(chē)制造商推出了一個(gè)安全補(bǔ)丁。

“They started with distribution and now they are monetising everything they can,” says Scott Likens, a partner in the emerging tech practice at PwC.“It is the opposite of the traditional business where you've got the product and say, ‘Now let's find the customers'.”
他們先從渠道做起，如今正試圖在所有力所能及的業(yè)務(wù)上實(shí)現(xiàn)貨幣化，”普華永道(PwC)新興技術(shù)業(yè)務(wù)合伙人李敬思(Scott Likens)表示，“傳統(tǒng)企業(yè)先弄出產(chǎn)品，然后說(shuō)‘現(xiàn)在讓我們尋找客戶吧'，騰訊卻相反。”

Fittingly, it is based in Shenzhen, a fishing backwater turned bustling metropolis across the border from Hong Kong.Today it is China's answer to Silicon Valley.
總部在深圳和騰訊很相稱。昔日落后漁村已成為毗鄰香港的繁華大都市。如今，這里已成為中國(guó)的硅谷。

The company employs 30,000 workers, more than half of whom are in research and development.While its home market is by far and away the largest, Tencent has an overseas presence in many sectors — its WeChat payments app can even be used at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
騰訊有3萬(wàn)余名員工，其中超過(guò)一半從事研發(fā)工作。目前騰訊最大的市場(chǎng)在本土，但也在海外涉足眾多行業(yè)，其WeChat支付應(yīng)用甚至可以在拉斯維加斯的凱撒宮酒店(Caesars Palace)使用。

“They are everywhere, the US, Europe — especially among Chinese speakers because if you want to contact business or family in China there is only one way to contact them, and that's WeChat,” says Elinor Leung, a research analyst at CLSA.
里昂證券(CLSA)研究分析師梁向奕(Elinor Leung)表示：“到處都在用，美國(guó)，歐洲——特別是在華語(yǔ)人群中，因?yàn)槿绻阆胍?lián)系中國(guó)的生意伙伴或家人，一般都只會(huì)用WeChat。”

Alongside Baidu and Alibaba, it is one of China's three largest internet groups (they are collectively known as BAT).But its Hong Kong listing, in June 2004, differentiates Tencent from its rivals, which headed to the US capital markets.
騰訊和百度、阿里巴巴并稱“中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)三巨頭”(BAT)。但騰訊于2004年6月在香港上市，有別于都在美國(guó)上市的兩家競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。

That decision alone won it accolades.“Tencent has a better corporate governance than Google or Facebook,” says Richard Windsor, founder of independent research company Radio Free Mobile, pointing to its spurning of the dual-class shareholding allowed in the US but banned in Hong Kong.
騰訊選擇香港為上市地受到了贊譽(yù)。獨(dú)立研究公司Radio Free Mobile創(chuàng)始人理查德·溫莎(Richard Windsor)表示：“騰訊的公司治理水平好于谷歌(Google)和Facebook。”他指的是騰訊放棄了在美國(guó)允許但在香港禁止的雙重股權(quán)結(jié)構(gòu)。

Strategically, however, it has evolved along similar lines to its Silicon Valley peers, says one banker.“Tencent has had a typical US-style upbringing: for the first three to four years [after its initial public offering]it did nothing; [management]just delivered on what they said they would.”
然而，一位銀行人士表示，從戰(zhàn)略上來(lái)說(shuō)，騰訊的發(fā)展道路與硅谷同行類似。“騰訊的發(fā)展有典型的美式風(fēng)格：（IPO后）頭三四年，它什么都沒(méi)做；（管理層）只是兌現(xiàn)了承諾。”

That steady push up the ranks is typical of its founder, Pony Ma (his name is a pun: Ma means horse in Chinese).Unlike his namesake Jack Ma at Alibaba, Tencent's Mr.Ma shuns the limelight and favours a low-key sartorial style that colleagues and acquaintances say is emblematic of his nerdy persona.
這種穩(wěn)扎穩(wěn)打的做法體現(xiàn)了騰訊創(chuàng)始人馬化騰(Pony Ma)的風(fēng)格，與同宗的阿里巴巴的馬云(Jack Ma)不同，馬化騰不喜歡成為公眾關(guān)注的焦點(diǎn)，他衣著低調(diào)，同事和朋友說(shuō)這符合他的書(shū)呆子形象。

An engineer by training, the 45-year-old is listed as the world's 46th richest man by Forbes, with a net worth of $21.9bn.But he prefers philanthropy over a splashy lifestyle, with the only conspicuous display of his wealth being a palatial home in Hong Kong.
作為科班出身的工程師，45歲的馬化騰位列《福布斯》(Forbes)全球富豪榜第46位，凈資產(chǎn)為219億美元。但與奢華的生活方式相比，他更喜歡從事慈善，唯一彰顯個(gè)人財(cái)富的是他在香港的一幢豪宅。

Paying for content
付費(fèi)內(nèi)容

Mr.Ma started Tencent in 1998 as the messaging service QQ — not in a garage, Silicon Valley-style, but in a high-tech park in Shenzhen, jammed between hustlers selling pirated phones and PC repairs.Online gaming was added in 2004 and is now the group's major revenue driver, accounting for Rmb18.2bn ($2.6bn), or almost half of its third-quarter sales.Unlike NetEase, its Chinese rival, Tencent has largely licensed rather than produced its own games.
1998年，馬化騰創(chuàng)辦了騰訊，推出即時(shí)通訊服務(wù)QQ，不是像硅谷公司那樣在車(chē)庫(kù)創(chuàng)辦，而是在深圳的一個(gè)科技園，那里滿是銷(xiāo)售山寨手機(jī)的販子和個(gè)人電腦(PC)維修商。2004年，騰訊涉足網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲，如今網(wǎng)游已成為其主要收入來(lái)源，今年第三季度實(shí)現(xiàn)銷(xiāo)售額182億元人民幣 (合26億美元)，占集團(tuán)近一半。與本土競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手網(wǎng)易(NetEase)不同，騰訊基本上只代理游戲，而不是自己制作。

This year, however, it doubled down on its bet by paying $8.6bn for a majority stake in Clash of Clans developer Supercell, passing on some of the cost to a consortium of investors and keeping the Finnish developer's management in place.
不過(guò)今年騰訊加大了在游戲上的賭注，斥資86億美元購(gòu)入芬蘭游戲開(kāi)發(fā)公司Supercell多數(shù)股權(quán)，由一個(gè)投資者財(cái)團(tuán)負(fù)擔(dān)部分成本，并保持Supercell管理層不變。Supercell出品的游戲包括《部落沖突》(Clash of Clans)。

“They have a long-term view on gaming,” says one banker, who reckons half of all deals they look at on a daily basis fall within the sector.“They are definitely looking outbound.”
“他們?cè)谟螒蝾I(lǐng)域有著長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)眼光，”一位銀行人士表示，“它們無(wú)疑放眼海外。”他估計(jì)，在他們?nèi)粘？疾斓慕灰字校幸话朐谟螒蝾I(lǐng)域。

More generally, content — specifically exclusive, copyrighted content — is a top priority for Tencent.It operates on a “freemium” revenue model, offering some content free and charging at the premium end.
騰訊把內(nèi)容（特別是獨(dú)家、有版權(quán)的內(nèi)容）放在最重要位置上。它采用“免費(fèi)增值”模式，免費(fèi)提供部分內(nèi)容，對(duì)高端內(nèi)容收費(fèi)。

This, Mr.Tsang says, plays into “the increasing propensity of China users to pay for content” — something they initially shunned, turning instead to pirated movies and music.
匯豐的曾琪表示，這符合“中國(guó)用戶日益愿意為內(nèi)容付費(fèi)的傾向”，中國(guó)用戶最初不愿付費(fèi)，寧可選擇盜版電影和音樂(lè)。

“Over the past two years the government has cracked down on pirated content and even the ones you still get, the quality is so bad relative to what you can get from Baidu and the others,” he says.“And the operators have got smarter about putting quality content behind the paywall.”
“過(guò)去兩年中，中國(guó)政府一直在打擊盜版內(nèi)容，即便你現(xiàn)在仍可以獲得盜版內(nèi)容，但與百度和其他供應(yīng)商提供的內(nèi)容相比，盜版的質(zhì)量非常糟糕，”他表示，“對(duì)于怎么把優(yōu)質(zhì)內(nèi)容放置在付費(fèi)墻后面，運(yùn)營(yíng)商變得更加聰明了。”

Thus Tencent, which has exclusive coverage in China of the NBA basketball championships, can charge viewers Rmb22 a month for a basic subscription and Rmb60 for premium viewing.
擁有NBA中國(guó)大陸?yīng)毤揖W(wǎng)絡(luò)播放權(quán)的騰訊，對(duì)體育業(yè)務(wù)基礎(chǔ)會(huì)員每月收費(fèi)22元人民幣，高端會(huì)員則收費(fèi)60元人民幣。

Like Alibaba, Tencent “has gone well beyond copying [the west],” adds another banker.“They are inventing and reinventing what their businesses should be”.Tencent's Moments feed on WeChat prefaced Facebook's addition of Messenger and the $22bn acquisition of WhatsApp.
另一位銀行家補(bǔ)充稱，與阿里巴巴一樣，騰訊“遠(yuǎn)不止模仿（西方）”。“他們正在發(fā)明和再發(fā)明業(yè)務(wù)模式”。騰訊先推出了微信朋友圈，F(xiàn)acebook才增加Messenger功能和以220億美元收購(gòu)WhatsApp。

Payments are another case in point.China's online third-party smartphone payments market dwarfs that of the US: iResearch estimates it to be worth Rmb15.7tn in 2016 — 28 times the $62.5bn forecast by eMarketer for the US in 2017 — and Rmb28.5tn in 2018.
支付是另一個(gè)例子。中國(guó)的第三方智能手機(jī)在線支付市場(chǎng)讓美國(guó)市場(chǎng)相形見(jiàn)絀：艾瑞咨詢(iResearch)估計(jì)，中國(guó)這個(gè)市場(chǎng)2016年價(jià)值15.7萬(wàn)億元人民幣——是eMarketer預(yù)測(cè)的美國(guó)市場(chǎng)2017年625億美元價(jià)值的28倍——到2018年將達(dá)到28.5萬(wàn)億元人民幣。

It is dominated by Alipay, which is operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial and has more than half the market, but TenPay ranks second with a 38.3 per cent share in the third quarter, according to Citibank.
支付市場(chǎng)由支付寶(Alipay)主導(dǎo)，后者由阿里巴巴旗下螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)運(yùn)營(yíng)，占有逾一半的市場(chǎng)份額，但花旗銀行(Citibank)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，今年第三季度財(cái)付通(Tenpay)以38.3%的份額排名第二。

Tencent's Mr.Ma said in May that the average number of mobile transactions exceeded 500m a day, and that over Chinese new year — when it is traditional to hand out hong bao, or red envelopes of money — more than 2.5bn virtual packets were distributed across its platform.
馬化騰今年5月表示，騰訊移動(dòng)支付日均交易超過(guò)5億筆，在有著發(fā)紅包傳統(tǒng)的中國(guó)農(nóng)歷新年期間，逾25億個(gè)虛擬紅包通過(guò)其平臺(tái)發(fā)出。

Tencent favours a cautious approach to monetising its database of active monthly users.Rather than blitz Moments with ads and risk the sort of backlash dished out to Facebook, Tencent has restricted itself for now to a maximum of one ad per user each day.
騰訊對(duì)于從其月度活躍用戶數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)獲取盈利持謹(jǐn)慎態(tài)度。它目前限制每位用戶每天最多發(fā)一條廣告，而不是在朋友圈用廣告狂轟濫炸，從而像Facebook那樣遭受抵制。

UBS estimates WeChat Moments' ad load at about 1 per cent of non-advertising content, compared with 7-10 per cent for Facebook, leaving big scope for growth.In 2015, online advertising made up 17 per cent of revenues.
瑞銀(UBS)估計(jì)，微信朋友圈的廣告量與非廣告內(nèi)容的比率大約是1%，而Facebook的這一比例是7%-10%，這讓微信有了很大的增長(zhǎng)空間。2015年，在線廣告占到微信收入的17%。

China's mobile ad market was worth Rmb90bn in 2015, according to iResearch, up 178 per cent year on year, and is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 54 per cent from 2015 to 2018.
艾瑞咨詢表示，中國(guó)移動(dòng)廣告市場(chǎng)在2015年價(jià)值900億元人民幣，同比增長(zhǎng)178%，并預(yù)計(jì)從2015年到2018年期間復(fù)合增長(zhǎng)年率達(dá)到54%。

Yet monetising the subscribers — and its database — offers the real keys to the kingdom for China's BAT contingent and their global peers.
然而，對(duì)中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)三巨頭及其全球同行來(lái)說(shuō)，從用戶（及其數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)）身上盈利可以帶來(lái)真正的開(kāi)辟王朝之鑰。

Native ads are increasing in China, as elsewhere, and Tencent is helping to rewrite the rules of engagement for digital advertising.Take the entertainment show A Date with a Superstar, produced by Tencent and sponsored by L'Oréal, whose cosmetic products twirl across the screen.Ad Age describes the show as “essentially a giant commercial”.
與其他地區(qū)一樣，中國(guó)原生廣告日益增長(zhǎng)，騰訊正幫助改寫(xiě)數(shù)字廣告的業(yè)務(wù)規(guī)則。以騰訊制作、歐萊雅(L'Oréal)贊助的娛樂(lè)節(jié)目《約吧，大明星》(A Date with a Superstar)為例，歐萊雅的化妝品飄浮在屏幕上。廣告時(shí)代(Ad Age)將這個(gè)節(jié)目描述為“本質(zhì)上是一部商業(yè)大片”。

Other consumer goods companies are following suit with similar partnerships.“They're attracting the big spenders who have been active in TV and are now embracing online advertising,” says one analyst.Not everyone buys the monetisation story.Mr.Windsor argues that Tencent's different platforms make it harder to aggregate and exploit the big data they are sitting on.QQ and WeChat have yet to be fully integrated, for example.
其他消費(fèi)品公司紛紛效仿，展開(kāi)類似的合作。一位分析師表示：“它們正在吸引以前活躍在電視上、現(xiàn)在擁抱在線廣告的大金主。”
并非所有人都看好貨幣化故事。溫莎指出，騰訊各個(gè)不同的平臺(tái)讓它更難整合利用它們坐擁的大數(shù)據(jù)。例如，QQ和微信迄今仍未完全整合。

“I don't see Tencent being ready to grab this opportunity in 2017, and so in the short term a slowdown looks inevitable,” he says.
他說(shuō)：“我認(rèn)為騰訊還沒(méi)有準(zhǔn)備好在2017年抓住這個(gè)機(jī)遇，因此短期內(nèi)放緩顯得不可避免。”

Looking for unicorns: Buying spree puts Valley VCs in shade
尋找獨(dú)角獸企業(yè)：收購(gòu)潮讓硅谷風(fēng)投黯然失色

Tencent is an avid dealmaker.In the past 18 months the company has spent $37.65bn on acquisitions, according to Dealogic data — more than the $26.6bn spent by Sequoia, the Silicon Valley venture capital group, over the same period.
騰訊熱衷于締結(jié)交易。Dealogic數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在過(guò)去18個(gè)月里，騰訊斥資376.5億美元進(jìn)行收購(gòu)，超過(guò)了硅谷風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本集團(tuán)紅杉資本(Sequoia)同期266億美元的并購(gòu)額。

Supercell, the Finnish games group behind Clash of Clans, tops Tencent's list.But there is a long tail of smaller deals that falls broadly into two categories — stakes in big tech players in China and smaller incubation-style deals.“They're out there looking for unicorns,” as one banker puts it.
That makes it distinct from Alibaba, which is less keen on minority stakes.
騰訊最大規(guī)模的并購(gòu)交易是收購(gòu)了推出《部落戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)》(Clash of Clans)的芬蘭游戲集團(tuán)Supercell。但還有其他一長(zhǎng)串較小規(guī)模的交易，這基本上可以分為兩類，一類是買(mǎi)進(jìn)中國(guó)大型科技集團(tuán)的股權(quán)，另一類是較小的孵化器風(fēng)格的交易。一位銀行家表示：“他們?cè)谀抢飳ふ要?dú)角獸企業(yè)。”

But there is another difference, notes Elinor Leung, an analyst at CLSA: Tencent is building a business ecosystem on top of a social network while Alibaba has a business ecosystem and is building a social platform.
這讓它不同于阿里巴巴，后者不太熱衷于少數(shù)股權(quán)。但里昂證券的梁向奕指出，另一點(diǎn)不同是，騰訊在社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的基礎(chǔ)之上打造商業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，而阿里巴巴已經(jīng)有了商業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，正在打造社交平臺(tái)。

Tencent's stakes in China's tech world include Didi Chuxing, the taxi hailing app now part owned by Uber and Apple; ecommerce website JD.com; the Craigslist-style 58.Com; and food delivery app Meituan-Dianping.All of these sites accept TenPay.“They are just putting everything on their platform,” says Ms.Leung.
騰訊入股的中國(guó)科技企業(yè)包括現(xiàn)在由優(yōu)步(Uber)和蘋(píng)果(Apple)部分持股的叫車(chē)服務(wù)應(yīng)用滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)；電商網(wǎng)站京東(JD.com)；Craigslist風(fēng)格的58同城(58.com)以及送餐應(yīng)用美團(tuán)點(diǎn)評(píng)(Meituan-Dianping)。所有這些網(wǎng)站都接受財(cái)付通支付。梁向奕表示：“它們只是把一切東西放在自己的平臺(tái)上。”

Tencent is helped in its investment endeavours by having bankers at the top.Both Martin Lau, president, and James Mitchell, chief strategy officer, are Goldman Sachs alumni.
騰訊有銀行家擔(dān)任高層職務(wù)，這有助于其投資活動(dòng)?？偛脛肫?Martin Lau)和首席戰(zhàn)略官詹姆斯·米切爾(James Mitchell)都曾在高盛(Goldman Sachs)工作過(guò)。

Rival lawyers and investment bankers express respect about Tencent's approach to cutting deals.“No renegotiations, no dramas,” says one party who has sat around the table with them.
競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的律師和投行家們對(duì)騰訊締結(jié)交易的方法表達(dá)了敬意。一位與他們談判的當(dāng)事人表示：“沒(méi)有重新談判，就沒(méi)有峰回路轉(zhuǎn)。”

Adds another: “They are very principled, very progressive.and Chinese to just the right level.”
另一人補(bǔ)充稱：“他們非常有原則，非常開(kāi)明，是非常得體的中國(guó)人。”