現(xiàn)在，輪到硅谷“山寨”中國企業(yè)了

HONG KONG — Snapchat and Kik, the messaging services, use bar codes that look like drunken checkerboards to connect people and share information with a snap of their smartphone cameras. Facebook is working on adding the ability to hail rides and make payments within its Messenger app. Facebook and Twitter have begun live-streaming video.

香港——在通訊應(yīng)用Snapchat和Kik里，人們用仿佛毫無章法的棋盤一樣的條碼建立聯(lián)系，用智能手機(jī)拍照分享信息。Facebook打算在其Messenger應(yīng)用內(nèi)增加叫車及付款功能。Facebook和Twitter已經(jīng)開始提供視頻直播。

All of these developments have something in common: The technology was first popularized in China.

所有這些新動向都有一個共同點(diǎn)：相關(guān)技術(shù)最初是在中國流行起來的。

WeChat and Alipay, two Chinese apps, have long used the bar-codelike symbols — called QR codes — to let people pay for purchases and transfer money. Both let users hail a taxi or order a pizza without switching to another app. The video-streaming service YY.com has for years made online stars of young Chinese people posing, chatting and singing in front of video cameras at home.

微信和支付寶這兩個中國應(yīng)用很早就開始利用名為二維碼的條碼式符號，讓人們方便地支付購物款項或轉(zhuǎn)賬。兩者的用戶都無須切換到其他應(yīng)用，就可以叫一輛出租車或者一份披薩。視頻直播服務(wù)YY.com多年來一直讓年輕的中國網(wǎng)紅可以在家里的攝像機(jī)鏡頭前拗造型、聊天、唱歌。

Silicon Valley has long been the world’s tech capital: It birthed social networking and iPhones and spread those tech products across the globe. The rap on China has been that it always followed in the Valley’s footsteps as government censorship abetted the rise of local versions of Google, YouTube and Twitter.

硅谷是長期以來的世界科技之都：它孕育了了社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)和iPhone，并讓這些科技產(chǎn)品在全球范圍內(nèi)流行開來。中國則一向遭到指責(zé)：它總是對硅谷亦步亦趨，在政府審查推波助瀾之下，中國版谷歌(Google)、YouTube和Twitter紛紛崛起.

But China’s tech industry — particularly its mobile businesses — has in some ways pulled ahead of the United States. Some Western tech companies, even the behemoths, are turning to Chinese firms for ideas.

但中國的科技行業(yè)——尤其是移動業(yè)務(wù)——在某些方面已經(jīng)領(lǐng)先于美國。一些西方科技公司，甚至包括某些大公司，正從中國企業(yè)那里尋求創(chuàng)意。

“We just see China as further ahead,” said Ted Livingston, the founder of Kik, which is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario.

“我們認(rèn)為中國是走在前面的，”Kik創(chuàng)始人泰德·利文斯頓(Ted Livingston)說。該公司總部設(shè)在安大略省的滑鐵盧。

The shift suggests that China could have a greater say in the global tech industry’s direction. Already in China, more people use their mobile devices to pay their bills, order services, watch videos and find dates than anywhere else in the world. Mobile payments in the country last year surpassed those in the United States. By some estimates, loans from a new breed of informal online banks called peer-to-peer lenders did too.

這種轉(zhuǎn)變表明，中國在全球科技產(chǎn)業(yè)的發(fā)展方向上可能享有更大的話語權(quán)。 在中國，用移動設(shè)備支付賬單、定購服務(wù)、觀看視頻、尋找數(shù)據(jù)的人，比全世界任何地方都要多。去年，中國的移動支付交易總額超越了美國。據(jù)一些人估計，一種叫做“P2P借貸”的新型非正規(guī)網(wǎng)上銀行的貸款總額也已經(jīng)超過美國。

China’s largest internet companies are the only ones in the world that rival America’s in scale. The purchase this week of Uber China by Didi Chuxing after a protracted competition shows that at least domestically, Chinese players can take on the most sophisticated and largest start-ups coming out of America.

在全球范圍內(nèi)，只有中國最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司在規(guī)模上能與美國最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司相提并論。滴滴出行在和優(yōu)步中國展開曠日持久的競爭之后，于本周將后者收入麾下。這表明，至少是在國內(nèi)，中國玩家可以跟運(yùn)作最成熟、規(guī)模最大的美國初創(chuàng)公司一較高下。

The future of online payments and engagements can be found at Liu Zheng’s noodle shop in central Beijing. Liu Xiu’e, 60, and her neighbor, Zhang Lixin, 55, read about the noodle shop on WeChat. Then they ordered and paid for their lunches and took and posted selfies of themselves outside the restaurant, all using the same app.

從劉正在北京市中心開的面館，可以窺見在線支付和宣傳的未來。60歲的劉秀娥和她的鄰居、55歲的張立新，在微信上看到了這家面館的信息。他們點(diǎn)了午餐，付了款，在店外自拍并把照片發(fā)到了網(wǎng)上，用的都是同一款應(yīng)用。

Liu Zheng, who is not related to Liu Xiu’e, said the automated ordering and payments meant he could cut down on wages for waiters. “In the future, we will only need one waiter to help in the restaurant and one to help with seating,” Mr. Liu said.

劉正說，自動下單和支付意味著他可以削減雇傭服務(wù)生的開支。“以后我們就只需要一個人在餐廳，一個人幫忙找座。”

Industry leaders point to a number of areas where China jumped first. Before the online dating app Tinder, people in China used an app called Momo to flirt with nearby singles. Before the Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos discussed using drones to deliver products, Chinese media reported that a local delivery company, S.F. Express, was experimenting with the idea. WeChat offered speedier in-app news articles long before Facebook, developed a walkie-talkie function before WhatsApp, and made major use of QR codes well before Snapchat.

行業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者指出，中國在很多領(lǐng)域都是最先試水者。線上約會應(yīng)用Tinder出現(xiàn)前，中國人就在用一款名叫陌陌的應(yīng)用跟附近的單身人士調(diào)情了。亞馬遜(Amazon)首席執(zhí)行官杰夫·貝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)開始談?wù)撚脽o人機(jī)送貨前，中國媒體就報道說，當(dāng)?shù)氐捻権S快遞公司正內(nèi)測無人機(jī)配送服務(wù)。微信推出應(yīng)用內(nèi)即時新聞比Facebook早很多，它還在WhatsApp之前開發(fā)出了對講功能，在Snapchat之前開始大量使用二維碼。

Before Venmo became the app for millennials to transfer money in the United States, both young and old in China were investing, reimbursing each other, paying bills,and buying products from stores with smartphone-based digital wallets.

此外，在美國的千禧一代通過Venmo這款應(yīng)用轉(zhuǎn)賬之前，中國的老老少少已經(jīng)在使用基于智能手機(jī)的數(shù)字錢包投資、銷賬、支付賬單、從商店里買東西。

“Quite frankly, the trope that China copies the U.S. hasn’t been true for years, and in mobile it’s the opposite: The U.S. often copies China,” said Ben Thompson, the founder of the tech research firm Stratechery. “For the Facebook Messenger app, for example, the best way to understand their road map is to look at WeChat.”

“坦白講，中國抄襲美國這種說法好多年前就過時了，在移動領(lǐng)域事實(shí)恰恰相反：美國常常抄襲中國，”科技調(diào)研公司Stratechery的創(chuàng)始人本·湯普森(Ben Thompson)說。“例如Facebook Messenger，要弄清它的發(fā)展路線，最好是以微信為鑒。”

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment. Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.

Facebook的發(fā)言人拒絕置評。騰訊未回復(fù)置評請求。

Executives from companies like Facebook and smaller rivals like Kik are trying to replicate what has emerged in China: dominant online platforms where users will spend much of their time. Much of that effort is focused on chat.

Facebook等公司的高管以及Kik等規(guī)模較小的競爭對手，正努力復(fù)制已經(jīng)在中國出現(xiàn)的東西：占據(jù)絕對優(yōu)勢的在線平臺，用戶會花很多時間待在這些平臺上。它們的許多努力都以聊天為重心。

“The cool thing about chat is it becomes an operating system for your daily life,” Mr. Livingston said. “Going up to a vending machine, ordering food, getting a cab: Chat can power those interactions, and that’s what we’re seeing with WeChat.”

“關(guān)于聊天很酷的一點(diǎn)是，它已經(jīng)成為你日常生活中的一種操作系統(tǒng)，”利文斯頓說。“來到一臺自動販?zhǔn)蹤C(jī)前，點(diǎn)餐，叫車：聊天可以為這些互動提供驅(qū)動力，這就是我們在微信中看到的。”

China still lags in important areas. Its most powerful, high-end servers and supercomputers often rely in part on American technology. Virtual-reality start-ups trail foreign counterparts, and Google has a jump on Baidu in driverless car technology. Many of China’s products also lack the polish of their American counterparts.

中國在一些重要的領(lǐng)域還處于落后位置。性能最強(qiáng)的高端服務(wù)器和超級計算機(jī)在某種層面上常常要仰仗美國的技術(shù)。虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)落后于國外的同行，谷歌的無人駕駛技術(shù)領(lǐng)先于百度。中國的許多產(chǎn)品也不像美國的同類產(chǎn)品那樣精良。

China’s biggest advantage, according to many analysts, is that it essentially started many industries from scratch at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Unlike the United States, where banks and retailers already have strong holds on customers, China’s state-run lenders are inefficient, and retailers never expanded broadly enough to serve a fast-growing middle class.

許多分析師表示，中國最大的優(yōu)勢在于，它基本上是在1976年文化大革命結(jié)束后從零開始發(fā)展出許多行業(yè)。與銀行和零售商已經(jīng)對消費(fèi)者有很強(qiáng)掌控力的美國不同，中國國有放貸機(jī)構(gòu)效率低下，零售商的擴(kuò)張始終跟不上規(guī)模迅速增大的中產(chǎn)階級的需求。

Many Chinese also never bought a personal computer, meaning smartphones are the primary — and often first — computing device for the more than 600 million who have them in China.

許多中國人從未購買過個人電腦，這意味著對中國6億智能手機(jī)用戶而言，智能手機(jī)是他們的主要的——而且往往是第一個——計算設(shè)備。

“The U.S. was first to credit cards, and everyone there has a personal computer. But China, where everyone is on their phones all the time, is now ahead in mobile commerce and mobile payments by virtue of leapfrogging the PC and credit cards,” Mr. Thompson said.

“美國是信用卡普及度最高的國家，而且?guī)缀跛忻绹硕加袀€人電腦。但在中國，所有人都是時刻在使用手機(jī)。在移動商務(wù)和移動支付方面，中國已經(jīng)領(lǐng)先于美國，因為它跳過了PC和信用卡的階段，”湯普森說。

Chinese companies also approach the internet in a different way. In the United States, tech firms emphasize simplicity in their apps. But in China, its three major internet companies — Alibaba, Baidu and the WeChat parent Tencent — compete to create a single app with as many functions as they can stuff into it.

中國企業(yè)對待互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的方式也有所不同。在美國，科技企業(yè)重視應(yīng)用的簡潔性。而在中國，三個最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司——阿里巴巴、百度及微信的創(chuàng)造者騰訊——則爭相打造一個單一應(yīng)用，然后將盡量多的功能融入其中。

On Alibaba’s Taobao shopping app, people can also buy groceries, buy credits for online games, scan coupons and find deals at stores nearby. Baidu’s mapping app lets users order an Uber, reserve a restaurant or hotel, order in food, buy movie tickets and find just about any type of store nearby.

在阿里巴巴的淘寶購物應(yīng)用中，人們可以購買食品雜貨，買網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲卡，搜尋附近商鋪的折扣。百度的地圖應(yīng)用可以讓用戶約優(yōu)步(Uber)平臺上的車，預(yù)定餐廳或酒店，訂餐，買電影票，還可以找到所在位置附近幾乎所有類型的商鋪。

Tencent has opened up WeChat to other companies, allowing them to create apps within WeChat. Ebaoyang — a start-up that enables people to order oil changes for their cars directly on smartphones — was at first almost totally reliant on WeChat to attract business. Gao Feng, one of Ebaoyang’s founders, said the company still relied on the app for 50 percent of its payments and 20 percent of new customers.

騰訊向其他企業(yè)開放了微信端口，允許它們在微信平臺上開發(fā)自己的應(yīng)用。E保養(yǎng)是一家讓用戶可以在智能手機(jī)上直接下單預(yù)定汽車保養(yǎng)服務(wù)的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司，在創(chuàng)立之初它幾乎完全依賴微信招攬生意。E保養(yǎng)創(chuàng)始人之一高峰表示，公司目前依然很依賴微信，有50%的支付和20%的新客戶來自該應(yīng)用。

“We started from WeChat. So it was our main, original source for getting customers,” he said.

“我們是從微信開始的，它原來是我們主要的客戶來源。”他說。

Between fees for its services and money it makes through online games, WeChat manages to generate $7 in revenue per user each year, according to Nomura. The app has roughly 700 million users, more than the total number of smartphone users in China, in part because some users are outside the country and in part because people have multiple accounts.

據(jù)野村證券(Nomura)統(tǒng)計，通過售賣服務(wù)和在線游戲，微信每年可以從每個用戶身上獲得7美元的收入。微信有大約7億用戶，超過了中國智能手機(jī)用戶的總量。出現(xiàn)這種情況，有一部分原因在于一些用戶身在國外，還因為有些人有多個微信賬戶。

Much of that comes not from ads, as it might in the United States, but from spending on games, services and goods sold on the app. Those models may not translate from one market to the other, but the two can still borrow from each other, said Carmen Chang, a partner at the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.

這些營收有相當(dāng)多并非來自廣告——這可能跟美國有所不同——而是來自微信上銷售的游戲、服務(wù)和商品。風(fēng)險投資公司恩頤投資合伙人周一華(Carmen Chang)表示，這兩種模式或許無法從一個市場移植到另一個，但它們可以相互借鑒。

“China was able to develop a lot of innovative business models, which arose in a different kind of economy,” said Ms. Chang, who spends time in both China and in Menlo Park, Calif. “Whether or not we admit it here in Silicon Valley, it’s had an impact on us and our thinking.”

“中國能發(fā)展出許多有富有創(chuàng)意的商業(yè)模式，它們出現(xiàn)在一個與美國不同的經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境里，”在中國和加州門洛帕克兩地生活的周一華說。“不管硅谷是否承認(rèn)，它已經(jīng)對我們和我們的思維產(chǎn)生了影響。”