加爾佩林 現代的拉美版"馬雲"

Much has changed in Marcos Galperín’s life since 1999, when he and a colleague set up what would become the eBay of Latin America. But the 43-year-old Argentine dotcom entrepreneur has lost none of the youthful vigour that drove him to set up MercadoLibre, the region’s most visited ecommerce website.

自1999年馬科斯•加爾佩林(Marcos Galperín)及其同事創辦了日後成爲拉美版eBay的網站以來，他的人生髮生了很大改變。但是這位43歲的阿根廷互聯網企業家一點也沒失去當年驅動他創辦“自由市場”(MercadoLibre)的青春活力。“自由市場”是拉美地區訪問量最大的電子商務網站。

“I feel exactly the same way as I did 15 years ago. I feel a desperation that there is so much to do, that this is just starting,” says MercadoLibre’s chief executive, explaining that although his online shopping site has become the undisputed leader of ecommerce in Latin America, the sector is still in its infancy.

“我感覺就跟16年前一模一樣。我有種急迫的感覺，感覺有好多事情要做，這還只是開始，”這位“自由市場”的首席執行官稱。他解釋道，儘管他的在線購物網站已成爲拉美無可爭議的電子商務領頭羊，但這個行業仍然處於發展初期。

He looks much the same too. In a hooded top, slouching on a sofa, with his feet up and a laptop on his knees as he awaits the FT, Mr Galperín could be just another employee at MercadoLibre’s buzzing designer offices in Buenos Aires. They fill three floors at the top of a glistening tower that peers down over the muddy waters of the river Plate.

他看起來也跟16年前差不多。在等待英國《金融時報》採訪時，穿着帽衫的加爾佩林慵懶地躺在沙發上，翹着雙腳，把筆記本電腦放在膝蓋上，看起來就像“自由市場”在布宜諾斯艾利斯繁忙的設計師辦公室裏的一名普通員工。辦公室在拉普拉塔河(River Plate)邊一棟耀眼大樓佔了最高3層。

It is a long way from the garage of his family’s leather business, where the operations of MercadoLibre — “free market” — began.

相比他家的皮革公司的車庫（“自由市場”最初開始經營的地方），公司已走過了漫長的道路。

It was just before the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, which could have spelt doom for the fledgling enterprise. However, Mr Galperín knew a thing or two about raising money, having work¬ed at JPMorgan and in the finance dep¬art¬ment of Argentina’s largest oil company, YPF; MercadoLibre’s strong financial support helped it survive the crash.

那是在2000年網絡股泡沫破裂前夕，泡沫破裂本來可能給很多羽翼未豐的企業帶來厄運。然而，曾在摩根大通(JPMorgan)以及阿根廷最大的石油公司YPF的財務部任職的加爾佩林，對融資操作略知一二；“自由市場”強大的金融支持幫助它挺過股市崩盤。

He remembers well the mo¬ment he persuaded the first investor to back his project, when he was finishing his MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business in California. He was driving financier John Muse, who had given a lecture, to the airport and seized the chance to pitch his idea. The co-founder of the Hicks Muse Tate private equity fund was persuaded by the time he boarded his private jet.

加爾佩林仍清晰記得說服第一個投資者支持他創業的那一刻，當時他即將完成在加州斯坦福大學商學院(Stanford Graduate School of Business)的MBA課程。他開車送做完講座的金融家約翰•繆斯(John Muse)去機場，途中抓住機會向他力薦自己的想法。繆斯是Hicks Muse Tate私募基金的共同創始人，在登上私人飛機前，他已經被加爾佩林說服了。

“I went back home and told my girlfriend: ‘You remember that trip we were going to do to Europe after graduation? Well it’s not going to happen,’” Mr Galperín says. He had already ditched dreams of sports stardom despite being selected to play for Argentina’s junior national rugby team.

“我回到家，告訴我的女朋友說：‘你還記得我們準備畢業後去歐洲旅行嗎？唉，我們去不了了，’”加爾佩林稱。此前他已經放棄了成爲體育明星的夢想，儘管他被選入了阿根廷橄欖球青年隊。

Of as many as 40 rivals in Latin America at the time, only a handful could raise meaningful financing, says Mr Galperín, who also secured funds from JPMorgan,Goldman Sachs, GE Capital, Flatiron and Banco Santander. “We were the only ones that didn’t throw the money away doing mass media advertising. Instead, we focused on getting a team together and a good product. That’s what set us apart,” he says. His co-founder was Hernán Kazah, who was also at Stanford at the time and who left the company after 10 years.

加爾佩林稱，當時拉美有不下40個競爭對手，其中只有一小部分能籌得有意義的融資。他自己還從摩根大通、高盛(Goldman Sachs)、通用電氣金融(GE Capital)、Flatiron以及桑坦德銀行(Banco Santander)獲得融資。“只有我們不把錢揮霍在大衆媒體廣告上。相反，我們專注於組建團隊和推出好產品。這使我們成爲行業佼佼者，”他稱。埃爾南•卡札(Hernán Kazah)是加爾佩林的共同創始人，他當時也在斯坦福讀書，10年後離開了公司。

By 2001 — when Argentina was plunging into a deep economic crisis — Mer¬cadoLibre had already caught the eye of eBay, which acquired a 19.5 per cent stake in exchange for its Brazilian subsidiary. MercadoLibre maintains an unusual relationship with eBay — which as both a shareholder and a competitor, Mr Galperín says, is a “frenemy” — but crucially the US group pledged not to return to the region for at least five years. This cleared the way for MercadoLibre’s rapid expansion, just in time to raise more funds when it laun¬ched on New York’s Nasdaq exchange in August 2007, the same day that economic historians now say marked the start of the global financial crisis.

2001年阿根廷陷入嚴重的經濟危機，那時“自由市場”已經引起了eBay的注意，後者以巴西子公司作爲交換，收購了“自由市場”19.5%的股權。“自由市場”與既是股東也是競爭者的eBay保持着不同尋常的關係，加爾佩林稱之爲“友敵”——但最關鍵的是這家美國集團承諾至少5年內不會重返拉美。這爲“自由市場”的快速擴張掃清了道路，讓其在2007年8月（如今經濟史學家稱其爲全球金融危機的開始）趕上在紐約納斯達克(Nasdaq)掛牌上市，籌得更多資金。

Despite the economic problems, MercadoLibre has become a household name across Latin America. Now with a market capitalisation of some $6bn, last year it matched nearly 30m different buyers and sellers, about 5 per cent of the region’s population, of everything from computers to cars. Its gross annual merchandise value — the total cost of goods sold — was almost $8bn. Revenue is generated from transaction fees, online ads and MercadoPago, its own payment system.

儘管遭遇經濟問題，但“自由市場”已成爲拉美家喻戶曉的品牌。如今市值約60億美元的“自由市場”，去年撮合的買家和賣家達到近3000萬，約佔拉美地區總人口的5%，交易商品從電腦到汽車無所不有。其年度商品交易總額（即銷售總額）近80億美元。營收來自交易費用、在線廣告及其支付系統MercadoPago。

Mr Galperín reckons the figures are “minuscule” compared to the growth he expects over the next 20 years, with just 5 per cent of Latin Americans engaged in ecommerce, compared to 15 per cent in the US. In the next five years alone, as more Latin Americans use the internet, analysts expect MercadoLibre’s gross merchandise value to double, despite gloomy prospects for the economies of some of its biggest markets, such as Brazil and Venezuela.

加爾佩林認爲，與他預計未來20年期間的增長相比，這些數字“微不足道”，原因是參與電子商務的拉美人僅有5%，而美國的比例爲15%。隨着越來越多的拉美人使用互聯網，分析師們預計僅在未來5年“自由市場”的商品交易總額將會翻倍，儘管某些最大的市場（如巴西和委內瑞拉）的經濟前景暗淡。

“The speed at which people are accessing the internet and doing ecommerce for the first time is on a different scale relative to consumption patterns. It’s not just faster, it’s in a different league,” says Mr Galperín, adding that broadband connections are about 2,000 times faster than in 1999.

“相對於消費模式，首次上網並從事電子商務的人羣正以不同的規模增長。不僅更快，而且是完全不同的數量級，”加爾佩林稱。他補充說，如今的寬帶連接比1999年的上網速度快了約2000倍。

In fact, MercadoLibre has done a roaring trade in some of the region’s worst-performing economies, such as Venezuela. Traditional retailers there are stifled by regulation, leading to empty shelves and the cash-strapped population is selling more of its possessions, while many are simply afraid to go shopping because of rampant crime.

事實上，“自由市場”在拉美表現最差的幾個經濟體（如委內瑞拉）生意興隆。那裏的傳統零售商受到監管桎梏，貨架空空，而現金拮据的國民正在賣出更多財物，同時很多人因爲治安不佳而不敢去購物。

“The more inefficient retail is, the more value we can provide to a society,” says Mr Galperín. But access to the internet, he says, means that consumers in isolated communities can buy the same goods at the same prices as those in big cities, while small businesses no longer have to sell through big retailers. “Just as Google democratised the ability of people to access information, and Facebook democratised the ability of people to organise themselves and voice their opinions, so we have democratised commerce,” he says.

“零售業的效率越是低下，我們對一個社會的價值就更大，”加爾佩林稱。但他表示，上網意味着，偏僻社區的消費者能夠以大城市的價格購買同樣的商品，而小企業不再需要通過大零售商出售商品。“就像谷歌(Google)使所有人都能獲取信息，就像Facebook讓所有人都能梳理自己的生活並發表觀點，我們使商業活動民主化了，”他稱。

Small businesses caught on to MercadoLibre some time ago, and Mr Galperín expects big retailers to join in: those that do not will be left behind, he warns. “The traditional gatekeepers of commerce have realised they need to be where the consumers are,” says Mr Galperín.

小企業早就趕上了“自由市場”的潮流，加爾佩林預計大零售商也會加入進來：他警告稱，不加入進來的零售商將會被落下。“傳統的商業掌門人已經意識到，他們需要追隨消費者的腳步，”加爾佩林稱。

“We are trying to help them successfully navigate the transition to digital commerce. We don’t see traditional retailers as our competitors — actually most of them are our clients,” he adds, noting that 500 or so retailers including Walmart and Fravega have online stores on MercadoLibre.

“我們試着幫助他們成功把握向數字化商業轉型的過程。我們並不把傳統零售商視爲競爭者——事實上他們大多數是我們的客戶，”他補充稱。他指出，包括沃爾瑪(Walmart)和Fravega在內的500家左右零售商在“自由市場”都有在線商店。

Nevertheless, Mr Galperín is acutely aware that there are too many examples of companies “whose picture was great, but the movie ended terribly”. He points to the experience of eBay in China, which was muscled aside by Alibaba, and of many companies such as MySpace or BlackBerry. All were market leaders that stopped innovating and were overtaken. “That’s what makes my job so fascinating, and it’s why I come to the office every day,” he says perkily. “Winning is fun.”

儘管如此，加爾佩林敏銳地意識到有太多“畫面美好，但結局糟糕”的公司案例。他指出了eBay在中國——該公司完全被阿里巴巴(Alibaba)排擠在外——以及MySpace和黑莓(BlackBerry)等很多公司的經歷。這些公司都曾經是市場領頭羊，但它們停止了創新，結果被取代。“這使我的工作如此吸引人，這也是我每天上班的原因，”他得意地說，“贏得勝利很好玩。”