滴滴出行的總裁柳青成爲燒錢大戰的贏家

Last September, Jean Liu, president of Didi Kuaidi (now Didi Chuxing), had the unenviable task of explaining why it was losing huge amounts of money in a subsidy war with Uber, with no end in sight.

去年9月，滴滴快的(現更名爲滴滴出行)總裁柳青(Jean Liu)的棘手任務是，解釋該公司爲何在與優步(Uber)的補貼大戰中虧損鉅額資金，而且這種狀況看不到結束的跡象。

Rather than duck, she took the question head on: “We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for burning cash,” she said.

她沒有選擇迴避，而是直截了當地回答： “不燒錢我們走不到今天這一步。”

She was right, and continued to be so. The oft-quoted line became an anthem for Didi, as it went head-to-head with Uber in losing billions of dollars subsidising riders and drivers in a bid for market share.

她的話在當時是對的，現在依然是對的。隨着滴滴與優步短兵相接，爲爭奪市場份額不惜虧損數十億美元補貼乘客和司機，這句經常被引用的話變成了滴滴的凱歌。

Finally, Ms Liu, credited as the brains behind Didi’s ability to raise money and burn it at a jaw-dropping pace, was vindicated this week, as Didi vanquished Uber in a war of nerves (and cash).

上週，隨着滴滴在這場膽略（及資金）的較量中徹底擊敗優步，柳青終於證明了自己的正確。人們認爲，滴滴能夠籌集資金並以令人瞠目結舌的速度燒錢，就是她在運籌帷幄。

Uber is retreating from China, albeit with a 20 per cent stake in Didi, after losing $1bn last year, though Didi probably lost even more. Uber “has done better than any Silicon Valley company in China”, she said charitably, in a joint letter to Didi staff with Cheng Wei, the company’s chairman.

去年虧損10億美元之後，優步正在撤出中國——儘管其獲得了滴滴20%的股份（滴滴去年可能虧損更多）。在與滴滴首席執行官程維聯名發給滴滴員工的一封公開信中，柳青盛讚優步是“歷史上硅谷公司在中國做到過最好的”。

The Harvard and Peking University-educated scion of a Chinese tech dynasty, Ms Liu sits at the nexus of the Chinese and US technology aristocracies — her father is Liu Chuanzhi, who founded Lenovo, the computer maker that bought IBM’s PC business in 2005 and subsequently became the largest PC maker in the world.

畢業於哈佛大學(Harvard University)和北京大學(Peking University)的柳青是“科二代”，身處中美科技巨頭的中樞——她的父親柳傳志創立的聯想(Lenovo)於2005年收購了IBM的個人電腦業務，隨後成爲世界最大的個人電腦製造商。

Ms Liu told the Chinese press that she followed the life plan laid out by her father — study abroad and work abroad to gain experience, but then come back to China.

柳青曾對中國媒體表示，她一直遵循父親爲她制定的人生規劃——出國留學，在海外工作以積累經驗，然後回到中國。

After a masters at Harvard in computer science, Ms Liu cut her teeth at Goldman Sachs, starting in 2002 as a junior analyst and working her way up to managing director. She quit banking to join Didi in 2014, and promptly made her mark by masterminding the merger between Didi and Kuaidi, which was then its chief rival.

獲得哈佛大學計算機科學碩士學位後，柳青加入高盛(Goldman Sachs)，2002年從初級分析師做起，一步步晉升爲董事總經理。2014年，柳青離開銀行業加盟滴滴，並迅速做出了成績——策劃滴滴與當時主要競爭對手快的合併。

As president at Didi, sharing power with Mr Cheng, Ms Liu became the international face of the company and its chief dealmaker and fundraiser through the Uber “cash burn” wars.

柳青在滴滴擔任總裁，與程維共同執掌公司。在這個位置上，她成爲滴滴在國際上的代言人，並在滴滴與優步的“燒錢”大戰全過程中統領交易和籌款事務。

The best advice from her father, she says, was “don’t listen to what investors say, but what they do” — and while Didi’s financiers continued to press the company to stop the costly price war with Uber, they still poured money into the company.

她說，父親給她的最佳忠告是，“不要聽投資者說什麼，而要看他們做什麼”——雖然滴滴的投資者一直在敦促該公司停止與優步進行代價高昂的價格大戰，但他們仍將大量資金投入滴滴。

In May, Ms Liu won a $1bn investment from Apple — a rare mark of approval from the iPhone maker. She went on to raise a further $6bn for Didi in June, a record for a Chinese start-up.

今年5月，柳青獲得了來自蘋果(Apple)的10億美元投資——這是一罕見之舉標誌着這家iPhone製造商對滴滴的認可。6月，她又爲滴滴籌得60億美元，創下中國創業型企業籌資記錄。

As one of the most prominent woman leaders in Chinese tech, Ms Liu also made waves last year when she announced internally that she was being treated for breast cancer at the age of 37. A Didi spokesperson said Ms Liu is now “fine”.

作爲中國科技業最知名的女性領導者之一，柳青也曾在去年引起轟動——時年37歲的她在公司內部宣佈自己正在接受乳腺癌治療。滴滴發言人表示，柳青現在“很好”。

“She has been in all-in mode for quite some time,” she said.

“很長時間以來，她一直處於全身心投入的狀態，”她說。

This week, however, she was barely seen and gave no press interviews other than the joint letter and a bland press statement, leading to questions about why the friendly, English-speaking face of Didi was publicly absent during the company’s biggest foreign acquisition.

然而，上週，除了那封聯名公開信以及一份四平八穩的新聞聲明，她幾乎沒有現身，也沒有接受過任何媒體採訪。這不禁讓人疑惑，爲什麼滴滴這張親切、講英語的面孔未在滴滴進行它最大的一筆海外收購期間公開露面。

“Management is now focusing on internal communications and integration,” said a spokesperson for the company.

滴滴發言人表示：“管理層現在正聚焦於公司內部的溝通與整合。”