阿里巴巴:世界上第一大集市

IN 1999 Trudy Dai used to spend all night sending e-mails from her friend Jack Ma’s apartment, trying to answer queries from American customers without letting on that she was Chinese. Ms Dai was one of the first dozen employees of Alibaba, an online listings service Mr Ma, a teacher, had just started. It was already having some success connecting small Chinese manufacturers to potential customers, including the overseas ones Ms Dai was reassuring over e-mail. But the friends and students who made up the workforce were earning just 550 yuan (then $66) a month.

1999年，戴珊整夜待在她朋友馬雲的公寓裏收發郵件，回覆來自美國客戶的問題，同時不讓人知道她是中國人。戴珊是阿里巴巴12個（注1）創始人之一。雖然當時由教師馬雲創立的在線列表服務網站阿里巴巴剛剛起步，但是，它已經幫中國的小廠家聯繫上了一些潛在客戶，包括戴女士正在通過郵件確認的這些海外客戶。當時，該公司的職員都是馬雲的朋友和同學，他們每月的工資只有550元（約合66美元）。

Mr Ma, though, already had big dreams. That year he said: “Americans are strong at hardware and systems, but on information and software, all of our brains are just as good…Yahoo’s stock will fall and eBay’s stock will rise. And maybe after eBay’s stock rises, Alibaba’s stock will rise.”

儘管如此，當時馬雲先生已經立下了雄心壯志。當年，他就說“美國在硬件和系統方面很強，但是在信息和軟件方面，我們的腦袋一樣靈光…有一天雅虎的股票會跌，ebay的股票會漲。也許在eBay股票漲之後，阿里巴巴的股票也會漲。”

Since then, Alibaba has come to dominate internet retailing in China, which will soon be the biggest e-commerce market in the world. It has moved beyond its original remit of connecting businesses to each other to ventures that let companies sell directly to the public (Tmall) and enable members of the public to sell to each other (Taobao). Between them, Taobao and Tmall processed 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) in transactions last year, more goods than passed through Amazon and eBay combined (see table 1).

從那時起，阿里巴巴逐步佔據了中國互聯網零售市場。不久的將來，中國將成爲世界上第一大電子商務市場。阿里巴巴由最初的企業之間的中介轉變爲二合一的合資企業，一個是企業直接對消費者銷售的天貓商城，一個是會員之間相互買賣的淘寶網。去年，淘寶網和天貓商城總共產生了價值11000億元（約合1700億美元）的交易額，交易的商品多於亞馬遜和ebay交易額總和（見圖1）。

The company that started in Mr Ma’s apartment now employs 24,000 workers at its headquarters in Hangzhou and elsewhere; Ms Dai is president of human resources. A few years ago Alibaba began to turn a profit; in the year to September 2012 it made $485m on revenues of $4.1 billion (see chart 2). Following a recent reorganisation it has 25 separate business units, and on May 10th it will have a new chief executive, Jonathan Lu; Mr Ma will stay on as executive chairman.

這家在馬雲公寓裏創建的公司現在已經有24000名員工，分佈在總部杭州和其他地方；戴珊女士現任人力資源部副CPO。幾年前，阿里巴巴開始盈利。截止2012年，阿里巴巴的利潤達到48500萬美元，總收入41億美元（見圖2）。最近一次重組之後，阿里巴巴分爲25個獨立事務部。5月10日，阿里巴巴將迎來一位新首席執行官陸兆禧，而馬雲將繼續擔任董事局主席。

The rules of the market

市場規則

In one respect things are as they were in 1999: Alibaba is privately owned. But this will not remain the case for long. The reorganisation into 25 business units is widely seen as preparation for an initial public offering (IPO) that would take most of them public. A deal with Yahoo, which once owned 40% of Alibaba, means that the IPO, if done soon, would allow Alibaba to buy back its shares and end the often stormy relationship. Asked about the IPO, Mr Ma says “We are ready.”

跟1999年相比，有一點沒有變：阿里巴巴還是民營公司。但是這樣的情況不會太久了。大家廣泛認爲，阿里巴巴重組劃分爲25個事業部就是爲IPO（initial public offering，首次公開募股）做準備。集團的大部分業務將在此次IPO上市。雅虎曾擁有阿里巴巴40%的股份。如果這次IPO儘早進行，與雅虎的交易將意味着阿里巴巴可以回購其股票，結束與雅虎的暴風驟雨般的關係。問及此次IPO，馬雲說：“我們準備好了。”

Analysts predict that the IPO will value the company somewhere between $55 billion and more than $120 billion. Tencent, a Chinese gaming and social-media firm now getting into e-commerce, has a market capitalisation of $62 billion, just shy of Facebook’s current valuation. Mark Natkin of Marbridge, a Beijing-based technology consultancy, thinks Alibaba could easily be worth more than Tencent, given that “there is so much room to grow its businesses in China”.

分析師預測，阿里巴巴IPO的價值將在550億美元和1200億美元之間。而中國的線上遊戲和社交網絡公司，騰訊，也正在開拓電子商務業務，公司市值達620億美元，比臉譜網當前估價略低。北京邁博瑞科技諮詢公司（Marbridge）的馬克??納特金（Mark Natkin）表示，阿里巴巴的價值將輕鬆超過騰訊，因爲“他們的業務在中國還有很大的發展空間”。

The top-end estimates would imply a remarkably high ratio of value to profits. But such a ratio might make sense to investors if they think that the company is investing in yet more growth to come. Amazon, in some ways a similar company, supports a market value of $117 billion with no profits to speak of. And Alibaba will provide an attractive platform for investors trying to profit from China’s booming internet economy.

雖然最高的估值意味着阿里巴巴的利潤率非常高，但是隻有當投資者認爲公司還有很大的成長空間，這樣的利潤率纔有意義。某種意義上，亞馬遜就是一家類似的公司，有1170億美元的市場價值卻還沒有盈利。而阿里巴巴將爲那些想從中國蓬勃發展的互聯網經濟中得益的投資者提供了誘人的平臺。

There will be some caution. Part of Alibaba floated on the Hong Kong exchange in 2007, but the shares ended up being bought back by the company after losing much of their value. The experience with Facebook’s IPO suggests a certain wariness about internet stocks is wise. But many think it will be different with Alibaba this time. “This will be bigger than Facebook,” predicts Bill Bishop, a Beijing-based technology expert. Mr Ma seems to agree. Though he will say only that the IPO will be “very very big”, asked about Facebook he cannot help but smile and say “Our revenues and profits speak for themselves.” (In the last quarter of 2012 Facebook’s revenues were $1.6 billion.)

但是投資者有一些謹慎。2007年，阿里巴巴的部分業務在香港交易所上市，但是卻損失幾乎所有價值，最終卻被公司全部購回。臉譜網IPO的教訓也說明謹慎購買互聯網股票是明智的。但是很多人認爲這次阿里巴巴的情況不一樣。駐北京的科技專家比爾.畢紹普（Bill Bishop）說：“這次IPO比臉譜網大很多。”馬雲似乎對此表示同意。雖然他只會說這次IPO會“非常非常大”，當被問及臉譜網時，他還是忍不住微笑說：“我們的收入和利潤會爲自己說話。”（2012年第四季度，臉譜網的收入是16億美元。）

Gordon Orr, a senior partner at McKinsey, thinks a healthy IPO valuation could be just the beginning. He says that if Alibaba can sustain its leadership in its current market and expand strongly into finance, the management of the supply chain and other services, “it could become one of the world’s most valuable companies five years from now, with potentially more than $1 trillion of sales passing through its platforms each year.”

麥肯錫公司（McKinsey）的資深合夥人戈登.奧爾（Gordon Orr）認爲，一個健康的IPO估值僅僅是一個開始。他說，如果阿里巴巴能保持它在當前市場的領導地位，並強力進入金融領域、供應鏈管理和其他服務領域，“五年後，它將成爲世界上最有價值的公司之一，旗下平臺每年將有超過10000億美元的交易額。”

Those are sales through Alibaba, not by Alibaba. In America 76% of online retailing involves people buying from individual merchants, according to a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), a think-tank. In China, in 2011, that figure was 10%. The other 90% was sold through marketplaces that simply allow buyers and sellers to find each other. Alibaba has grown so big because early on Mr Ma had two insights into what could make such marketplaces work.

這些是通過阿里巴巴的平臺達成的交易額而不是阿里巴巴本身的銷售額。據智庫麥肯錫全球研究所(McKinsey Global Institute, MGI)z最新發布的報告顯示，在美國，有76%的在線零售是消費者與自營商家的交易。2011年，在中國，這個數字只有10%。另外的90%是通過讓買家和賣家相互聯繫的在線集市完成的。阿里巴巴發展到如此規模就是因爲當初馬雲對怎麼樣使這樣的在線集市運作的兩個洞察。

The first was that many Chinese are tight-fisted. So Alibaba made all the basic services it offers free to both buyers and sellers. It earns money through online advertisements and extra services it offers clients, such as website design. With 6m vendors Taobao is a cluttered-up cyberspace. Many sellers think it worthwhile to pay for fancy storefronts and online advertisements to help them stand out.

第一，很多中國人精打細算。所以阿里巴巴的基礎業務對買家和賣家都免費開放，而自己通過在線廣告和其他增值業務（比如網店裝修）賺錢。淘寶網聚集了600萬小商販，組成了一個雜亂的虛擬空間。很多賣家覺得花錢賣漂亮的店面、做在線廣告以脫穎而出，這樣很值。

The second is that many Chinese are reluctant to trust strangers. So Alibaba has provided tools to build trust. One is an independent verification service through which third parties vet the claims made by sellers; the sellers pay for the process. Another is the Alipay payments system. Unlike PayPal, used by many Western internet companies, Alipay takes money up front and puts it in an escrow account. Vendors can be sure that payments made through it will be honoured. Alipay—a source of much bad blood with Yahoo, which felt Mr Ma seized control of it illegitimately, something Alibaba strongly denies—has roughly half of China’s online-payments market. The vast majority of Alipay transactions are for deals made through Alibaba, but the firm says that use elsewhere is growing fast.

第二，很多中國人不願意相信陌生人。因此阿里巴巴提供工具，以在買賣雙方之間建立信任。一個是建立獨立的驗證服務，通過第三方處理賣家的請求；賣家支付此過程的費用；另一個是支付寶支付系統。與許多西方互聯網公司使用的貝寶不同，支付寶預先收取買家支付的錢，放進託管賬戶。賣家們可以放心，通過支付寶的貨款一定會到自己手上。支付寶是阿里巴巴和雅虎關係惡化的源頭所在。雅虎認爲馬雲對支付寶的控制是違法的，而阿里巴巴極力否認。儘管如此，支付寶還是佔了中國在線支付市場的半壁江山。支付寶處理的交易中有一半來自阿里巴巴的平臺，但是公司表示，其他平臺的業務增長更迅速。

Alibaba also now has the advantages that come with dominating its domain. In the West, shoppers often search for items on Google, and then follow a link, possibly one in an ad, to a retailer’s website or to Amazon; the ads are what make Google its money. In China Taobao’s scale means it can afford to block the “spiders” that search engines like Google, or its local equivalent, Baidu, use to find out what is on a site. It can do this because shoppers more or less have to come to it anyway. This makes adverts on Taobao more valuable; it gets a fair whack of the revenue that would otherwise go to the search engines.

阿里巴巴的支配地位爲它帶來了好處。在西方，購物者通常通過谷歌查找商品，然後點擊鏈接（很可能是廣告鏈接），進入零售商的網站或者亞馬遜；就是這些廣告使谷歌賺錢。而在中國，淘寶網的規模意味着它能屏蔽搜索引擎的天羅地網，像谷歌或者國產搜索引擎百度等用來發現網站內容的網站。淘寶之所以能這樣做是因爲購物者多多少少還是會回到淘寶上來。這使得淘寶上的廣告更加值錢；這樣它就得到了本來是搜索引擎的很大一份兒收入。

This is just one way that the marketplace model works better the bigger a firm gets. The more buyers come, the more sellers need to; the more sellers come, the more buyers want to. As a result, domestic and foreign rivals are having a hard time. This goes for purely online firms like DangDang (which resembles Amazon) and 360buy (in which Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia recently invested) and for high-street retailers fighting defensive battles online like Suning and Gome, two appliance giants.

這只是集市模式比較好的一個方面。買家越多，賣家就越多；賣家越多，買家消費就越多。最終，不論是全在線網商噹噹（與亞馬遜類似）和京東（沙特阿瓦里德王子最近投資），還是在線上奮力拼殺的實體家電巨頭蘇寧和國美，淘寶讓國內外的競爭對手都很頭疼。

The founders of (translated as seven princesses), a women’s fashion firm, tried the bricks-and-mortar route but flopped. They turned to Alibaba’s web portals and found eventual success. The firm now spends up to 100,000 yuan a day on banner ads with Alibaba, as well as money on search optimisation and special promotion days; last year, its online shops on Alibaba earned over 350m yuan.

女士時尚服飾公司七格格的創始人曾經嘗試傳統的實體店模式，然而卻未成功。他們轉而投向阿里巴巴門戶網站，最終取得成功。這家公司現在每天花費高達10萬元在阿里巴巴網站上投放橫幅廣告、優化搜索和開展特別促銷活動；去年，其阿里巴巴的在線網店賺取超過35000萬元。

A torrent of customers

客戶洪流

International brands like Adidas and Samsung are still pouring money into Tmall. Some use Tmall as the exclusive channel for online purchases in China; others are experimenting with having both their own site and a Tmall storefront. Günther Hake of Disney says his firm has had good experiences advertising and selling on Tmall. With a new Shanghai theme park opening in two years, he expects to sell ten times more merchandise in greater China. Tmall will see a lot of that action.

阿迪達斯和三星等國際品牌也在向天貓傾注資金。有些品牌把天貓當做在中國的獨家在線銷售渠道；有些則同時擁有自己的網站和天貓的店面。迪士尼的京特??霍克（Günther Hake）稱，迪士尼在天貓上的廣告和銷售都令人滿意。兩年內，上海迪士尼主題公園將開園，他預計銷售額會有10倍的增長。天貓商城的銷售將繼續看好。

But Alibaba will not necessarily get things all its own way. Tencent has set up a stand-alone e-commerce division; it runs Paipai, a Taobao competitor, and recently bought , which competes with Tmall. Tencent is a potent rival, says Marbridge’s Mr Natkin, because other businesses such as gaming give it a lot of cash. Alibaba will probably need to invest heavily to maintain its lead. That helps explain the $8 billion in loans and other outside financing the company is pursuing. Most of the money will go to refinance older loans at better rates, says Joseph Tsai, the group’s chief financial officer. But some $3 billion might be used for acquisitions.

但是阿里巴巴卻不一定能得償所願。騰訊成立了獨立的電子商務分支---拍拍，是淘寶的一大競爭對手，最近又收購了易訊商城，與天貓形成競爭。邁博瑞（Marbridge）的納特金先生說，騰訊是個強有力的競爭對手，因爲騰訊的其他業務比如在線遊戲讓它賺到了不少現金。阿里巴巴可能需要大量投資才能保住它的領導地位。這也就解釋了阿里巴巴80億美元的貸款和其他在外融資。阿里巴巴首席財務官蔡崇信表示，大部分借款會用來以更低的利率對原來的貸款進行再融資。另外大約有30以美元可能用於收購。

What of the company’s prospects? To some extent they are good simply because of where it is. China’s e-commerce market has grown by 120% a year since 2003, says MGI. This year it is set to surpass America’s, with a total value of $283 billion—7% of retail sales—according to Morgan Stanley (see chart 3). The number of Chinese online shoppers has surged to 250m, more than doubling in three years. And there is a lot of room for growth. Online penetration in China was 43% in 2012, well below the 70% or higher seen in developed economies. And fewer Chinese internet users shop online than in other markets.

阿里巴巴的前景怎麼樣？某種程度上，阿里巴巴前景很好只是因爲他們所處的環境。據麥肯錫統計，中國電子商務市場自2003年以來每年以120%的速度增長。據摩根??士丹利(Morgan Stanley)數據（見圖3）顯示，今年中國的電子商務銷售額將趕超美國，達到2830億美元，佔零售總額的7%。中國網絡購物人數已激增至2.5億人，三年內增長了一倍多，並且還有很大的增長空間。2012年，中國的網絡滲透率是43%，遠低於經濟發達國家的70%甚至更多。而且中國網絡購物的人數比例也比其他國家少。

With more non-shoppers starting to shop and the rest of China’s population getting online, MGI predicts the market will be between $420 billion and $650 billion in 2020. Mr Ma says that the rudimentary nature of much Chinese offline retailing will allow e-commerce to grow faster and further in China than in the developed world; in rich countries, he says, e-commerce is just “the dessert”. In China it’s the main course. This may be particularly true in smaller cities where consumer spending power is outgrowing the shops available.

麥肯錫預測，隨着非網購者開始網購和中國上網人數的增多，到2020年，中國電商市場銷售額將在4200億美元到6500億美元之間。馬雲說，中國線下零售的本質決定了電子商務在中國比在發達國家增長速度更快，走的更遠。他說，在富裕國家，電子商務只是“飯後甜點”，而在中國，它是主菜。這在小城市尤其正確，因爲當地的商店已經不能滿足當地消費者的消費能力。

The changing nature of China’s growth offers new possibilities to the company. Peter Williamson of Cambridge University’s Judge Business School argues that a big reason Alibaba’s original business-to-business platform thrived is that by helping buyers and sellers overcome a lack of information and high search costs it was perfectly placed to help and profit from the first wave of China’s integration into the global economy. Now Alibaba is well positioned for the next wave. “The rise of Chinese consumers, Chinese tourists, Chinese companies going global and so on [will offer] lots of new opportunities,” he says.

中國經濟增長性質的改變爲阿里巴巴帶來了新機遇。劍橋大學賈吉商學院（Judge Business School）的彼得??威廉姆森（Peter Williamson）認爲，阿里巴巴最初的企業對企業平臺蓬勃發展的一個很大原因，就是它幫買家和賣家解決了信息缺乏和搜索成本高的難題，這個完美定位使阿里巴巴從中國融入全球經濟的第一次浪潮中獲得收益。現在阿里巴巴已經爲下一次浪潮做好了準備。“中國消費者和旅遊者的增長、中國企業走向全球等等，都會帶來新的機遇。”他說。

But the company plans to do more than simply ride the waves of China’s growth. One of its strategies will be to use the data it gets from e-commerce to expand into new areas. “We have the best data mindset in the world,” boasts Wang Jian, Alibaba’s chief technology officer. Zeng Ming, the company’s chief strategy officer, points to finance as a way its data can give the company an edge in new markets.

但是阿里巴巴不滿足於隨波於中國經濟增長，而有更大的計劃。其中一個戰略就是利用從電子商務中獲得的數據擴展新領域。“我們有世界上最好的數據系統，”阿里巴巴首席技術官王堅說。阿里巴巴首席戰略官曾鳴指出，就金融來說，數據可以在新市場上帶來很多優勢。

For three years Alibaba has been making small loans (average size $8,000) to merchants trading on its platforms, using the data it holds on them to guide its decisions. Mr Tsai says its loan book was $600m in 2012, and that by the end of this year it should top $2 billion; the non-performing-loan ratio is below 2%. “The people we are focusing on are completely below the radar screen for the big banks,” he points out. The company turns the loans into products that can be sold to investors. The firm is expanding into loans to individuals, and into insurance, where it has announced a joint venture with Tencent and Ping An, a Chinese insurer. The financial division is likely to be spun out soon, and run at arm’s length rather as Alipay is today. Regulators would probably not allow foreigners to hold a big stake in a financial firm—and any Alibaba IPO would bring in lots of foreign investors.

三年來，阿里巴巴以其掌握的數據爲指導，開始向它平臺上的商家進行小額貸款（平均8000美元）。蔡崇信先生說，2012年的累計貸款金額達到6億美元，到今年年底，累計貸款金額將達到20億美元；不良貸款率低於2%。“我們的目標客戶是那些完全不在大銀行輻射圈之內的，”他指出。公司將貸款轉化爲產品出售給投資者。公司在不斷擴張，由貸款給個人，擴展到保險行業。公司宣佈與騰訊和中國保險公司平安保險成立一個合資公司。這個金融分支可能不會撐太久，不會像現在的支付寶一樣，而是隻能撐一段時間。監管部門不會允許外國人在金融公司中掌控大量股份，但是阿里巴巴IPO一定會帶來很多外國投資者。

Another growth opportunity is that China is now the world’s biggest market for smartphones. Purchases on mobile phones leapt from 2 billion yuan in 2010 to 53 billion yuan last year, 4% or so of total e-commerce. A company dedicated to serving this market might be a serious competitor. Mr Ma recently ordered a large number of engineers to be shifted to the firm’s mobile division. Mr Wang acknowledges that “mobile is a new game where we don’t have the edge yet”—but he reckons nobody else does either.

另一個增長機會是，中國現在是世界上最大的智能手機市場。智能手機的銷量額由2010年的20億元增至2012年的530億元，佔電子商務銷售總額的4%左右。致力於服務這個市場的企業可能會成爲這個市場強有力的競爭者。馬雲最近調集了許多工程師，到公司的移動部門。王堅承認“移動領域是一場新的戰爭，我們還沒什麼優勢。”但是他估計別人也沒有。

Then there are the opportunities (and risks) of going global. Alibaba makes no secret of its global aspirations, but some of the things that make it a success at home may not transfer well. Alipay, for example, may offer few advantages in markets which are better supplied with banking and credit services. The marketplace approach that lets the company do without warehouses and other tangible assets has not proved the winning business model around the world that it has in China.

然而走向全球機遇和風險並存。阿里巴巴絲毫沒有掩飾自己想要走向全球的野心，但是那些讓他們在國內成功的元素，在國外不一定適用。比如，支付寶在銀行和借貸服務比較發達的市場就失去了優勢。集市模式讓阿里巴巴在國內大獲成功，但這種沒有倉庫也沒有其他有形財產的模式，在國外並未獲成功。

Its most promising overseas markets will be low-trust, underbanked emerging economies—the markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia where other Chinese pioneers leaving the home market, such as Huawei, a telecoms giant, cut their teeth. Being a platform for retail, rather than a retailer itself, may be a winning proposition in those countries too; but it is not a sure thing. And outside China there are serious competitors in the form of Amazon and a resurgent eBay.

對阿里巴巴來說，最有前途的海外市場是那些信任低下、銀行也不發達的新興經濟體的市場—-非洲、拉丁美洲和亞洲等其他中國企業，比如電信巨頭華爲，已經開拓過的市場。阿里巴巴作爲一個零售平臺而不是零售者本身，在這些國家可能也會取得成功；但是這不確定。而在中國之外，又有像亞馬遜和復活的eBay這樣的強有力的競爭者。

Among the advantages those competitors might have is that the goods they offer are highly likely to be kosher. This has not always been the case with Alibaba. China has a history of making and consuming counterfeit goods, and vendors on Taobao have not been a notable exception.

這些競爭者的一個共同優勢就是，他們出售的商品都比較可靠。而對阿里巴巴來說，這可不一定。中國本來就有製造和銷售假貨的傳統，而淘寶上的商販可不是例外。

Up until the end of last year, Taobao was on the American government’s list of “notorious markets”. Its removal reflects the effort the firm has put into cracking down on fakes by working with multinationals and lobbies like the Motion Picture Association of America. But managers of Western brands sold through Tmall grumble that fakes are still too readily available on Taobao. Judging by the $12 Manolo Blahniks found in a quick browse they have a point. McKinsey’s Mr Orr tells of a Chinese shoe manufacturer selling through a number of stores on Taobao and Tmall competing with several thousand dodgy operators peddling unauthorised or counterfeit goods, many sourced from within the company’s own supply chain. “Taobao has not yet changed the culture of counterfeiting in China,” he concludes. If it is to become a global giant, it must do more to clean things up.

直至去年年底，淘寶才從美國政府的“惡名市場”名單中除名。這反映了公司在打擊假貨上做的努力，比如與跨國公司和美國電影協會之類的遊說集團合作。但是入駐天貓商城的一些外國品牌的經理抱怨說，還是能在淘寶上輕而易舉地找到假貨。因爲迅速搜索一下，他們就能在淘寶上搜索到僅賣12美元的莫尼??伯拉尼克高跟鞋（Manolo Blahniks）。麥肯錫的奧爾先生講了一個故事，一家中國鞋商通過淘寶和天貓上的多家店銷售正品鞋子，與販賣未經授權的或者冒牌鞋的幾千狡猾小販競爭，而這些小販很多都是在該商家的供應鏈內進行採購的。“淘寶還沒有改變中國買賣假貨的傳統，”他總計道。阿里巴巴要想成爲國際巨頭，必須做出更多努力，把假貨清理乾淨。

As well as an old problem to overcome, there is also a new one: the sharing of power at the top. Mr Ma is not leaving the firm; he is staying on as executive chairman. But his stepping aside as chief executive clearly changes things. Microsoft, to take the obvious example, was already a global giant and successful public firm when Bill Gates made a similar move. Few people outside China know Alibaba well, and what they know centres on its dynamic founder.

除了老問題，還有新問題待解決：高層的權力分配。馬雲還沒有離開阿里巴巴；他繼續留任董事局主席。但是他從首席執行官職位上退下來顯然改變了很多事情。舉個顯而易見的例子。當比爾??蓋茨做了同樣的舉動時，微軟已經是一家國際大公司和成功的上市企業了。而在中國之外，很少人瞭解阿里巴巴，他們知道的只是它那活力無限的創始人。

The change has been long planned inside the company, though. In a little discussed move three years ago Alibaba reorganised its top brass into a partnership structure. Mr Tsai says this was explicitly designed to ensure continuity at the top and a smooth transition from boss to boss. Pressed on whether such a cabal could continue to run things once the firm goes public, he immediately points to Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, as an example of a publicly traded company with a close-knit partnership structure. Edward Tse of Booz & Company, a consultancy, observes that such partnerships (his firm is one too) cannot rely on rules and top-down control to make quick decisions. Shared values are much more important.

儘管如此，這次改變早在公司內部計劃之中。在三年前一次悄然無息的行動中，阿里巴巴把它的高層機構重組成了合夥人制機構。蔡先生說，這次決定就是爲了保證上層的連續性和職位間的順利交接。當被問及公司上市後這樣的合夥人制度是否還會繼續管事，蔡先生馬上舉了高盛（Goldman Sachs）投資集團的例子。作爲一家上市公司，高盛有着一個聯繫緊密的合夥人制度。博思艾倫諮詢公司（Booz & Company）的謝祖墀(Edward Tse)認爲，這樣的合夥制度（博思艾倫也是合夥制度）不能依賴於規章制度和由上而下的控制來決策。共同的價值觀更加重要。

Change China, change the world

改變中國，改變世界

Alibaba seems to take its culture seriously. Assessment on key values, which include integrity and teamwork, make up half of performance reviews, and Mr Ma spends a third of his time teaching such values—which, as one of China’s few revered entrepreneurs, he promotes far beyond the bounds of the company. He claims Alibaba is about improving people’s lives—going beyond Google’s “Don’t be evil” to “Do good”. When corruption was uncovered in the business a few years ago, Mr Ma showed the division’s high-flying boss, and a lot of other people, the door.

阿里巴巴似乎把公司文化看得很重。業務考覈中，對於包括誠信和團隊精神等重要價值觀念的考覈佔了一半。而馬雲自己也花費三分之一的時間宣講企業價值觀。作爲中國少有的一位受尊敬的企業家，他把這個價值觀推廣到企業之外。他宣稱，阿里巴巴要改善人們的生活---這比谷歌的價值觀“不做壞事”更進一步，變成“做好事”。幾年前，當阿里巴巴出現了腐敗現象時，馬雲把該分支高高在上的領導和其他許多人請出了大門。

Thus Alibaba may continue to grow. Even if it does not, its legacy of creating trust, encouraging a shift to consumption, and increasing the overall productivity of the retail sector will persist, to the benefit of the country as a whole. Any company that surpasses it will do so by building on those gains, not reversing them. That is why Harvard’s William Kirby, an expert on Chinese business, calls Alibaba a transformative firm—“a private company that has done more for China’s national economy than most state-owned enterprises.”

阿里巴巴將繼續成長。就算阿里巴巴不再成長，它建立信任、鼓勵消費、增加零售行業的整體生產力的影響也將繼續，對整個中國都有好處。超過它的企業也將會繼續在它的基礎上延續這種影響，而不是顛覆它。這也是爲什麼哈佛大學的中國商業專家William Kirby稱阿里巴巴爲變革性的公司---“一家對中國經濟做出的貢獻比大多數國有企業還多的民營企業。”