騰訊加大與阿里巴巴競爭力度

Tencent ratcheted up its competition with Alibaba, claiming leadership in two key areas and signalling a further year of investment and acquisitions.

騰訊(Tencent)加大了與阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的競爭力度，聲稱在兩個關鍵領域佔據了領先地位，並表示未來一年繼續進行投資和收購。

The Shenzhen-based company, which has a market capitalisation of $560bn, has been on a buying and investment spree, building a portfolio of 600 companies in which it has stakes or owns. This week alone it has acquired shares in gaming company Ubisoft, German online bank N26 and a Chinese news aggregator.

這家總部位於深圳、市值達5600億美元的公司近年大舉收購和投資，入股或全資擁有600家公司。僅在本週，它就投資於遊戲公司育碧(Ubisoft)、德國在線銀行N26和中國一家新聞聚合網站。

Announcing a near-doubling of net income to Rmb20.8bn ($3.18bn) in the final quarter of the calendar year, Martin Lau, president and executive director, said on Wednesday the social media company now led the Chinese market in video and payments, in terms of monthly and daily average users.

騰訊總裁兼執行董事總裁劉熾平(Martin Lau)週三宣佈，該公司上一個日曆年最後一個季度的淨利潤增長近一倍，達208億元人民幣（合31.8億美元）。他還表示，在月度和每日平均用戶數方面，這家社交媒體公司目前在中國的視頻和支付市場處於領先地位。

Tencent has rolled out an aggressive subsidy programme in an effort to woo merchants and investors to its payment platform, following a similar move by Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Alibaba. Tencent warned of a negative short-term impact to profits as a result of the heavy spending.

騰訊推出了一項咄咄逼人的補貼計劃，以吸引商家和投資者進入其支付平臺，此前阿里巴巴的支付業務關聯公司螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)也採取了類似舉措。騰訊警告稱，這方面的鉅額支出將對短期利潤帶來負面影響。

While Tencent topped analysts’ expectations on earnings it fell short on revenues, up 51 per cent at Rmb66.39bn on the back of online gaming. Operating margins rose to 39 per cent, from 32 per cent in the same period in 2016.

儘管騰訊盈利超出分析師的預期，但其營收增長未達到預期，在網絡遊戲的支持下增長51%，至663.9億元人民幣。經營利潤率從2016年同期的32%升至39%。

The company also put investors on notice that 2018 would be another year of spending. Mr Lau identified five sectors: video, payments, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and smart retail, which combines ecommerce and bricks and mortar shops.

該公司還提醒投資者稱，2018年將是支出的一年。劉熾平列舉了5個行業：視頻、支付、雲計算、人工智能，以及結合電子商務與實體店的智能零售。

He pointed to opportunities in the market, adding “obviously we have strong profit growth so we can really afford to make such investments. We feel every dollar invested today will generate more for the future.”

他提到了市場的機遇，並補充道：“顯然，我們有強勁的利潤增長，所以我們真的有財力進行這樣的投資。我們認爲，今天投下的每一美元，未來都將帶來更多利潤。”

The spending sprees by Tencent and Alibaba, which has also been ploughing money into retail and other sectors, comes as the previous wave of big spenders have had their wings clipped and are now divesting assets.

阿里巴巴也一直在向零售和其他領域投入資金。就在騰訊和阿里巴巴進行大手筆支出之際，此前的一波大買家已經摺翼，目前正剝離資產。

Bankers and investors differentiate the tech groups’ spending, which is backed by strong balance sheets, from the strategy of previously acquisitive companies such as Anbang and HNA, which were often seeking trophy assets such as hotels and football teams.

銀行家和投資者將這家科技集團以強大資產負債表爲後盾的支出，與安邦(Anbang)和海航(HNA)等此前熱衷於收購的公司的戰略區分開來，後者過去經常收購酒店和足球隊等炫耀性資產。

The battle in payments comes at an awkward time for Alibaba, which is restructuring its relationship with Ant by switching its profit-sharing arrangement for a 33 per cent equity stake.

對阿里巴巴而言，這場支付之戰發生在一個尷尬的時刻。阿里巴巴正在重組其與螞蟻金服的關係，將利潤分享安排轉換爲持有螞蟻金服33%的股權。

Pony Ma, Tencent chairman and chief executive, insisted the competition was “healthy”. In the case of payments, this meant helping foster a market that is far and away the biggest in the world.

騰訊董事長兼首席執行官馬化騰(Pony Ma)堅稱，競爭是“健康的”。在支付方面，這意味着幫助培育一個遙遙領先的世界最大市場。

Benjamin Wu, analyst at Pacific Epoch, welcomed Tencent’s continued spending, saying that while it would lower margins it would also accelerate expansion.

弘亞世代(Pacific Epoch)的分析師Benjamin Wu對騰訊的持續支出表示歡迎。他表示，儘管這會降低利潤率，但也將讓騰訊加速擴張。

He added the company and Alibaba would follow different paths, with the latter looking more overseas. “We think Tencent can spread its payments to lower-tier cities [in China], like tiers 5 and 6, and get faster expansion,” he said.

他接着說，騰訊和阿里巴巴將走上不同的道路，後者將更多目光投向海外。“我們認爲，騰訊可能將其支付業務覆蓋到國內較小城市，比如五、六線城市，從而加快擴張速度，”他說。