中國科技企業對外投資規模激增

Chinese tech companies, led by the likes of Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, are huge presences in the global tech industry, well known to investors and global tech rivals. But despite their high global profile, China’s tech giants have one thing in common: they like to stay at home.

以阿里巴巴(Alibaba)、騰訊(Tencent)和百度(Baidu)等公司爲首的中國科技企業在全球科技行業擁有巨大的業務份額，爲投資者和全球科技業競爭對手所熟知。儘管中國的科技巨頭們在全球有很高的知名度，但它們有一個共同之處是喜歡呆在國內。

Between 2005 and 2015, Chinese tech companies launched just 291 investments in the software & IT and consumer electronics sectors overseas, according to data from fDi Markets, a cross-border investment tracker owned by the FT.

英國《金融時報》旗下跨境投資追蹤機構fDi Markets的數據顯示，2005年到2015年，中國科技企業在軟件和IT以及消費電子產品領域的海外投資僅有291宗。

This puts China in a lowly 14th place worldwide in terms of outbound tech investment, not only behind powerhouses such as the US, the UK and Germany, but also behind India, Switzerland and Australia that launched 723, 445 and 315 projects in the same period, respectively.

這讓中國在對外科技投資的全球排名中名次不高，僅處於第14位，不僅落後於美國、英國和德國等強國，也落後於印度、瑞士和澳大利亞——這三個國家同期的海外科技投資分別是723、445和315宗。

Growing momentum

不斷增強的勢頭

With a huge domestic market and healthy GDP growth in the past 10 years, Chinese companies have had little incentive to look for expansion overseas. But with the Chinese economy slowing and growth opportunities at home nearing exhaustion, attitudes have started to change.

由於國內市場巨大而且過去十年中國國內生產總值(GDP)快速增長，中國公司此前一直沒有多少動力去考慮海外擴張。但在中國經濟放緩、國內增長機遇接近於枯竭的情況下，中國公司的態度開始改變。

Data from fDi Markets show that outbound investment in the sector has gathered pace in recent years and is on course for a 50 per cent increase in terms of project numbers this year, as the table shows.

fDi Markets的數據顯示，中國公司在科技領域的對外投資近年來步伐加快，照現在的勢頭，今年在這一領域的對外投資項目數量可能增長50%，如圖表所示。

Alibaba and the followers

阿里巴巴及其追隨者

Among the giants taking a lead is Alibaba, a Hanghzou-based and NYSE-listed ecommerce company with a market capitalisation of about $240bn. Between January 2014 and June 2016, it launched 15 greenfield projects overseas, of which nearly half were in the US, according to fDi Markets.

領頭的大型企業包括阿里巴巴——總部位於杭州、在紐交所(NYSE)上市的電子商務公司，擁有大約2400億美元的市值。fDi Markets的數據顯示，2014年1月到2016年6月，阿里巴巴在海外投資了15宗綠地項目，其中近半數位於美國。

Also moving abroad, though at a slower pace, were Avazu, a Shanghai-based digital marketing company, and Kingsoft, a Beijing-based software company.

總部位於上海的數字營銷公司艾維邑動(Avazu)和總部位於北京的軟件公司金山軟件(Kingsoft)也在走向海外——儘管步伐較慢。

Each has launched four overseas projects since 2014, with Avazu concentrating on the US, the UK and Germany, and Kingsoft betting on emerging markets such as Brazil and Indonesia

兩家公司自2014年以來各投資了4宗海外項目，艾維邑動聚焦於美國、英國和德國，而金山軟件押注於巴西和印尼等新興市場。

China is slowly climbing the ranks of global tech investors: the number of greenfield tech investments in 2016 to June puts China in seventh place worldwide, ahead of Japan. With the outlook for the domestic economy getting bleaker, expect it to rise further up the ranking in the years to come.

中國在全球科技業投資者排行榜上的名次在緩慢爬升：2016年上半年，中國綠地科技投資數量排名第七，領先於日本。考慮到中國國內經濟前景日益黯淡，預計今後幾年中國的這一排名將會進一步上升。