阿里欲借拋售美團股票阻礙對手籌資

Alibaba is selling its $1bn of preferred shares in Meituan-Dianping, the online booking and discounts platform, at a steep discount — a move that will put a brake on the Groupon-style company’s fundraising efforts, according to investors.

根據投資者的說法，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)正在以極大折扣，拋售在線預訂和折扣平臺美團-大衆點評(Meituan-Dianping)價值10億美元的優先股，此舉將爲這家Groupon式企業的籌資努力踩下剎車。

Meituan-Dianping, which is backed by Alibaba’s ecommerce rival Tencent, had been seeking to raise funds from existing and new investors on terms that gave it a $15bn valuation. But some investors are concerned that Alibaba’s discounted share sale is likely to value the group-buying site at nearer $13bn.

美團-大衆點評曾獲阿里巴巴在電子商務方面的對手騰訊(Tencent)投資。該公司一直試圖從現存投資者和新投資者手中籌集資金，這輪籌資令其估值達到150億美元。不過，部分投資者擔心，阿里巴巴將股票打折出售，很可能令這家團購網站的估值更接近130億美元。

Alibaba was once among the largest shareholders in Meituan but was disappointed by the online group’s October merger with Tencent-backed Dianping, under which with the latter ploughed another $1bn into the merged entity.

阿里巴巴一度是美團(Meituan)的最大股東之一。然而這家互聯網企業10月份與騰訊投資的大衆點評(Dianping)合併，令阿里巴巴十分失望。通過這次併購，騰訊向合併後的實體再注入了10億美元。

Now, Alibaba is considering funnelling the proceeds from its stake sale into , a food delivery app that partly competes with the Meituan-Dianping — in a further attempt to take on Tencent, Baudu and other rivals in China’s fast-growing internet economy,

目前，阿里巴巴正在考慮將股票拋售所得資金注入餓了麼()，試圖在中國飛速增長的互聯網經濟中，與騰訊、百度(Baidu)及其他對手開展進一步競爭。餓了麼是一個送餐應用，與美團-大衆點評在一定程度上構成競爭關係。

A rapid proliferation of mobile internet buying services has started to give way to consolidation, as the model of offering big discounts has failed to win repeat business. Customers have tended to defect once bargains are withdrawn.

在超低折扣模式無法再贏來回頭客之際，移動互聯網購物服務的迅速繁榮，已開始讓位給相互間的整合。折扣項目一旦取消，客戶往往會改弦易轍。

This has exacerbated the turf wars, which are spilling over into adjacent industries. A few vendors have been informally asked by some Meituan sales teams to ditch Alipay, Alibaba’s payments system, in favour of Tencent’s alternative offering.

這種局面加劇了企業間的地盤之爭，它們正對鄰近的行業產生影響。部分美團銷售團隊已正式要求幾家供應商放棄阿里巴巴的支付系統支付寶(Alipay)，轉而採用騰訊的替代系統。

Meituan itself is asking its vendors to sign exclusivity arrangements with Alipay rather than the new Koubei platform that Alibaba launched several months ago.

美團自身正要求其供應商與支付寶而不是口碑網(Koubei)簽署排他性協定。口碑網是阿里巴巴在幾個月前推出的一個新平臺。

Further clashes are being set up by changes to the companies’ business models. For example, Meituan, which accounts for four out of every ten movie tickets sold in China, is now mulling a move into film distribution, where it would compete with Alibaba’s Ali Pictures. That has led Alibaba executives to tell investors that they consider Wang Xing, Meituan’s founder, “ungrateful”.

而各企業對商務模式的改革，正在引發進一步衝突。比如，目前中國每十張電影票裏，就有四張是美團網出售的，而美團網目前正考慮進入電影發行產業，這會和阿里巴巴的阿里影業(Ali Pictures)產生競爭。這令阿里巴巴的高管向投資者表示，他們認爲美團網創始人王興“忘恩負義”。

However, the domestic battles may at least yield bargains for new investors in the rival online services. These potentially include Tiger Global, the US investment fund, and Digital Sky Technologies, the venture capital firm run by early Facebook-backer Yuri Milner. They now have an opportunity to play the internet companies off against each other, to secure better terms.

不過，中國國內的競爭，至少會爲投資敵對互聯網公司的新投資者帶來有利的協議。這些新投資者可能會包括美國投資基金老虎環球基金(Tiger Global)，以及由Facebook早期投資者尤里猠爾納(Yuri Milner)創辦的風險投資公司數字天空技術(Digital Sky Technologies)。如今，它們有機會挑撥互聯網企業相互競爭，從而獲得更有利條款。

But that prospect is less welcome to some existing investors who committed a small amount to Meituan-Dianping’s new fundraising in the expectation of selling on their holdings, and earning a fee in the process.

不過，對於這種前景，部分現有投資者就沒那麼歡迎了。他們在美團-大衆點評的新一輪籌資中投資了小筆金額，希望能夠轉手賣出，從而獲取回報。