中國數字化消費何以領先世界大綱
China’s consumers are by no means the wealthiest in the world. But they are years ahead of their counterparts in many developed economies in terms of how they shop and pay for what they buy. In this, they are revolutionising the way consumer finance is conducted in the world’s second-biggest economy.
中國消費者無論如何也算不上全世界最富有的羣體。但在如何購物和如何支付方面，他們比很多發達國家的消費者超前很多年。在這方面，他們正在徹底改變消費金融在中國這個世界第二大經濟體的操作方式。
Like so many of the changes sweeping China, the uptake of internet and digital technologies has happened with head-spinning speed.
像很多席捲中國的變化一樣，互聯網和數字化技術以令人頭暈目眩的速度迅速興起。
As recently as 2000, a mere 1.7 per cent of mainland Chinese were online. Now, the country has more than 700m internet users – a penetration rate of more than 50 per cent.
就在2000年，中國內地還僅有1.7%的人上網。如今，中國有超過7億互聯網用戶——網絡普及率超過50%。
Visit any Chinese city these days, and you will find pretty much everyone toting a smartphone or tablet – or both. China’s e-commerce sales have soared from practically zero in 2003 to nearly $600bn last year, and now top those in the United States. Alibaba’s annual “Singles Day” shopping event generated a massive $17.8bn-worth of sales on its online marketplaces earlier this month, up 32 per cent from a year earlier.
如今到中國任何一座城市，你都會發現差不多每個人都隨身攜帶智能手機或平板電腦——或兩者都帶着。中國電商銷售額從2003年幾乎爲零的水平飆升至去年的將近6000億美元，如今已經超過了美國的電商銷售額。上月早些時候，阿里巴巴旗下的在線購物平臺在一年一度的雙十一購物節中創造了178億美元的龐大銷售額，同比增長32%。
Put another way, mainland China’s consumers – like those in many other Asian nations – have gone from (nearly) no-tech to high-tech within just a few years, largely bypassing clunky fixed-line telephony to leap into a world where and online shopping smartphone ownership have become the norm.
換句話說，短短几年間，中國內地消費者——和其他很多亞洲國家的消費者一樣——從（近乎）無科技跨越到了高科技，基本上跳過了笨重的固定電話時代，一躍進入了在線購物和擁有智能手機成爲常態的世界。
This transformation is explained by a powerful combination of factors.
這種轉變可以通過幾種因素的共同作用來解釋。
First, mainland China’s retail and telecommunications networks – again, like those in other developing economies – were for decades underdeveloped and inconvenient. So China’s consumers eagerly embraced the speed and choice that the internet and mobile phones brought to buying clothes, hotel stays or movie tickets, and swapping shopping tips with their friends.
首先，過去幾十年，中國內地零售和電信網——也像其他發展中經濟體一樣——不發達也不方便。因此中國消費者迅速接受了互聯網和移動電話爲在線購買衣服、預訂酒店或購買電影票、以及與朋友分享購物竅門帶來的快捷和豐富的選擇。
By now, a generation of Chinese has grown up with a different concept of “convenience”: Residents of, say, Shenzhen or Guangzhou are perfectly likely to buy items via the smartphone in their pocket, rather than walk one block to the store that stocks them.
如今，一代中國人已經帶着對“方便”的不同理解成長起來：比如說，深圳或廣州的居民完全有可能通過裝在兜裏的智能手機來購買商品，而無需穿過一個街區去商店購買。
This is the world that anyone doing business in China needs to adapt to: an e-commerce environment that is one of the most developed in the world, and that is growing rapidly. Research company eMarketer estimates that China e-commerce sales will hit nearly $900bn this year – nearly half the global total – and more than $2.4tn by 2020. Already, 55.5 per cent of that is done via mobile devices; by 2020, that will have risen to 68 per cent, according to eMarketer.
所有想在中國做生意的人都需要適應這個世界最發達並且仍然在迅速發展的電商環境。研究公司eMarketer預計，今年中國電商銷售額將達到近9000億美元——差不多是全球電商銷售總額的一半——到2020年將超過2.4萬億美元。據eMarketer的數據，其中已經有55.5%的銷售額是通過移動設備完成；到2020年，這一比例將升至68%。
Meanwhile, the mainland authorities want to continue to develop the Chinese economy, and have supported the build-out of internet-related technologies.
與此同時，希望繼續發展中國經濟的中國內地當局一直支持發展與互聯網相關的技術。
China’s internet and mobile revolution is perhaps most visible in the increasingly affluent and vibrant Pearl River Delta, which is home to high-tech corporate giants like Huawei Technologies and Tencent. Internet penetration in Guangdong province, where the Delta is located, is well above the national average. For example: there are 78m internet users in Guangdong, nearly three-quarters of the population.
中國的互聯網和移動革命或許在日益富裕和充滿活力的珠三角最爲明顯，這裏是華爲(Huawei Technologies)和騰訊(Tencent)等高科技巨頭的大本營。廣東省（珠三角所在地）的互聯網普及率遠遠超過全國平均水平。例如：廣東省有7800萬互聯網用戶，佔到該省總人口的近四分之三。
All this has massive implications for the financial and e-commerce sectors in China, which have raced to adapt to Chinese consumers’ ravenous appetite for digital innovation.
這一切對於中國的金融和電商行業意義重大；這兩個行業一直快速發展，以適應中國消費者對數字創新的貪婪胃口。
Just as buying behaviour has changed from traditional over-the-counter to online/mobile, so too financial interaction is rapidly becoming paperless, wired and digital.
就在購買行爲從傳統的櫃檯交易變爲線上或移動交易之際，財務互動也迅速變得無紙化、網絡化和數字化。
Alibaba, for instance, has capitalised on the popularity of its own online marketplaces by creating its own payment system, Alipay. In 2015, Alipay had 451m active users conducting on average 153m transactions per day. By comparison, PayPal’s 180m active users conducted just 16 million transactions a day.
例如，阿里巴巴通過建立自己的支付系統“支付寶”(Alipay)來利用其在線市場的高人氣。2015年，支付寶擁有4.51億活躍用戶，每天平均完成1.53億筆交易。相比之下，Paypal只有1.8億活躍客戶，平均每天僅完成1600萬筆交易。
And Tencent in 2014 set up an electronic wallet – which allows people-to-people payments via mobile phones – for users of its massively popular social messaging apps.
2014年，騰訊爲其人氣極高的社交消息傳送應用開通了電子錢包功能，允許用戶通過手機實現相互支付。
The uptake of such technologies has been immense.
這類科技一直普及迅速。
Within just 72 hours of ApplePay’s launch in mainland China in February, 3m payment cards had been registered to the service. That’s three times the total registered in the US.
今年2月，ApplePay登陸中國內地的72小時內，就有300萬張支付卡綁定了該服務。這是美國綁定量的3倍。
More than 410m Chinese now regularly use e-payment methods – nearly 90 per cent of them via mobile devices – according to official data.
根據官方數據顯示，如今超過4.1億中國人定期使用電子支付方式，其中近90%的人是通過移動設備實現電子支付的。
Traditional banks also are responding to China’s e-commerce/e-payment ecosystem, and are rushing to introduce new digital tools for their customers.
傳統銀行業也在對中國電子商務及電子支付的生態系統作出反應，競相對客戶推出新的數字化工具。
Virtual teller machines, for example, allow customers to interact with bank staff by video, scan documents and provide e-signatures, meaning that things like opening an account becomes simpler and quicker.
例如，虛擬櫃員機允許客戶通過視頻與銀行員工互動、掃描文件並提供電子簽名，這意味着開戶等業務變得更加簡單快捷。
Mobile apps are increasingly common and making it easier for customers to check their accounts or make transactions, wherever they happen to be.
手機應用日益普及，使顧客更容易隨時隨地進行賬戶查詢或交易。
Thumbprint ID and voice-recognition technologies are already available and will before long be commonplace, adding an extra layer of security and convenience for online and mobile customers.
指紋識別和聲音識別技術已經出現，要不了多久就會普及，爲在線和手機客戶提供額外的安全和便捷。
“Bricks and mortar” bank branches and people-to-people interaction is still highly valued, although their role is rapidly changing to focus on meeting customers’ wealth management and more complex needs. Paperless, branch-less “clicks and apps” banking allows banks to service most of their customers’ transactional needsmore efficiently and quickly, around the clock – whether they are in Shenzhen, Shanghai, rural Sichuan, or on holiday in Thailand.
“實體”銀行網點和人與人面對面的互動仍然受到高度重視，儘管它們的角色正迅速變爲專注於滿足客戶對財富管理和較複雜業務的需求。無紙化、不用去櫃檯的“點擊應用”服務，使得銀行可以24小時更高效、更快捷地服務於大多數客戶的交易需求，無論他們是身處深圳、上海、四川農村，還是正在泰國度假。
Few people could have imagined the changes sweeping China’s retail and banking scene just five years ago. The next five years are sure to bring still more change. Banks and retailers will need to be nimble, and anticipate the future needs and preferences of China’s 1.37bn shoppers. Those who get it right will find the size of the prize is immense.
就在五年前，還幾乎無人可以想象如今席捲中國零售和銀行業的變革。接下來的五年必然還會帶來更多變革。銀行和零售商要靈活應變，提前預測13.7億中國購物者的未來需求和偏好。那些預測正確的人會發現，獎勵是豐厚的。
