The marketplace

市場

E-commerce profits may become harder to make

電子商務(wù)的利潤可能會(huì)變得更難獲得

The Amazons and Alibabas are not as impregnable as they might seem

亞馬遜和阿里巴巴并不像它們看起來那樣堅(jiān)不可摧

Mar 11th 2021 |?

THE E-COMMERCE?company that retailers talk about most these days is neither Amazon, the American juggernaut, nor Alibaba, China’s biggest. It is Pinduoduo (PDD), a Chinese firm that started in 2015 as an online food supplier, but whose success has driven its market value above $200bn. Last year it was China’s fastest-growing internet stock, rising by 330%.

如今，零售商們談?wù)撟疃嗟碾娮由虅?wù)公司既不是美國巨頭亞馬遜(Amazon)，也不是中國最大的電子商務(wù)公司阿里巴巴(Alibaba)。而是拼多多(PDD)，一家成立于2015年的中國在線食品供應(yīng)商，但它的成功使其市值超過2000億美元。去年，它是中國增長最快的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)股票，上漲了330%。

詞匯

Juggernaut/主宰者

?

?

PDD?attracts attention for two reasons. One is its business model. David Liu, vice-president of strategy, explains that it has ridden the rise of Smartphone penetration in China to create an e-commerce experience in which people club together to buy products from robot vacuum-cleaners to bananas. During the pandemic this has expanded into a fast-growing business across thousands of towns and villages, in which PDD’s users gather to bid for shipments of local farm produce at bargain prices. Some term this “community group-buy”. Mr Liu calls it “interactive commerce”. It is one of the hottest parts of the Chinese internet.

拼多多引起人們的注意有兩個(gè)原因。其一是它的商業(yè)模式。該公司戰(zhàn)略副總裁劉大衛(wèi)(David Liu)解釋稱，該公司利用智能手機(jī)在中國普及率的上升，創(chuàng)造了一種電子商務(wù)體驗(yàn)，人們聚集在一起購買從機(jī)器人吸塵器到香蕉等各種產(chǎn)品。在疫情期間，這已發(fā)展成為一項(xiàng)遍及數(shù)千個(gè)城鎮(zhèn)和村莊的快速業(yè)務(wù)，在這些城鎮(zhèn)和村莊，拼多多的用戶聚集在一起，以低廉的價(jià)格競標(biāo)當(dāng)?shù)剞r(nóng)產(chǎn)品的運(yùn)輸。有人稱之為“社區(qū)團(tuán)購”。劉先生稱之為“互動(dòng)商務(wù)”。它是中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上最熱門的部分之一。

詞匯

Penetration/ 滲透；突破

Shipment/裝載的貨物

??

The second is the way PDD?has shattered the myth of an impregnable fortress surrounding the titans of online shopping. Until a few years ago, China’s e-commerce market seemed a two-way contest between Alibaba and JD.com, a rival platform. No longer. Elinor Leung of CLSA, a brokerage, expects PDD’s share of online retail in China to overtake that of JD?in 2021. She expects the number of users to surpass Alibaba. And although PDD?shells out huge subsidies to entice customers from poorer parts of China to its app, she thinks it may turn profitable this year.

第二，拼多多打破了圍繞著網(wǎng)上購物巨頭的堅(jiān)不可摧的堡壘的神話。直到幾年前，中國電子商務(wù)市場似乎還是阿里巴巴和京東(JD.com)之間的雙向競爭。不再。里昂證券(CLSA)的Elinor Leung預(yù)計(jì)，2021年拼多多在中國在線零售市場的份額將超過京東。她預(yù)計(jì)用戶數(shù)量將超過阿里巴巴。盡管拼多多支付了巨額補(bǔ)貼來吸引中國貧困地區(qū)的用戶使用其應(yīng)用程序，但她認(rèn)為該應(yīng)用程序今年可能會(huì)盈利。

詞匯

Impregnable/無法攻取的

?Brokerage/傭金；回扣；中間人業(yè)務(wù)

?

Remarkably, it has done this less by displacing its bigger rivals than by tapping parts of the market they have been unable to reach. Although online sales of groceries have rocketed during the pandemic, less than a tenth of the 8.1trn yuan ($1.25trn) farm-produce market is bought and sold digitally. “We are continuing to grow the pie,” says Mr Liu. That lesson applies elsewhere too. [這句話有歧義，刪了], there is opportunity for upstarts because e-commerce is at an early stage of development.

值得注意的是，它不是通過取代規(guī)模更大的競爭對(duì)手，而是利用它們無法觸及的部分市場。盡管在疫情期間，食品雜貨的網(wǎng)上銷售飆升，但在8.1萬億元(1.25萬億美元)的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品市場中，只有不到十分之一是通過數(shù)字方式進(jìn)行買賣的。劉先生表示:“我們正在繼續(xù)做大蛋糕?！边@個(gè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)也適用于其他地方。[這句話有歧義，刪了]，新貴們都有機(jī)會(huì)，因?yàn)殡娮由虅?wù)正處于發(fā)展的早期階段。

詞匯

?sew up/縫合，縫入

?

The issue of competition in China has convulsed share prices because of the actions of antitrust authorities. In November 2020 the State Administration for Market Regulation published draft guidelines for platform companies aimed at maintaining orderly competition. In December enforcement of the 2008 antitrust law was strengthened, leading to new investigations and fines. These have included scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions, community group-buy schemes, price-discounting and discrimination against competitors. Ms Leung wrote in January that the chance of a forced break-up of Chinese internet platforms is remote, because of its impact on industry, the economy and consumers. But she expects more regulation, especially over customer data.

不翻譯了，講國內(nèi)監(jiān)管的

詞匯

Convulse/震撼；使劇烈震動(dòng)

antitrust?/反壟斷的

Robin Zhu of Bernstein says the crackdown means tech platforms may have to restrain aggressive sales practices such as selling goods at huge discounts. That may reduce growth, but jobs and innovation plus their support for consumer spending argue in their favour. Alibaba seems the biggest target, but PDD?has also drawn fire. Alibaba is flying “closest to the sun”, Mr Zhu suggests, partly because of heat on its sister company, Ant Group. But he says up to a fifth of China’s retail sales flow through its doors. Chinese regulators stress their support for the platform economy, he notes, so a crackdown is unlikely to be devastating.

不翻譯了，講國內(nèi)監(jiān)管的

詞匯

?draw fire/受到抨擊

?

The rampant competition in China’s retail market suggests no platform, however large, can expect fully to dominate it. Alongside PDD, Alibaba, JD?and Meituan, a food-delivery firm, all target China’s lower-tier cities with community group-buy and other schemes. Alibaba’s Taobao Live platform has led the growth of live-streaming and video, in which influencers sell branded goods at huge discounts. But the explosive live-streaming market has attracted vigorous competitors, such as Douyin, sister to TikTok, a global social-media app. WeChat, part of a super-app owned by Alibaba’s rival Tencent, allows brands to sell on its site, and gives customers instant access to digital payments. Everyone is jostling for a share of online advertising. This is especially true in live-streaming, where it is easy to measure the bang for an advertiser’s buck through real-time data, says Michael Jais of Launchmetrics, a fashion-and-beauty analytics company.

中國零售市場的激烈競爭表明，無論多大的平臺(tái)，都不可能完全占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位。除了拼多多，阿里巴巴、京東和送餐公司美團(tuán)都在中國二三線城市推出了社區(qū)團(tuán)購和其他計(jì)劃。阿里巴巴旗下的淘寶直播平臺(tái)引領(lǐng)了直播和視頻的增長，在這些平臺(tái)上，網(wǎng)紅們以巨大的折扣銷售品牌商品。但爆炸式增長的直播市場吸引了活躍的競爭對(duì)手，比如全球社交媒體應(yīng)用抖音（TikTok）的姊妹抖音（Douyin）。微信是阿里巴巴的競爭對(duì)手騰訊(Tencent)旗下超級(jí)應(yīng)用的一部分，它讓各類品牌可以在其網(wǎng)站上銷售（估計(jì)說的是微店），并可以讓客戶即時(shí)接入數(shù)字支付。每個(gè)人都在爭奪在線廣告的份額。來自時(shí)尚美容分析公司Launchmetrics的Michael Jais說，在直播中尤其如此，通過實(shí)時(shí)數(shù)據(jù)可以很容易地衡量廣告商的收入。

詞匯

?rampant /猖獗的；蔓延的

?Jostle/爭奪；推擠

?

In Europe and America, by contrast, the view is that the game has been won by Amazon. The gap between Amazon’s e-commerce market share in America and that of Walmart, the next in line, is far bigger than Alibaba’s lead over the number two in China. Though Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik reckons Amazon earns little profit on its core retail business, its fast-growing cloud and online-advertising arms generate huge margins that it can plough back into retail expansion. It had $42bn of cash on its balance-sheet at the end of 2020. Marc-André Kamel of Bain, a consultancy, says Amazon may spend $100bn more on information technology over the next five years than each of the world’s top ten traditional retailers. It will also continue to invest heavily in logistics, putting more pressure on the likes of UPS?and FedEx.

相比之下，在歐洲和美國，人們認(rèn)為亞馬遜已經(jīng)贏得了這場游戲。亞馬遜在美國的電子商務(wù)市場份額與接下來的沃爾瑪(Walmart)之間的差距，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)大于阿里巴巴在中國的領(lǐng)先優(yōu)勢(shì)。盡管伯恩斯坦的Mark Shmulik認(rèn)為亞馬遜在其核心零售業(yè)務(wù)上幾乎沒有利潤，但其快速增長的云計(jì)算和在線廣告部門產(chǎn)生了巨大的利潤，它可以將這些利潤用于零售擴(kuò)張。截至2020年底，它的資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表上有420億美元現(xiàn)金。咨詢公司貝恩(Bain)的Marc-André Kamel表示，未來5年，亞馬遜在信息技術(shù)方面的投入可能比全球十大傳統(tǒng)零售商都多1000億美元。它還將繼續(xù)大力投資物流，給聯(lián)合包裹（UPS，美國一快遞公司）和聯(lián)邦快遞(FedEx)等公司帶來更大壓力。

?

Like Alibaba in China, Amazon has drawn regulatory heat. In October 2020 a congressional committee in America said it was looking at overhauling antitrust laws to counter the power of the big tech platforms. It drew attention to the dominance that Amazon has over third-party sellers on its marketplace, and its practice of selling its own goods in competition with them. In November the European Commission accused Amazon of violating competition laws by using non-public data from third-party sellers to benefit its own retail business.

和中國的阿里巴巴一樣，亞馬遜也受到了監(jiān)管部門的關(guān)注。2020年10月，美國國會(huì)的一個(gè)委員會(huì)表示，他們正在考慮徹底改革反壟斷法，以對(duì)抗大型科技平臺(tái)的力量。它讓人們注意到，亞馬遜在其市場上對(duì)第三方賣家的主導(dǎo)地位，以及它在與第三方賣家競爭時(shí)銷售自己商品的做法。11月，歐盟委員會(huì)指控亞馬遜違反了競爭法，使用第三方賣家的非公開數(shù)據(jù)為自己的零售業(yè)務(wù)謀利。

詞匯

?Overhaul/全面改革（制度、方法等）

Amazon says none of this is true. Although it stands tall online in America, by total sales Walmart is larger. Amazon dominates categories like books, but in groceries it is one of many. Trustbusters may have their eye on how it sells products on its website to compete with those sold by third parties, but this is little different from big retailers selling own-label products. Amazon also has political capital. Brian Nowak of Morgan Stanley says the jobs it provides, its support for Small and medium-sized firms, and its technological prowess may all work in its favour.

亞馬遜說這些都不是真的。盡管亞馬遜在美國的網(wǎng)絡(luò)銷售額很高，但從總銷售額來看，沃爾瑪比它更大。亞馬遜在圖書等類別中占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位，但在雜貨領(lǐng)域，它只是眾多類別之一。反托拉斯者可能會(huì)關(guān)注該公司如何在其網(wǎng)站上銷售產(chǎn)品，以與第三方銷售的產(chǎn)品競爭，但這與銷售自有品牌產(chǎn)品的大型零售商沒有什么不同。亞馬遜還有政治資本。摩根斯坦利的Brian Nowak說，它提供的就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)，對(duì)中小企業(yè)的支持，以及它的技術(shù)實(shí)力都可能對(duì)它有利。

詞匯

Trustbuster/反托拉斯法(反壟斷法)的執(zhí)行人（或機(jī)構(gòu)）

?

?

The recent decision by Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, to hand the chief executive job to Andy Jassy will not end the regulatory fire. But if the pressure rises, it could spin out Amazon Web Services, the world’s biggest cloud-computing company. As in China, as long as the pie is growing, new challengers may emerge. Some will come from big tech. Many online retailers pay Facebook and Google for their products to be found via search. Online advertising remains the strongest part of their businesses, but Facebook and Google are adding sales channels. Facebook has 160m Small firms on its site. In 2020 it let them set up a single online store on its app and on Instagram, its sister platform. Last year Google scrapped commissions for retailers selling directly from its site.

亞馬遜(Amazon)創(chuàng)始人杰夫·貝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)最近將首席執(zhí)行官一職交給安迪·雅西(Andy Jassy)的決定，不會(huì)結(jié)束監(jiān)管之火。但如果壓力上升，它可能會(huì)分出全球最大的云計(jì)算公司亞馬遜網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)(Amazon Web Services)。就像在中國一樣，只要蛋糕還在增長，新的挑戰(zhàn)者就可能出現(xiàn)。其中一些將來自大型科技公司。許多在線零售商向Facebook和谷歌支付費(fèi)用，以便他們的產(chǎn)品能通過搜索被找到。在線廣告仍然是它們業(yè)務(wù)中最強(qiáng)大的部分，但Facebook和谷歌正在增加銷售渠道。Facebook網(wǎng)站上有一億六千萬小公司。2020年，它允許他們?cè)谄鋺?yīng)用程序和姊妹平臺(tái)Instagram上建立一個(gè)單獨(dú)的在線商店。去年，谷歌取消了零售商在其網(wǎng)站上直接銷售的傭金。

詞匯

Commission/傭金；服務(wù)費(fèi)

Another source of competition will come from changes in online shopping. Smartphones may overtake personal computers in America and Europe for e-commerce. That will boost the popularity of “social commerce”, or commerce via social media and video. TikTok, a medium for promoting brand awareness, may let its most popular celebrities market products on its site, according to the Financial Times. The battle will extend to logistics and payment services. In America Amazon delivers more of its own parcels than the US?Postal Service. But rivals like Walmart are developing subscription services like Amazon Prime that offer free delivery and other perks.

競爭的另一個(gè)來源將來自網(wǎng)上購物的變化。在美國和歐洲，智能手機(jī)在電子商務(wù)方面可能會(huì)超過個(gè)人電腦。這將推動(dòng)“社交商務(wù)”的普及，即通過社交媒體和視頻進(jìn)行的商務(wù)。據(jù)《金融時(shí)報(bào)》報(bào)道，作為提升品牌知名度的媒介，TikTok可能會(huì)讓旗下最受歡迎的名人在其網(wǎng)站上推銷產(chǎn)品。這場戰(zhàn)斗將延伸到物流和支付服務(wù)。在美國，亞馬遜自己遞送的包裹比美國郵政服務(wù)的還要多。但沃爾瑪?shù)雀偁帉?duì)手正在開發(fā)亞馬遜Prime等訂閱服務(wù)，提供免費(fèi)送貨和其他優(yōu)惠。

詞匯

Perk/特殊待遇

?

Tax is another threat. In both East and West, tax authorities have their eye on the digital giants. In 2020 Amazon saw a big increase in its tax liability, yet the administration of Joe Biden is considering imposing higher taxes on America’s most profitable companies. European governments are levying digital-services taxes on tech firms in an effort to force them to pay more where their consumers are located. Some have drawn attention to the low business rates that e-commerce platforms pay on out-of-town warehouses, compared with those of retailers on the high street. Even China plans to raise taxes on its biggest tech firms.

稅收是另一個(gè)威脅。在東方和西方，稅務(wù)當(dāng)局都把目光投向了數(shù)字巨頭。2020年，亞馬遜的納稅義務(wù)大幅增加，但Joe Biden政府正在考慮對(duì)美國最賺錢的公司征收更高的稅。歐洲各國政府正在向科技公司征收數(shù)字服務(wù)稅，以迫使它們?cè)谙M(fèi)者所在的地方支付更多費(fèi)用。一些人注意到，與商業(yè)街上的零售商相比，電子商務(wù)平臺(tái)在城外倉庫支付的營業(yè)稅較低。甚至中國也計(jì)劃對(duì)其最大的科技公司增稅。

?

Ultimately, higher taxes, greater regulatory scrutiny and rising competition may make profits in e-commerce harder to come by. But even if they end up regulated like utilities, few will shed a tear. The e-commerce giants have had a fabulous run so far.

最終，更高的稅收、更嚴(yán)格的監(jiān)管審查和日益激烈的競爭可能會(huì)讓電子商務(wù)領(lǐng)域的利潤更難獲得。但即使它們最終像公用事業(yè)公司一樣受到監(jiān)管，也不會(huì)有人掉淚。到目前為止，這兩家電子商務(wù)巨頭的表現(xiàn)都非常出色。

詞匯

?Fabulous/ 難以置信的；傳說的