译者按：时代变了。中国的创业公司不再只是胸怀祖国，而是敢于放眼世界。本文介绍的几家公司都有着傲人的成绩——已经和迪拜签署载客无人机服务协议的亿航、已进入发达国家市场的DIY机器人套件公司Makeblock、把中国的商业模式带向世界的DotC United、在欧美青少年中风行的Musical.ly以及豪气地收购了被仿制者赛格威的Ninebot。我们需要更多这样的公司来从“中国制造”转为“中国创造”，从“山寨中国”走向“创新中国”。
本文译自《经济学人》3月11日刊。

载客无人机

Rise of the micro-multinational

Chinese and overseas

中国人和海外市场

GUANGZHOU
A new breed of startup is entering foreign markets early on
新型创业公司一开始就在进入国外市场

1. ON THE outskirts of Guangzhou, a city in southern China, lies an abandoned park filled with crumbling replicas of the wonders of the world. To the right are fading golden spires that are meant to represent Angkor Wat, a temple in Cambodia. On the left, a row of dusty Egyptian statues towers over a desolate Greek amphitheatre. Adding to the surrealism, the tops of the trees have been lopped off and a buzzing noise fills the night air.

lopped off: to cut something, especially branches from a tree, usually with a single strong movement = chop, chop off
e.g. Workmen have lopped off more branches in an effort to save the tree.

1）在中国南方的一座城市广州的郊区，有一个废弃的公园，里面满是世界奇迹景观残破的复制品。右边褪色的金黄尖顶本来代表着柬埔寨的吴哥窟寺庙。在左边，一排满是灰尘的埃及雕像耸立在一座废弃的希腊露天剧场。更加超现实主义的是，（四周）树的顶部已经砍掉了，一个嗡嗡的噪音充斥着夜空。

2. This strange place is the testing ground for EHang, a Chinese startup that makes drones. (The treetops were chopped off, an employee explains, because drones kept crashing into them.) Hu Huazhi, EHang’s founder, is beaming. His firm has just set a world record for a drone-swarm light show in Guangzhou, where it flew a thousand small drones in perfect unison. Next it plans to launch an autonomous flying-taxi service with a giant drone big enough to take a person (pictured). Dubai has just signed a deal with EHang to launch drone taxis this summer.
   2）这个奇怪的地方是亿航的试验场，这是一家中国制造无人机的初创公司。（一个员工解释说，树梢被砍掉是因为无人机一直撞到它们。）亿航创始人胡华智正开心大笑。他的公司不久前在广州创下了一个无人机群灯光秀的世界纪录，在灯光秀上它让一千个小无人机以完美的一致飞行。接下来，它计划用大到能载一个人的巨大无人机推出自动飞行出租车服务（如图）。迪拜刚刚与亿航签署了一项协议，今年夏天推出无人机出租车。

3. EHang is an example of a new kind of Chinese firm, labelled “micro-multinationals” by some. In the past, Chinese consumer-goods firms focused on the home market; startups were particularly inward-looking. The rare exceptions to this rule— firms like Lenovo, Haier and Huawei— were giant technology companies with deep pockets. That made sense: the mainland economy was growing at double-digit rates and China’s rising middle classes were eager for new products. Marketing and distribution were easier to get right on the mainland than overseas.

deep pockets: a lot of money

3）亿航是一种新型中国公司的例子，被一些人称为“微型跨国公司”。过去，中国消费品公司专注于国内市场；初创公司尤其专注国内。少数像联想、海尔和华为这样的例外是非常有钱的大型科技公司。这是有道理的：中国内地经济以两位数的速度增长，中国不断增加的中产阶级渴望新产品。市场和渠道分销在大陆比在国外更容易。

4. But times are changing: more Chinese startups want to go global from the start. Often founders are mainlanders who have worked or studied abroad. In some cases, says Benjamin Joffe of Hax, a hardware “accelerator” in Shenzhen, the startups may have little choice but to widen their horizons. Their products may simply be too innovative and expensive for China’s frugal consumers.
   4）但时代正在改变：更多的中国创业者想从一开始就走向全球。通常创始人是在国外工作或学习的大陆人。深圳的硬件创业“加速器”Hax的Benjamin Joffe说，在某些情况下，创业公司可能别无选择，只能扩大视野。他们的产品对中国精打细算的消费者来说可能太创新且太昂贵了。

5. One such firm is Makeblock, a startup based in Shenzhen that sells do-it-yourself robot kits. Jasen Wang, its founder, says he went “global” from day one. His firm has quickly entered developed markets. Foreign sales (including to such big retailers as America’s Radio Shack) make up nearly three-quarters of the firm’s total revenues.
   5）一家这样的公司是Makeblock，一家位于深圳的创业公司，销售可DIY的机器人工具包。它的创始人Jasen Wang说，他从第一天开始就“全球化”。他的公司已迅速进入发达国家市场。国外销售（包括销往美国的Radio Shack等大型零售商）占该公司总收入的近四分之三。

6. The fact that the mobile internet is particularly advanced in China means the mainland can throw up truly inventive new business models, says Shi Yi, a serial entrepreneur. DotC United, his company, looks for models on the mainland and then adapts them for foreign markets. “We are like Rocket Internet, but in reverse,” he declares, referring to a German e-commerce conglomerate that takes business models from advanced markets and adapts them for developing ones. For example, Wifi Master Key is a Chinese sharing-economy app that lists details of private and public wifi networks around the world. Swift WiFi, Mr Shi’s homage to it, now has over 150m users in 50 countries.

throw up: BrE to produce problems, ideas, results etc
e.g. The arrangement may throw up problems in other areas.
Rocket Internet：一家专门克隆成功的电商模式，快速复制到全球新兴市场的德国公司
homage: Homage is respect shown towards someone or something you admire, or to a person in authority.
e.g. Palace has released two marvellous films that pay homage to our literary heritage.

6）移动互联网在中国特别先进的事实意味着大陆可以打造真正创造性的新商业模式，连续创业家石一说。 他的公司DotC United在大陆寻找模式，然后改造它们以适应国外市场。 “我们就像Rocket Internet，但反过来做，”他声称，指的是一家从先进市场学习商业模式并为发展中国家改造它们的德国电子商务集团。例如，Wifi Master Key是一个中国共享经济的应用程序，列出了世界各地的私人和公共WiFi网络的详细信息。 Swift WiFi是石先生对Wifi Master Key的致意之作，现在在50个国家有超过1.5亿用户。

7. Musical.ly is another micro-multinational. Valued at about $500m, it is one of the most fashionable apps among Western youngsters. More than 100m teenagers use it to share short videos of themselves lip-synching to popular songs. Teens and parents alike may be surprised to discover that this trendy app is run by Chinese engineers, working round the clock in an open-plan office in Shanghai in the company of the firm’s mascot, a small white dog named Mu Mu.

lip-synch: to move your lips at the same time as a recording is being played, in order to pretend that you are singing or saying the words
around the clock also round the clock: BrE all day and all night without stopping
e.g. Kim has been working round the clock to finish it in time.

7）Musical.ly是另一家微型跨国公司。估值约5亿美元，它是西方青少年中最时尚的应用之一。超过1亿的青少年使用它来分享自己给流行歌曲对口型的短视频。青少年和家长都可能会惊讶地发现，这个时尚的应用程序是由中国工程师运营的，他们在上海开放式办公室全天候工作，公司的吉祥物是一只叫Mu Mu的小白狗。

8. Alex Zhu, Musical.ly’s co-founder, reckons his firm can become “Instagram for music videos”. Unlike other micro-multinationals, Musical.ly did give the local market a go but has flopped at home. Mr Zhu notes that Chinese schoolchildren typically have hours of homework and tutoring after school. They did not use his firm’s app. In contrast, he observes, “American kids have lots of free time to play and experiment with social media after 3pm.”

go: an attempt to do something
e.g. I'd thought about it for some time and decided to give it a go (=try to do something) .

8）Musical.ly的联合创始人Alex 朱认为他的公司可以成为音乐视频的“Instagram”。与其他微型跨国公司不同，Musical.ly确实在本土市场试了一下，但在国内却一败涂地。朱先生指出，中国学校里的孩子通常在放学后有几个小时的家庭作业和辅导。他们不会去使用他公司的应用程序。相比之下，他观察到，“美国孩子在下午3点后有大量的空闲时间玩和尝试社交媒体。”

9. In the past, fear of getting sued over intellectual property (IP) kept many Chinese firms at home. The new micro--multinationals are tackling the issue head-on. Ninebot, a Beijing-based firm, makes better versions of the clunky, self-balancing scooters that were invented by America’s Segway. Confronted with an IP lawsuit from the latter firm, Ninebot simply bought Segway. Now, argues Mr Joffe, it innovates “on top of Segway”, which was stagnating, and the combined firm’s strategy will be global.

face/tackle/meet sth head-on: if someone deals with a problem head-on, they do not try to avoid it, but deal with it in a direct and determined way
e.g. The police are trying to tackle car crime head-on

9）过去，对知识产权（IP）起诉的恐惧使许多中国公司只在国内发展。新的微型跨国公司正在直面去解决这个问题。 Ninebot，一家位于北京的公司，制造了笨重的、自平衡滑板车的更好版本，这种车是由美国的赛格威公司发明的。面对来自后者的知识产权诉讼，Ninebot干脆买下了赛格威。现在，Joffe先生认为，它在曾停滞不前的“赛格威之上”加以创新，而且合并后的公司的战略将是全球性的。

10. Neil Shen of Sequoia, an American venture-capital firm, reckons this all adds up to a trend. Slowing growth in China means the domestic market is less attractive than it used to be. A younger generation of founders unafraid of going global is in charge. David Cogman of McKinsey, a consultancy, who works with many Chinese entrepreneurs, recalls that a decade ago it was almost unheard of for small, consumer-oriented firms to look abroad. When he advises companies today, it is “a regular conversation”.
    10）美国风险投资公司红杉资本的沈南鹏认为，这一切慢慢积累导致了一种趋势。中国正在放缓的增长意味着国内市场的吸引力不如以往。不害怕走向全球的年轻一代创始人正在掌权。咨询公司麦肯锡（McKinsey）的David Cogman曾与许多中国企业家合作，他回忆说十年前，面向消费者的小型公司寻求国外市场几乎闻所未闻。当他今天为（许多）公司提供建议时，这变成了“常规谈话”。

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尝试翻译下面的句子：
1、 他的公司不久前在广州创下了一个无人机群灯光秀的世界纪录，在灯光秀上它让一千个小无人机以完美的一致飞行。

2、移动互联网在中国特别先进的事实意味着大陆可以打造真正创造性的新商业模式

3、青少年和家长都可能会惊讶地发现，这个时尚的应用程序是由中国工程师运营的，他们在上海开放式办公室全天候工作。

4、与其他微型跨国公司不同，Musical.ly确实在本土市场试了一下，但在国内却一败涂地。

5、过去，对知识产权（IP）起诉的恐惧使许多中国公司只在国内发展。新的微型跨国公司正在直面去解决这个问题。

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原文出处：经济学人杂志

译者：七呵夫

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