【按】本文选自10月28日《经济学人》特别报道，分析了中国几大正在飞速发展的电子商务公司。读完后你将了解：

• 从全球角度看中国的电子商务发展水平如何？
• 阿里巴巴的各项业务及发展现状如何？
• 主要对手京东和腾讯如何与阿里展开竞争？

建议阅读时间15-20分钟。

• 本文食用方法——建议阅读三遍：
• 第一遍速读，不看注释和翻译，直接阅读原文，遇见生词（大部分已经标粗）猜一下意思或者跳过，不要因为停下了查词而影响了阅读的流畅性。
• 第二遍精读，不认识的词看段后注释和解析，建议多看英文释义（这样才能理解得更全面、准确同时能锻炼阅读能力），对照中文翻译看看自己是否有理解错误的地方。
• 第三遍通读，整体再回顾一遍，在上下文语境中复习刚刚认识的词汇和表达。
  有问题欢迎留言讨论~

攻守道

The everywhere stores

Online retail is booming in China

Alibaba demonstrates the benefits of breadth

Oct 26th 2017

1. ON AN AVERAGE morning a young urban professional anywhere in the world might wake up, check her social-media feed and order a cab on her mobile. While sitting in traffic, she might use her phone to purchase groceries and watch a video, and later to pay the driver and buy a coffee. Once at work, she might make an online payment to reimburse a friend for a concert ticket. So far, so normal. But if that young urbanite were living in China, every one of these activities could have been powered either by Alibaba or a company in which it has a stake.

professional: a person who does a job that needs special training and a high level of education
reimburse: to pay back money to sb which they have spent or lost 偿还；补偿

1. 在一个普通的早晨, 世界上任何地方的一个年轻都市职场人可能在醒来后, 先检查她的社交媒体更新, 并在她的手机上叫一辆出租车。当她坐在车上, 她可能会用她的手机去买杂货和看视频, 然后再用手机付钱给司机并买杯咖啡。一旦开始上班, 她可能会做一个通过网上支付偿还朋友帮她买的演唱会门票。到目前为止, 一切都很正常。但是, 如果这个年轻的城市居民生活在中国, 这些活动中的每一个都可能是由阿里巴巴或其占股的某家公司所驱动的。

2. E-commerce in China is sweeping the board. Last year online sales in China hit $366bn, almost as much as in America and Britain combined. Growth has slowed from its eye-popping pace of a few years ago, but Euromonitor predicts that online shopping’s share of total retail will rise to 24% by 2020; Goldman Sachs, whose forecast includes sales from one consumer to another, puts the figure at 31%. That will mean selling more to existing shoppers and gaining new ones in smaller cities and towns. About 80% of adults in China’s biggest cities already shop online.

sweep the board: If someone sweeps the board in a competition or election, they win nearly everything that it is possible to win. （在竞赛或选举中）取得压倒性胜利，大获全胜
e.g. Spain swept the board in boys' team competitions.西班牙队在男子团体比赛中大获全胜。
eye-popping: surprise or wonder; amazing; astonishing

2. 中国的电子商务正在大获全胜。去年, 中国的在线销售额达到了3660亿美元, 几乎和美国和英国的总和。几年前令人瞠目的增长速度已经放缓, 但欧睿预测, 到 2020年, 在线购物占总零售的份额将上升到 24%；高盛, 其预测包括从消费者到消费者（C to C）的销售额, 把这个数字提到了31%。这将意味着向现有的购物者出售更多的商品, 并在小城镇中获得新的消费者。在中国最大的城市中, 大约80% 的成年人已经在网上购物了。

3. Alibaba, the company leading this transition, makes most of its money from advertising. But it has permeated consumers’ lives in ways not yet seen in America or Europe. Westerners should picture a combination of Amazon, Twitter, eBay and PayPal, but broader. Alibaba’s creation story is well polished. Jack Ma, its founder and chairman, was born in Hangzhou in 1964, the same year as Amazon’s Mr Bezos, and perfected his English by offering free tours of his home town to foreigners. His first visit to America in 1995 inspired him to set up an internet business in China. After a few false starts he founded Alibaba in 1999 to help Chinese manufacturers sell to foreign buyers. He also established Taobao, where independent sellers can list products, and Tmall, an e-commerce site for big brands. Much more followed.

permeat: (of an idea, an influence, a feeling, etc. 思想、影响、感情等) to affect every part of sth 感染；传播；扩散：
*e.g. a belief that permeates all levels of society 深入社会各阶层的看法 *

3. 领导这一转型的公司阿里巴巴赚的大部分钱来自广告。但它却以美国或欧洲未曾见过的方式渗透进消费者的生活。西方人应该想象（阿里巴巴是）亚马逊、推特、易趣和贝宝的结合, 但业务更广。阿里巴巴的成长故事很完美。马云, 其创始人及董事长, 1964年出生于杭州, 与亚马逊的贝佐斯先生同年。他通过为来他家乡旅游的外国人当免费导游完善了他的英语。1995年他第一次访问美国启发他在中国建立了一家互联网公司。在开始试错了几次之后, 他于1999年创办了阿里巴巴, 帮助中国制造商出售产品给外国买家。他还建立了淘宝, 在这个网站上独立卖家可以列出产品, 还有天猫, 一个为大品牌而设的电子商务网站。更多的公司随后被创立。

4. Alibaba’s vertiginous rise was powered by hundreds of millions of increasingly well-off Chinese coming online, and helped along by a dearth of well-established incumbents. For example, its online marketplace required a reliable way to make payments in a country where credit cards were still rare. So Alibaba created Alipay, a digital payments system that held a buyer’s money until he received his order and was happy with it. It was spun out into an affiliate, Ant Financial, in 2014. Alipay is now used by about 520m people, not just to shop on Taobao or Tmall but to pay bills, buy lunch or send money to family. Amazon has nothing of this kind. Most American and European consumers have stuck with their tried-and-trusted credit cards. Last year Alipay had 2.5 times as many users as PayPal and more than 11 times as many as Apple Pay. And new services are still being added.

vertiginous: causing a feeling of vertigo 引起眩晕的 = dizzying
well-off: having a lot of money 富有；富裕 = rich ：
e.g. a well-off family 富裕家庭
help along: to make a process or activity happen more quickly or easily
e.g. She asked a few questions to help the conversation along.
incumbents: Incumbent comes from the Latin word incumbens, which means lying in or leaning on, but came to mean holding a position
spun out: to prolong or extend 使延长，使延伸
tried and tested / trusted (BrE)(NAmE tried and true): that you have used or relied on in the past successfully 经过考验的；可靠的；可信赖的：
e.g. a tried and tested method for solving the problem 解决这个问题的可靠办法
stick with: If you stick with something, you do not change to something else. 坚持(做…)

4. 阿里巴巴令人眩晕的的崛起是由数亿越来越富裕的中国人上网而驱动的, 同时也因为缺乏成熟的 现成对手而发展地更快。例如, 它的在线市场需要一个可靠的方式以在这个信用卡（当时）仍然罕见的国家进行支付。因此, 阿里巴巴创立了支付宝（一个数字支付系统）持有买方的钱, 直到他收到货品并对其满意（才把钱打给卖家）。它在2014年被拓展成了一个子公司——蚂蚁金融。支付宝现在被约5.2亿人使用, 不仅是在淘宝或天猫上购物, 而且用来支付账单、 购买午餐或寄钱给家人。亚马逊没有这种类型的业务。大多数美国和欧洲的消费者仍坚持用他们可靠的信用卡。去年, 支付宝的用户数是贝宝（ PayPal） 的2.5 倍, 是苹果支付的11倍多。而且新的服务还在不断增加。

5. Alibaba’s online marketplaces are also expanding. The company not only sells all manner of goods but has now moved into health care and services. Ali Health sells medicines online. Mr Zhang, Alibaba’s CEO, recently announced a partnership with Marriott, the world’s biggest hotel chain. His company has also bought or taken stakes in other firms to extend its reach. It owns Youku, a video-streaming site, and has invested in Weibo, a Twitter-like social-media company with 361m users, as well as Didi, a ride-sharing service. If a consumer likes the dress worn by an actress seen on Youku, she can instantly buy it through Tmall.

If you refer to all manner of objects or people, you are talking about objects or people of many different kinds. 各种各样的;形形色色的

5. 阿里巴巴的网上市场也在扩大。该公司不仅销售形形色色的商品, 而且现在转移到医疗保健和服务领域。“阿里健康”在线销售药品。阿里巴巴首席执行官张先生最近宣布与全球最大连锁酒店万豪集团建立合作关系。他的公司也购买或入股其他公司, 以扩大其范围。它拥有优酷网（一个视频流媒体网站）, 并已投资于微博（一个类似 Twitter有3.61亿用户的社交媒体公司）, 以及滴滴（一个乘车共享服务公司）。如果某个消费者喜欢在优酷网上看到的女演员穿的衣服, 她可以立即通过天猫买到它。

6. But if China reveals how broad one company’s scope can be, it also shows how a rival might emerge. Alibaba has two main competitors, JD and Tencent, which have recently joined forces. Tencent began as a gaming and messaging business. Its “Honour of Kings” is estimated to be the world’s top-grossing video game; its popular messaging app, WeChat, has 963m monthly users. Whereas Alibaba began with e-commerce and payments and then expanded, Tencent began with gaming and messaging and has moved further into commerce. Tencent’s mobile-payment app, WeChat Pay, had 40% of the market in the first quarter of the year, compared with Alipay’s 54%. Tencent started investing in JD three years ago; it now owns about one-fifth of it and is its biggest shareholder.

join / combine forces (with sb): to work together in order to achieve a shared aim (同…)联合；(与…)合作：
e.g. The two firms joined forces to win the contract. 两家公司联合起来争取合同。
gross: to earn a particular amount of money before tax has been taken off it 总收入为；总共赚得：
e.g. It is six of the biggest grossing movies of all time. 这是票房收入创历史之最的影片之一。

6. 但是, 如果中国揭示了一个公司的范围能够有多大, 它也展示了竞争对手可能以何种方式出现。阿里巴巴有两个主要的竞争对手, 京东和腾讯, 最近已经联合起来。腾讯是作为一家游戏和消息通讯公司而起步的。它的《王者荣耀》估计是世界上最赚钱的视频游戏；它受欢迎的消息应用程序, 微信，每月有9.63亿用户。阿里巴巴开始于电子商务和支付然后扩大, 腾讯则开始于游戏和信息, 并已进一步进入商业领域。腾讯的移动支付应用程序, 微信支付, 在今年第一季度的市场份额为 40%, 而支付宝是54%。腾讯三年前开始投资京东；它现在拥有其约1/5 的股权, 是其最大的股东。

We know what you want before you want it

7. Unlike Alibaba, JD sells its own inventory and that of third parties, and has its own distribution system. Shoppers can buy goods from JD within WeChat’s app. In August JD announced a partnership with Baidu, China’s biggest search engine. This blurring of boundaries between digital activities provides Alibaba, JD and Tencent with a vast amount of information about its customers’ lives. “We will know you as well as you know yourself,” says Zhang Chen, JD’s chief technology officer. Tencent can gather data from social-media feeds and payments both online and in stores, and Alibaba recently introduced a “unified ID”, which collects data on individuals across Alibaba’s many businesses. These data give companies greater insight into what consumers want so they can adjust their marketing accordingly. Big Brother, it turns out, is a capitalist who wants to sell you blue jeans.

Big Brother: a leader, a person in authority, or a government that tries to control people's behaviour and thoughts, but pretends to act for their benefit 老大哥(控制人们思想行为的虚伪领导者)
　Origin From George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the leader of the government, Big Brother, had total control over the people. The slogan 'Big Brother is watching you' reminded people that he knew everything they did. 源自乔治 · 奥威尔的小说《一九八四》。书中的政府头目"老大哥"(Big Brother)彻底控制着人民。"老大哥在看着你"这一标语提醒人们注意，他知道他们所做的一切。

7. 与阿里巴巴不同, 京东出售自己以及第三方的存货, 并有自己的派送系统。购物者可以在微信的应用程序中从京东购买商品。8月, 京东宣布与中国最大的搜索引擎百度合作。数字活动之间的这种界限模糊为阿里巴巴、京东和腾讯提供了大量关于客户生活的信息。京东的首席技术官张晨说: "我们将和你了解自己一样了解你。”腾讯可以从社交媒体及网上和商店的支付中收集信息, 阿里巴巴最近推出了“统一 ID”, 从阿里巴巴众多企业搜集关于个人的数据。这些数据让公司更深入地了解消费者的需求, 这样他们就可以相应地调整他们的营销策略。事实证明, 老大哥是一个想卖给你蓝色牛仔裤的资本家。

8. “The most important thing is not meeting the demand but creating the demand,” says Alibaba’s Mr Zhang. His company, JD and Tencent have ambitions beyond e-commerce. They are also after the 85% of the retail trade that still takes place offline, either by bringing more spending online or by serving customers in stores. WeChat Pay and Alipay are already widely used for physical transactions. Pass a clothing store and you may receive a personalised coupon on your phone. JD and Alibaba cast themselves as potential partners of bricks-and-mortar retailers, not just helping with delivery but providing tools to transform the way stores operate. JD is using its logistics business to supply goods to small convenience stores, cutting out parts of the supply chain. Alibaba has invested in grocery and department stores. In Hema Xiansheng, its growing supermarket chain, prices on electronic tags can be changed throughout the day.

be after somebody/something: informal to want to have something that belongs to someone else

8. 阿里巴巴的张先生表示: "最重要的事情不是满足需求, 而是创造需求。”他的公司、京东和腾讯都有超出电子商务之外的野心。他们还在追逐线下那85%的零售生意, 要么通过刺激更多的在线消费要么通过服务于去商店购物的客户。微信支付和支付宝已经广泛用于实体交易。路过一个服装店, 你可能会在你的手机收到一张个性化的优惠券。京东和阿里巴巴将自己视为实体零售商的潜在合作伙伴, 不仅是帮助送货, 还提供工具来改变商店的运营方式。京东正在利用其物流业务向小型便利店供应货物, 削去供应链的一部分。阿里巴巴投资了杂货店和百货公司。在其日益壮大的连锁超市“盒马鲜生”, 电子标签上的价格可以在一天内不断改变。

9. Mr Ma says he wants to use technology to change Chinese manufacturing. Alibaba already provides services such as advertising and cloud computing and hones those services continually, based on the data it gathers. Mr Zhang wants to use such “data-driven infrastructure” to support other businesses. In China, Alibaba has achieved some of that. But as it invests abroad, it is coming up against Amazon and others, who are eager to do so with infrastructure of their own.

hone: to develop and improve sth, especially a skill, over a period of time 磨练，训练(尤指技艺)：
e.g. She honed her debating skills at college. 她在大学时便炼就了辩论技巧。
come up against: to be faced with or opposed by sb / sth 面对；遭到…的反对：
e.g .We expect to come up against a lot of opposition to the plan. 我们预料这个计划会遭到很多人的反对。

9. 马云先生表示, 他希望利用技术来改变中国的制造业。阿里巴巴已经根据收集到的数据提供广告和云计算等服务, 并不断地打磨这些服务。张先生希望利用这种“数据驱动的基础设施”来支持其他业务。在中国, 阿里巴巴已经取得了一些成就。但是, 当它在国外投资时, 它正面对亚马逊和其他公司, 它们也渴望通过自己的基础设施来这么干。

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原文出处：经济学人

翻译：七呵夫

本译文仅供个人研习、欣赏语言之用，谢绝任何转载及用于任何商业用途。本译文不代表本人立场。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后，删除文章。