Lex專欄：阿里巴巴持續(xù)增長(zhǎng)的背后

Alibaba likes to advertise its grocery stores. That may puzzle investors, who prefer to focus on the group’s manic revenue growth rather than vegetable margins at its Hema supermarkets. But it is worth remembering that the group ultimately deals in data, not durians.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)喜歡為其食品雜貨商店做廣告。這可能會(huì)讓投資者感到困惑，他們更愿意關(guān)注該集團(tuán)瘋狂的收入增長(zhǎng)，而不是其盒馬鮮生(Hema)超市的蔬菜利潤(rùn)率。但我們有必要記住，阿里巴巴最終經(jīng)營(yíng)的是數(shù)據(jù)，而不是榴蓮。

True to form, the Chinese ecommerce company reported a 61 per cent increase in quarterly sales to Rmb55bn ($8.3bn) on Thursday. But margins slipped; before interest, tax and depreciation they were 42 per cent, down 5 percentage points on the previous year. Operating in the real world is expensive.

不出所料地，這家中國(guó)電商集團(tuán)周四公布，季度營(yíng)收同比增長(zhǎng)61%，至550億元人民幣(合83億美元)。但利潤(rùn)率下滑，調(diào)整后息稅攤銷前利潤(rùn)(EBITA)利潤(rùn)率42%，同比下滑1個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。實(shí)體運(yùn)營(yíng)的成本是高昂的。

Still, offline operations such as grocery stores or vending machines for cars, are experiments in businesses that could ultimately allow the company to collect even more information. They are still small beer next to the core business of renting digital infrastructure to merchants and delivery “partners” to facilitate commerce and consumption. Merchants can use the insights so generated to bid for favourable placement on ecommerce websites like Taobao or Tmall. This activity contributes 86 per cent of revenues.

然而，生鮮食品超市或汽車自動(dòng)販賣機(jī)等線下業(yè)務(wù)屬于業(yè)務(wù)嘗試，可能最終讓該公司得以收集更多信息。與向商戶和快遞“合作伙伴”出租數(shù)字基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施、促進(jìn)商業(yè)和消費(fèi)的核心業(yè)務(wù)相比，這些顯得微不足道。商戶可以利用由此洞悉的信息在淘寶(Taobao)或天貓(Tmall)等電商網(wǎng)站競(jìng)購(gòu)有利的鋪位。這些業(yè)務(wù)占到了阿里巴巴營(yíng)收的86%。

Alibaba is a privately owned company, but has nevertheless become a sort of national champion. Its business model is directly aligned with the state’s plans for a more innovative and consumption driven economy. Western social media groups can only dream of being able to collect similarly detailed spending and behavioural data. The group’s servers contain a trove of accurate and timely information about the state of the Chinese economy that is far superior to the statistics that low-level bureaucrats submit. And due to its purely commercial focus Alibaba does not risk running afoul of China’s stringent censorship rules.

阿里巴巴是一家民營(yíng)企業(yè)，卻變成了類似國(guó)家冠軍企業(yè)的巨擘。其業(yè)務(wù)模式與政府打造更多由創(chuàng)新和消費(fèi)拉動(dòng)的經(jīng)濟(jì)的計(jì)劃完全一致。西方社交媒體集團(tuán)只能夢(mèng)想著能夠收集如此詳盡的支出和行為數(shù)據(jù)了。阿里巴巴的服務(wù)器含有大量有關(guān)中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況的準(zhǔn)確且及時(shí)的信息，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)優(yōu)于低層官員提交的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)。由于只關(guān)注商業(yè)，阿里巴巴沒有與中國(guó)嚴(yán)格的審查規(guī)定發(fā)生沖突的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

A captive market and a nod from the party all but assure its continued growth. Foreign markets will be much more tricky. But when you are already top dog in the world’s biggest retail market, that is a worry for another day.

阿里巴巴對(duì)市場(chǎng)的控制，再加上共產(chǎn)黨的點(diǎn)頭支持，幾乎保證了阿里巴巴的持續(xù)增長(zhǎng)。外國(guó)市場(chǎng)要困難得多。但如果你已經(jīng)是這個(gè)世界最大零售市場(chǎng)的領(lǐng)頭羊了，那么這種擔(dān)心就是以后的事情了。

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Lex專欄是由FT評(píng)論家聯(lián)合撰寫的短評(píng)，對(duì)全球經(jīng)濟(jì)與商業(yè)進(jìn)行精辟分析