谷歌5.5億美元入股京東

BEIJING — Google’s best-known products have been blocked by the authorities in mainland China for years. If the American internet giant wants that to change someday, then half a billion dollars’ worth of good will couldn’t hurt.

北京——谷歌(Google)最有名的產(chǎn)品多年來一直被中國大陸當(dāng)局封鎖。如果美國這家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭希望有朝一日改變這種狀況的話，作出價值5億美元的友好表示不會有壞處。

The Silicon Valley company will invest $550 million in the Chinese online retailer JD.com, the two companies said on Monday. In return, JD.com will join the Google Shopping advertising platform, and will work with Google on other e-commerce projects in Europe, Southeast Asia and the United States.

這家硅谷公司將向中國網(wǎng)絡(luò)零售商京東(JD.com)投資5.5億美元(約合35億元人民幣)，這兩家公司周一表示。作為回報，京東將加入谷歌購物廣告平臺，并將在歐洲、東南亞和美國的其他電子商務(wù)項目上與谷歌合作。

The companies did not provide details of the projects. According to a JD.com spokesman, the deal will give Google less than 1 percent of the Chinese retailer’s shares, which trade on the Nasdaq.

這兩家公司沒有提供這些項目的細節(jié)。京東發(fā)言人表示，谷歌的投資將讓其持有不到1%的京東股份，這家中國零售商的股票在納斯達克上市。

Google pulled its search engine out of China in 2010, deciding that it would no longer censor its own search results as required by Beijing. But lately, the company has been looking for other ways to serve the planet’s largest population of internet users.

2010年，谷歌從中國市場撤出了自己的搜索引擎業(yè)務(wù)，谷歌決定不再按照中國政府的要求審查搜索結(jié)果。但最近，該公司一直在尋找其他方式來為全球最大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶群提供服務(wù)。

It opened a research center in China dedicated to artificial intelligence and signed an agreement with Tencent, the Chinese internet conglomerate, that will allow the two businesses to work together without fear of patent lawsuits. It made an app version of its translation service available to users in China last year. More recently, it released a Chinese version of an app that helps people manage their files. (Google’s own app store, like its email service, remains inaccessible behind the Great Firewall, as the country’s system of internet controls is known.)

谷歌在中國開設(shè)了一個專門從事人工智能研究的中心，還與中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭騰訊簽署了一項協(xié)議，讓這兩家公司在無需擔(dān)心專利訴訟的情況下合作。去年，谷歌為中國用戶提供了其翻譯服務(wù)的手機應(yīng)用版本。最近，谷歌發(fā)布了一個幫助人們管理文件的應(yīng)用程序的中文版。(谷歌自己的應(yīng)用程序商店，與其電子郵件服務(wù)一樣，被防火長城[the Great Firewall]擋在國門外，人們稱中國的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)控制系統(tǒng)為“防火長城”。)

The company never quit China entirely, despite its travails. It has hundreds of employees working on research and product development in the country, which has become a major fount of engineering and scientific talent. Its online advertising business helps Chinese companies reach customers overseas.

盡管困難重重，但谷歌從未全面退出中國。谷歌在中國擁有數(shù)百名從事研究和產(chǎn)品開發(fā)的員工，這些人已成為工程和科學(xué)人才的主要來源。谷歌的在線廣告業(yè)務(wù)幫助中國公司面對海外客戶。

Still, mounting a broader return to the Chinese market would not be easy for Google, even if the authorities were to permit it. In the eight years since the company withdrew from China, local rivals have created formidable products in many areas in which it competes, including search, chat, video streaming and cloud computing.

不過對谷歌來說，要更大范圍地回到中國市場并不容易，即使中國當(dāng)局允許它回來的話。在谷歌退出中國后的八年里，本地對手已經(jīng)在許多谷歌有競爭的領(lǐng)域里創(chuàng)造出了強大的產(chǎn)品，包括搜索、聊天、視頻流和云計算。

JD.com, meanwhile, is hoping that Google’s global reach will help it sell more products internationally. The company already counts Walmart as a major shareholder. It has extended its reach into Southeast Asia, setting up a local retail business in Indonesia, partnering on an e-commerce venture in Thailand and backing another one in Vietnam.

與此同時，京東希望谷歌的全球優(yōu)勢將有助于京東向國際市場銷售更多的產(chǎn)品。京東的主要股東中已經(jīng)包括沃爾瑪。京東也已將業(yè)務(wù)伸展到東南亞，在印度尼西亞建立了一個當(dāng)?shù)亓闶蹣I(yè)務(wù)，在泰國成立的一家電子商務(wù)合資企業(yè)，還在越南支持了另一家電子商務(wù)企業(yè)。

Across the world, however, JD.com will face tough competition. Alibaba, the Chinese internet behemoth, has poured billions of dollars into its Southeast Asian shopping site, Lazada, and is strengthening its logistics capabilities in that region, Europe and the Middle East.

但京東將在世界上面臨激烈的競爭。中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭阿里巴巴已向其東南亞購物網(wǎng)站Lazada投入數(shù)十億美元資金，并正在東南亞、歐洲和中東加強自己的物流能力。