中國互聯網巨擘加緊爭奪O2O市場

Chinese fans of fried chicken will soon have a new way of paying for their food fix after Alibaba’s Alipay payments unit hooked up with KFC.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的支付寶(Alipay)與肯德基(KFC)建立了合作關係，中國的炸雞粉絲很快將可以使用一種新的付款方式。

It was the biggest move by a Chinese ecommerce group to diversify through an online-to-offline (O2O) deal.

這是中國電子商務集團在進軍“線上到線下”(O2O)道路上做出的最大動作。

Alipay’s agreement with KFC China — the country’s biggest food delivery business with 5,000 restaurants across 900 cities — was followed by search engine Baidu saying it would invest Rmb20bn ($3.2bn) over the next three years in Baidu Nuomi, its Groupon-like marketplace.

支付寶與肯德基中國（中國最大的食品遞送業務，在900個城市擁有5000家餐廳）宣佈達成協議後，搜索引擎百度(Baidu)表示，將在未來三年期間向“百度糯米”（類似於高朋Groupon的團購網站）投資200億元人民幣（合32億美元）。

Analysts said the focus on O2O — where customers use smartphones to find, order and pay for goods from food to ride-hailing apps — marked a shift in the industry as growth slowed in pure online sales.

分析師們表示，隨着純粹的在線銷售增長放緩，聚集O2O標誌着行業發生轉變。從食品到叫車應用，O2O讓客戶可以使用智能手機查找、下單購買和支付各類商品。

Ecommerce groups such as Alibaba have chased growth by buying into “combined channel” merchants, which have an online and offline presence.

阿里巴巴等電商集團近期紛紛通過投資於“組合渠道”（既有在線業務、也有離線業務）商家，來追逐增長。

Alibaba’s deal with KFC will be the biggest partnership with retailers to allow customers to pay by scanning bar codes using Alipay’s smartphone app.

阿里巴巴與肯德基達成的協議，將是電商企業與零售商結成的最大合作夥伴關係。客戶將可在智能手機上用支付寶應用掃描條碼，即可完成買單。

KFC will be the third big retailer to accept Alipay after Walmart and Carrefour began doing so this year.

肯德基將是第三家接受支付寶的大型零售商，此前沃爾瑪(Walmart)和家樂福(Carrefour)已在今年開始接受支付寶。