阿里巴巴擬入股印度移動支付平臺

Alibaba is in advanced talks to buy an approximately $500m stake in the parent company of leading Indian mobile payment platform Paytm, marking the Chinese ecommerce group’s first significant foray into the country’s rapidly expanding start-up scene.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)有意收購印度領先移動支付平臺Paytm的母公司大約5億美元的股權，相關談判已進入深入階段。此舉將標誌着這家中國電子商務集團首次大舉進軍印度迅速擴大的初創企業領域。

Both Alibaba Group Holding’s ecommerce arm and its online payments unit Alipay are set to participate in the transaction, which will conclude later this month, three people familiar with the deal told the Financial Times.

三名知情人士告訴英國《金融時報》，阿里巴巴集團控股有限公司的電子商務部門和阿里巴巴在線支付部門“支付寶”(Alipay)都將參與這筆交易，該交易預計在本月晚些時候達成。

India enjoyed an ecommerce investment boom in 2014, as prominent Silicon Valley-based funds began pouring fresh funds into fast-growing domestic start-ups, such as e-retailer Flipkart and online marketplace Snapdeal, at multibillion-dollar valuations.

印度在2014年期間興起一股電子商務投資熱潮，一些知名硅谷基金開始向快速增長的印度國內初創企業注入新的資金，如電子零售商Flipkart和在線市場Snapdeal，使這些初創企業的估值達到數十億美元的水平。

The arrival of Alibaba, the largest ecommerce group by revenue, is likely to increase excitement over the sector’s prospects. It will also pit the Chinese company against US-based Amazon, which invested $2bn in its local subsidiary last year.

作爲全球營收最高的電子商務集團，阿里巴巴的到來很可能會增加各方對該行業發展前景的興奮心情。它也使這家中國企業形成與美國亞馬遜(Amazon)對抗的態勢；亞馬遜去年對其印度子公司投資了20億美元。

Under the terms of Alibaba’s deal, its two entities will take minority stakes as part of a two-stage investment in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, India’s biggest mobile payments company by market share.

按照上述交易的條款，阿里巴巴的兩個實體將收購少數股權，作爲對Paytm的母公司One97 Communications兩階段投資的一部分。Paytm是印度市場份額最大的移動支付公司。

Paytm allows Indian phone users to put funds in a mobile wallet, which they can spend on services such as taxi app Uber and cinema service BookMyShow. It claims to have about 20m users.

Paytm讓印度的手機用戶能夠將資金轉入一個移動錢包，然後用其支付各種服務，如打車應用優步(Uber)和影院服務BookMyShow。它聲稱擁有約2000萬用戶。

Paytm also launched an online marketplace last year, providing a platform for businesses to sell products online. This is similar to Alipay, China’s leading payment platform by revenue, which Alibaba offers in its home market.

去年Paytm還推出了一個在線市場，提供了一個讓企業在網上銷售產品的平臺。這類似於阿里巴巴在本土市場提供的支付寶，中國按營收衡量領先的支付平臺。

“The two most exciting sectors in Indian technology are ecommerce and payments, and they [One97] have both,” the person said, on condition of anonymity. “So while the business isn’t as big as Amazon or Snapdeal yet, they have the same parts as the Chinese, so it fits together perfectly.”

“印度技術行業兩個最令人興奮的領域是電子商務和支付，而他們（One97）兩者兼備，”要求匿名的一名知情人士表示。“因此，雖然業務尚未達到亞馬遜或Snapdeal那樣的規模，但它們同這家中國企業具有相同的組成部分，可以完美地結合在一起。”

Although Alibaba is understood to have no plans to launch its own services in India, its likely investment in Paytm follows a string of deals in 2014 by founder Jack Ma, ahead of his company’s blockbuster $25bn initial public offering in New York last September.

儘管阿里巴巴據悉並無計劃在印度推出自己的服務，但其對Paytm做出可能的投資之前，創始人馬雲(Jack Ma) 2014年在他的公司於9月在紐約進行250億美元首次公開上市(IPO)之前，達成了一連串交易。

Alibaba could not be reached for comment, while Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma declined to discuss his fundraising plans. Paytm’s investors include SAIF, Saama Capital and SAP Ventures.

記者聯繫不上阿里巴巴請其置評，而Paytm創始人維賈伊•謝卡爾•夏爾馬(Vijay Shekhar Sharma)不願討論他的融資計劃。Paytm的現有投資者包括軟銀賽富(SAIF)、Saama Capital和SAP Ventures。

Paytm will use the new funds to invest in infrastructure helping thousands of smaller Indian businesses to use their mobile marketplace, grabbing more of an ecommerce sector that will be worth $44bn by 2018, according to analysts at CLSA. Only a small fraction of the country’s 200m internet users transact online, according to Jefferies, a broker.

Paytm將把新的資金投資於基礎設施，幫助成千上萬的印度中小企業利用其移動市場，以在國內電子商務行業奪取更大的市場份額。里昂證券(CLSA)的分析師們稱，到2018年印度電商行業規模將達到440億美元。據經紀商傑富瑞集團(Jefferies)介紹，目前印度2億網民中只有一小部分人會進行在線交易。