Uber在中國遭遇挑戰 全球蔓延勢頭萎靡

In December, leaked Uber documents showed that the company was completing about 800,000 rides a week around the world. It’s a safe bet that the number is much higher now.

去年12月，從打車應用公司Uber泄露出來的文件顯示，全球每週已有80萬人次通過Uber進行叫車服務。我們可以肯定地說，這個數字現在又增長了不少。

No matter how big it has gotten, however, Uber’s ride volume pales in comparison with the numbers of rides of its main Chinese rival, Kuaidi. That company, little known outside of China, is claiming up to 6 million rides every day. That makes Kuaidi, which is backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, or perhaps rival Didi Taxi (which is backed by Tencent Holdings and boasts of a similar scale and footprint), the world’s king of the ride-hailing apps at least by some measures.

但是不管它增長了多少，Uber的業務量與它在中國的主要競爭對手“快的打車”相比還是略顯蒼白。快的在中國以外幾乎沒有什麼知名度，但是據說它的業務量每天最多能達到600萬人次。因此從某種角度上來看，中國的電商巨頭阿里巴巴投資的“快的打車”和騰訊公司投資的“嘀嘀打車”（嘀嘀的規模和業務量據說和快的差不多）纔是打車應用程序界真正的王者。

“This kind of transportation service has a big future in China,” says Joe Lee, a 39-year-old serial entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Kuaidi. “The addressable market is very very big.”

39歲的連續創業者、快的打車的聯合創始人喬o李（譯音）表示：“這種交通服務在中國很有前途，目標市場非常非常大。”

To be sure, Kuaidi’s model is different from that of Uber. Its app, which counts 100 million users, is used mostly to hail taxis in some 300 of China’s notoriously congested cities. The company makes no money from those rides, and the hailing app is nothing more than a tool to acquire customers.

要指出的是，快的打車的業務模式和Uber不太一樣。快的打車應用程序現在已經擁有1億名用戶，不過它最主要的用途是用來在300多箇中國最擁堵的城市裏叫出租車。公司本身並不從中抽成，這款叫車應用程序也只不過是一個招攬用戶的工具。

Over time, however, Kuaidi is hoping to monetize its giant customer base with what it calls a “freemium” model. This summer, Kuaidi launched a luxury limo service in 20 cities that competes directly with Uber’s high-end black cars. Eventually, it plans to extend into the kind of ride-sharing, courier and delivery services that appear to be on the sights of most transportation startups.

然而隨着時間的推移，快的打車也希望利用“免費增值”模式，通過其龐大的用戶羣賺錢。今年夏天，快的在20個城市推出了豪車租用服務，可以說是針鋒相對地與Uber的高端租車服務進行競爭。最終，快的打車希望將業務拓展到拼車、導遊和快遞服務領域，而這些也正是大多數交通類應用都虎視眈眈的領域。

So how did Kuaidi go from zero to 100 million users, and a staggering 1 million drivers, in just two years? Lee says China’s characteristics—large, congested cities with poor public transit networks and massive fleets of relatively inexpensive taxis—were tailor-made for this kind of service.

那麼，快的是如何在短短兩年內，從零發展到1億名用戶，並擁有了100萬名司機的呢？喬o李表示這要歸功於中國特色——大城市交通擁堵，公共交通網絡不完善，再加上有大量價格相對便宜的出租車，爲這種叫車服務提供了得天獨厚的條件。

Subsidies helped too. To expand its network, Kuaidi let customers signal to taxis that they would add a tip to their fares. That simple feature quickly lured drivers, but it also dramatically expanded the number of riders, as it solved a critical issue: at rush hour and during bad weather, demand for taxis exceeds supply in many cities. “We used that simple function to kick-start the whole thing,” Lee says. Since then, Kuaidi added another incentive for drivers. On transactions that go through Alipay, a very popular payment service in China that is built into the Kuaidi app, the company will add an additional $1.

另外補貼也起了一定幫助。爲了擴展其網絡，快的允許用戶向出租車發送“願意支付小費”的信息。這個簡單的功能很快吸引來了大批司機，同時它也使乘車者的人數大幅增加，因爲它解決了一個重要的問題：在很多城市，尤其是在高峯時段和惡劣天氣時，對出租車的需求都超過了供給。喬o李表示：“我們用這個簡單的功能推動了它的整體發展。”後來快的打車還爲司機提供了另一項激勵。如果使用快的打車應用程序內嵌的支付寶功能支付的話，公司會額外補貼1美元。

Kuaidi, which has raised more than $100 million, now claims 1 million drivers on its network. Didi has also grown its network to similar size by subsidizing rides. The competing subsidies have led to a ruthless price war that is essentially financed by Kuaidi’s and Didi’s biggest backers, Alibaba and Tencent.

快的打車已經獲得了超過1億美元的融資，該公司還表示，它已經擁有了一個100萬名司機的龐大網絡。騰訊公司投資的嘀嘀打車也通過提供補貼，培養起了一個規模差不多的網絡。快的和嘀嘀的互相較勁的補貼競爭已經升級成了價格大戰，最終出錢的還是雙方背後的大佬——阿里巴巴和騰訊。

Uber is entering this market as a clear underdog, a position that CEO Travis Kalanick says he relishes.

Uber明顯是作爲一個弱者進入這個市場的，不過CEO特拉維斯o卡拉尼克表示，他很享受這個位置。

“We get to be the little guy,” Kalanick said on Monday during the TechCrunch Disrupt technology conference in San Francisco. “For me that’s like homecoming.”

本週一，卡拉尼克在舊金山參加TechCrunch Disrupt峯會時表示：“我們必須要做小傢伙，對我來說這就像回家一樣。”

Jixun Foo, a partner with GGV Capital, who lives in Shanghai, says Kuaidi and Didi combined have cornered the mass market for transportation in China. “In China, the real mass market is not an Uber black car market,” says Foo, who is an investor in Singapore based GrabTaxi, another cab-hailing firm focused on Southeast Asia. The challenge for the Chinese companies, Foo says, will be to move upmarket with new, paid services that compete with Uber premium service. Conversely, Uber will have a hard time gaining mass appeal in China, Foo says.

居住在上海的紀源資本（GGV Capital）合夥人符績勳表示，快的和嘀嘀加起來，已經壟斷了中國的交通類應用程序的大衆市場。“在中國，真正的大衆市場並不是Uber的豪車市場。”符績勳本人也是新加坡打車應用程序GrabTaxi的投資人之一，GrabTaxi主要瞄準的是東南亞市場。符績勳表示，中國企業面臨的主要挑戰，是要通過能與Uber的高端服務相比匹敵的新付費服務進入高端市場。相反，Uber則要付出一番努力才能獲得中國老百姓的青睞。

For now, Uber has done just fine. The company, which began operations there about a year ago, is offering its marquee black car service in six major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. This summer, it launched its less expensive Uber X service, and it began a ride-sharing service in Beijing to allow private individuals to pick up passengers.

從目前來看，Uber的表現還算不錯。Uber大概一年前纔在中國開始運營，現在它已經在北京、上海、成都等六個城市提供豪車出租服務。今年夏天，它又推出了稍便宜一些的Uber X服務。另外它還在北京推出了一項拼車服務，允許私人車主通過Uber與其他乘客拼車。

Allen Penn, who heads Uber’s business in Asia, says that in its first six months in Shanghai, Uber grew faster than it had after launching in New York, Paris or Singapore. Its adoption in Beijing was even faster. “Uber is offering a higher quality standard for a modest premium,” Penn says. “We are seeing growth that is outstripping anything we are seeing around the world.”

Uber的亞洲業務負責人艾倫o潘表示，Uber在上海推出的前六個月裏，它的發展要比在紐約、巴黎和新加坡等地快得多，Uber在北京的使用率甚至還要更多。他說：“Uber以合理的費用提供了更高的品質標準。我們看到，Uber在中國的發展速度超過了它在任何一個國家的速度。”

The massive Chinese market seems to have enough room for Uber and its homegrown rivals for now. But the companies—with Uber set to expand its offerings and footprint, and the local players chasing premium services—are on a collision course in the world’s largest market, and perhaps, beyond. Kuaidi’s Lee says the company has its sights on China first, and neighboring countries next. Eventually, though, it may seek a foothold in the United States.

目前看來，中國市場的龐大，讓Uber有充足的空間和中國的競爭對手羣雄逐鹿。不過隨着Uber不斷擴展其業務和足跡，以及本地企業對高端服務虎視眈眈，它們之間的衝突似乎不可避免，甚至有可能要在國內國外“兩線作戰”。快的打車的聯合創始人喬o李表示，快的首先把目光鎖定在中國，然後是中國的周邊國家，最終可能還會在美國搶佔一席之地。

For now, the battlefield is in China’s mega-cities where the price wars are raging. “Ultimately you have to have a sustainable business,” Kalanick said. “At the end of the day, we are going to try to offer the cheapest most reliable rides in China. It’s going to be interesting.”

目前看來，打車應用大戰還主要集中在中國的大城市裏，而且價格戰有愈演愈烈之勢。卡拉尼克認爲：“最終我們會建立可持續性的業務。總而言之，我們會努力在中國提供最便宜、最可靠的叫車服務。它一定會變得很有意思。”