阿里巴巴上市前夕 馬雲仍是核心

Last May, 40,000 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. employees and customers met at a Hangzhou soccer stadium in driving rain to watch Jack Ma step down as chief executive of the Chinese e-commerce giant he founded in his apartment 15 years ago.
去年5月份，中國電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴集團(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.)的4萬名員工和客戶聚首杭州的一個體育中心，在雨中見證了馬雲(Jack Ma)卸任阿里巴巴首席執行長(CEO)一幕。15年前，馬雲在他的公寓裏創建了阿里巴巴。

Before his valedictory speech, Mr. Ma belted out the Chinese pop song 'I Love You, China,' from the stage. The crowd roared.
在發表告別辭之前，馬雲高唱了一曲《我愛你，中國》，現場觀衆沸騰了起來。

'Taking over from Jack Ma is a difficult job,' he said, dressed in oversize glasses and a shiny silver jacket.
他說，接馬雲這個位置是非常難的。當天，馬雲一身潮流裝扮，戴着大大的黑框眼鏡，身穿銀色閃亮夾克。

The three-hour extravaganza was a testament to the central role the 49-year-old Mr. Ma played -- and continues to play -- in what is arguably the world's biggest e-commerce company. Some employees describe the charismatic Mr. Ma as Alibaba's spiritual leader.
長達三個小時的盛典見證了馬雲過去在阿里巴巴扮演的核心角色，而未來馬雲仍將扮演這一角色。一些員工把個人魅力非凡的馬雲描述爲阿里巴巴的精神領袖。阿里巴巴可以說是全球最大的電子商務公司。

As Alibaba prepares to submit its first major filings to go public as early as this week in what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history, Mr. Ma -- now executive chairman -- still looms large in the company's dealings.
阿里巴巴最早將於本週遞交第一份重要的上市申請，而馬雲在阿里巴巴的地位依然顯赫。他目前仍擔任阿里巴巴的董事局主席。阿里巴巴的IPO可能成爲美國曆史上規模最大的IPO之一。

'I thought it would be easier when I stepped down from CEO, but now I'm finding out being a chairman, if you want to be a good chairman, is much busier than being a CEO,' Mr. Ma told The Wall Street Journal.
詳解阿里巴巴馬雲對《華爾街日報》說：“我原來以爲卸任CEO後會輕鬆一些，但現在我發現董事局主席的工作比CEO要忙得多。”

Mr. Ma's success has given him celebrity status in China, where bookstore shelves stock his biographies and airports replay clips of his motivational speeches on business management.
事業上的成功使馬雲在中國成爲名人，許多書店的貨架上擺放着馬雲的傳記，機場的電視裏一遍又一遍地播放着馬雲關於企業管理的勵志演講。

Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company in the world's most populous company, dwarfs its U.S. counterparts. In 2013, the combined transaction volume of its Taobao e-commerce marketplace and another Alibaba-run shopping site called Tmall reached $240 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the figure. That is triple the size of eBay Inc., more than double the size of Inc. Alipay, Alibaba's online payment platform, last year handled more than triple the amount of mobile payments processed by PayPal.
作爲中國這個全球人口最多國家的最大電子商務公司，阿里巴巴令美國同行相形見絀。知情人士透露，2013年該公司旗下的購物網站淘寶和天貓的總交易額達到了2,400億美元。這相當於eBay Inc.的三倍，亞馬遜公司( Inc.)的兩倍多。阿里巴巴的在線支付平臺支付寶(Alipay)去年的移動支付處理量是貝寶(PayPal)的三倍多。

Even after the expected multibillion-dollar IPO, Alibaba's corporate structure will allow Mr. Ma, who owns about 7% of the company, to have a say in nominating more than half of its board. Mr. Ma also owns 46% of the holding company that controls Alipay.
即使是在進行規模預計高達數十億美元的IPO後，阿里巴巴的公司結構仍將允許持有該公司大約7%股份的馬雲有權提名董事會逾半數的董事。此外馬雲也持有支付寶的母公司46%的股份。

Mr. Ma has been at the center of Alibaba's efforts to expand beyond e-commerce. Vehicles in which Mr. Ma owns a stake have invested in Chinese finance and media companies -- in at least one case using loans from Alibaba.
馬雲一直是推動阿里巴巴從電子商務領域向外擴張的核心人物。馬雲持股的公司對中國的金融和媒體公司進行了投資，其中至少有一樁交易使用了來自阿里巴巴的貸款。

Such deals may raise questions about whether Mr. Ma would ever prioritize his own investments over the interest of Alibaba shareholders, said Paul McKenzie, an analyst at Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA. Mr. Ma didn't comment on his investments.
里昂證券(CLSA)分析師麥肯齊(Paul McKenzie)說，這類交易可能令人質疑馬雲是否會把自己的投資凌駕於阿里巴巴股東的利益之上。馬雲對其投資不予置評。

Even though he is no longer CEO, Mr. Ma remains the face of Alibaba. As the e-commerce company expands further into financial services, Mr. Ma has traded barbs with some of China's big banks.
即使不再擔任首席執行長一職，馬雲仍是阿里巴巴的形象代言人。隨着這家電子商務公司進一步涉足金融服務業，馬雲和中國國內一些大銀行打起了嘴仗。

In an interview with the state-run People's Daily last year, Mr. Ma said China's banks aren't lending to the country's small businesses: 'I see there are 80% of the clients that are not covered.'
去年接受官方媒體《人民日報》採訪時馬雲曾說，中國的銀行不向國內的小企業貸款。他說：我看到的是80%沒有被服務的企業。

At a conference last month, China Minsheng Bank Corp. Chairman Dong Wenbiao defended the current banking system and questioned Alibaba's financial ambitions. 'I said to Jack Ma, 'Give up your reform efforts. You don't have the ability,' ' Mr. Dong said.
在上個月舉行的一次會議上，民生銀行(China Minsheng Bank Corp.)董事長董文標維護了目前的銀行體系並對阿里巴巴的金融野心提出質疑。董文標說：我跟馬雲說，你不要都革命了，你也沒那本事。

Mr. Ma was born in Hangzhou, a city of 2.4 million people near Shanghai. His parents were performers of a traditional Chinese musical theater called pingtan. He came of age during China's economic flowering in the 1980s, learning English while an unpaid tour guide to foreign visitors.
馬雲出生在杭州，這是一座鄰近上海、有着240萬人口的城市。馬雲的父母是評彈（一種中國傳統的說唱藝術）演員。他長大成人時正趕上20世紀80年代中國的經濟繁榮期，他在爲外國遊客擔任免費導遊期間學會了英文。

After twice failing China's national university entrance exam, Mr. Ma was accepted to Hangzhou Teacher's Institute and graduated in 1988. As the economy improved in the early 1990s, Mr. Ma began looking beyond teaching for work in business. He has said he was rejected for a number of jobs, including as a manager at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
高考兩次落榜之後，馬雲最終被杭州師範學院錄取，並於1988年畢業。隨着20世紀90年代初經濟狀況改善，馬雲在教學工作之外開始探索商機。他說自己曾被多份工作拒絕，包括肯德基門店的經理。

During a 1995 trip to Seattle as a translator for a trade delegation, Mr. Ma went online for the first time. When he saw how scant information was about China, he set out to create his own company. That year, Mr. Ma started China Pages, an online directory of Chinese companies; Alibaba followed in 1999.
1995年作爲一個貿易代表團的翻譯，馬雲去了西雅圖，那是他第一次上網。他看到網絡上關於中國的信息十分稀少，就創辦了自己的公司。那年，馬雲創辦了“中國黃頁”，這是一家彙總中國企業名錄的網站。後來阿里巴巴於1999年成立。Colleagues say Mr. Ma -- who is married with a son and daughter -- loves performing. At Alibaba's annual 'Alifest' conferences for customers and media, Mr. Ma has in past years shared the stage with former President Bill Clinton, Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
同事們稱，馬雲喜歡錶演。他已經結婚，育有一子一女。在客戶及媒體參加的阿里巴巴年度網商大會上，過去幾年馬雲曾與美國前總統克林頓(Bill Clinton)、洛杉磯湖人隊球星科比(Kobe Bryant)和演員施瓦辛格(Arnold Schwarzenegger)同臺。

Mr. Ma has 'that ability, even in a room of 600 people, to make people think [he is] talking to one person, to you,' said Duncan Clark, a longtime acquaintance and tech consultant based in Beijing.
駐北京的科技顧問克拉克(Duncan Clark)認識馬雲很長時間了，他說，馬雲有這種能力，即使在一個有600人的房間裏，他也能讓在場的人認爲他是在單獨跟你一個人談話。

Mr. Ma's eccentric performances and his ability to motivate a crowd have helped build a cultlike following among Alibaba employees. At the company's Hangzhou headquarters, Mr. Ma has blessed hundreds of newlywed Alibaba employees in wedding attire during an annual ritual.
馬雲的搞怪表演和他激勵大衆的能力幫助他在阿里巴巴員工中贏得近乎狂熱的崇拜。在公司杭州總部，馬雲在年會上向數百對身着禮服的新婚員工送上祝福。同事們說，馬雲的果斷和他承擔重大風險的意願幫助公司經受住挑戰。

Mr. Ma's decisiveness and his willingness to take big risks helped the company overcome challenges, colleagues said.
2002年，eBay Inc.與國內一家購物網站合作，進入中國，馬雲創辦了淘寶網(Taobao)，正面迎接挑戰。

When eBay Inc. entered China in 2002 by teaming up with a local shopping site, Mr. Ma developed Taobao to compete head-on with the U.S. company.
阿里巴巴執行副主席蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)表示，馬雲說，進攻是最好的防禦。

'Jack said that the best defense is offense,' said Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice chairman.
馬雲還決定淘寶應該免去商家的產品目錄費和交易費，儘管他的第一個網站勉強收支平衡。免費模式使淘寶迅速吸引了商家，很快便超過eBay中國網站。淘寶後來找到了通過廣告創收的方法。

Mr. Ma also decided that Taobao should let merchants sell without paying listing or transaction fees, even though his first website -- -- was barely breaking even. The no-fee model allowed Taobao to attract sellers quickly, and the business soon overtook eBay's Chinese market. Taobao later figured out ways to generate revenue through advertising.
2009年，全球金融危機打擊了利用來尋找海外買家的中國小商家，包括當時的首席執行長衛哲(David Wei)在內的公司高管提議將收費減半。

In 2009, when the global financial crisis hit small Chinese merchants who were using to find overseas buyers, company executives -- including David Wei, 's then CEO -- proposed cutting fees by as much as half.
衛哲回憶說，馬雲當時說如果商家沒有了，阿里巴巴將不復存在。衛哲還說，馬雲一刻都沒有多想。

'Jack said if merchants disappear there will be no Alibaba,' Mr. Wei recalled. 'Jack didn't even think for a second.'
降低收費幫助阿里巴巴度過了金融危機，用戶數量大幅增加，2010年 利潤較2009年增長45%。

Cutting fees helped weather the financial crisis and led to a jump in users, pushing up its net profit by 45% in 2010 over 2009.
儘管馬雲創建阿里巴巴時幾乎沒有任何商業或技術背景，但他卻知道如何選賢任能。

Although Mr. Ma started Alibaba with little background in business or technology, he knew enough to pick the right people.
馬雲推出阿里巴巴幾個月後，他聘用了臺灣出生、耶魯畢業的律師蔡崇信。從1999年從高盛集團(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)獲得第一筆500萬美元投資到廣受期待的美國上市，蔡崇信在阿里巴巴的籌資和收購活動中發揮了重要作用。

Several months after he launched Alibaba, Mr. Ma hired Mr. Tsai, a Taiwanese-born, Yale-educated lawyer. Mr. Tsai has played a central role in Alibaba's fundraising and acquisitions, from the first $5 million investment by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 1999 to the widely anticipated U.S. IPO.
現任和前任同事說，馬雲憑直覺做決策。

Current and former colleagues say Mr. Ma makes decisions with gut instinct.
2004年底，阿里巴巴決定推出支付寶，當時馬雲飛赴廣州拜訪了時任區域銷售團隊負責人的陸兆禧(Jonathan Lu)。陸兆禧現任阿里巴巴首席執行長。

In late 2004, when Alibaba decided to launch Alipay, Mr. Ma flew to Guangzhou to visit Jonathan Lu, Alibaba's current chief executive, who was then the head of a regional sales team.
陸兆禧回憶說，馬雲問他對支付寶或貝寶是否有所瞭解。陸兆禧回答說他不瞭解。馬雲答道：“好，就由你來負責支付寶。”