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Alibaba
阿里巴巴
Ma where he came from?
后無來者
No entrepreneur has defined China's transformation like Jack Ma. His success will be hard to repeat
沒有哪個企業家像馬云那樣定義了中國的轉型。他的成功難以復制
The most recognisable face of Chinese capitalism belongs to Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, an e-commerce juggernaut matched in size only by Amazon.
中國資本主義最知名的面孔當屬阿里巴巴創始人馬云。只有亞馬遜可在規模上與他創立的電子商務巨頭比肩。
Mr Ma, who launched Alibaba from a small apartment in Hangzhou in 1999, is an emblem of China’s extraordinary economic transformation.
1999年，馬云在杭州一間小公寓里成立了阿里巴巴，他本人象征了中國非凡的經濟轉型。
This week's announcement that he will step down as the firm's chairman a year from now, to concentrate on philanthropy, was greeted with comparative calm by investors.
上周他宣布將在一年后辭去集團董事局主席的職務，專注慈善。投資者對此反應較為平靜。
He stopped being chief executive in 2013;
馬云自2013年起就不再擔任首席執行官；
Alibaba's share price has more than doubled since its initial public offering, the world's largest-ever, in 2014.
阿里巴巴于2014年上市時，融資規模為史上最大，至今股價已翻了一倍多。
But one question presents itself: could China produce another story to match his? The answer is almost certainly not.
那么問題來了：中國還能上演一個可與他比擬的故事嗎？答案是幾乎肯定不能。
There are some very good reasons for that.
這么說有幾個非常充分的理由。
China's own rise is an unrepeatable one.
中國的崛起本身就不可重復。
When Mr Ma, then an English-language teacher, launched Alibaba, the country was still gearing up to join the World Trade Organisation.
曾是英語老師的馬云推出阿里巴巴時，中國還在為入世做準備。
Its GDP per head, in terms of purchasing-power parity, stood at under $3,000; it is now more than six times higher.
按購買力平價計算，當時的人均GDP不到3000美元，現在則高出6倍多。
The internet was still young, too.
互聯網那時也才剛起步。
Less than 1% of Chinese had access to the web back then, compared with some 36% of Americans.
當時只有不到1%的中國人可以上網，而美國人約為36%。
As incomes grew and connections proliferated, Mr Ma took full advantage.
人們收入逐步增長、互聯網迅速普及，馬云充分利用了這樣的有利條件。
Thousands of small businesses have since flourished on Alibaba's platforms.
從那時開始，成千上萬的小企業在阿里巴巴的平臺上蓬勃發展。
About 1m merchants trade in its virtual emporiums.
約有100萬商家在其虛擬集市中開展交易。
Its services have helped push China's economy towards consumption-led growth.
阿里巴巴提供的服務幫助推動中國經濟走上了消費型增長之路。
Last year it boasted sales of $25bn on Singles'Day, China's equivalent of Black Friday (when Americans spent a measly $5bn).
去年“雙十一”當天其平臺的銷售額高達250億美元（美國人在“黑色星期五”當天才花了50億美元）。
It has transformed logistics and finance, as well as retailing.
除了零售業，阿里巴巴還改變了物流和金融業。
Last year Alibaba delivered an average of 55m packages a day;
去年，阿里巴巴平均每天遞送5500萬個包裹；
its financial offshoot, Ant Financial, accounts for more than half of China's vast mobile-payments market.
其金融業務部門螞蟻金服在中國龐大的移動支付市場中占據了過半江山。
Its reach is so great that many startups decide to work with Alibaba rather than strike out alone.
阿里巴巴影響力巨大，許多創業公司因此決定與它合作，而不是單槍匹馬出征。
But more has changed than the structure of China's economy and the clout of digital giants like Alibaba.
然而，發生了變化的不只是中國的經濟結構和阿里巴巴等數字巨頭的影響力。
Politics has changed, too.
政治也已不同往日。
Alibaba thrived partly thanks to Mr Ma's skilful dealings with China's ruling Communist Party, with which he cultivated both closeness and stand-offishness
阿里巴巴蓬勃發展的原因之一是馬云善于經營與統治者的關系——既親密又保持距離
("Love them, don't marry them," he once said of the government).
（他曾說：“要跟政府戀愛，但別跟政府結婚。”）
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