[2009.02.12]High wires 新闻专线：在钢丝上独自起舞
类归于： 商业 — Eco Team @ 8:02 上午
News agencies
新闻机构
High wires 新闻专线：在钢丝上独自起舞
Feb 12th 2009
From The Economist print edition
With newspapers in crisis, newswires may learn to live without them
眼见报业岌岌可危，新闻专线或将另起炉灶。
WHERE does news come from? The answer, much of the time, is from newswires.
Many of the stories in newspapers, on television, radio and online are
based on dispatches filed by the big news agencies. The biggest
international newswires, Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, date back to
the expansion of the telegraph in the mid-19th century, when rapid
newsgathering first became possible. The agencies have usually been
wholesalers of news; newspapers, broadcasters and websites act as
retailers, repackaging and selling news to consumers alongside material
generated in-house.
新闻从哪儿来？新闻从新闻专线来（少数情况除外）。大型新闻机构的快讯被编
辑加以描绘，登上报纸网页，放进电视电台，就成了林林总总的新闻故事。十九
世纪中叶，随着电报业的迅速发展，人们首次具有了迅速搜集新闻材料的能力,
如今最具规模的国际新闻专线美联社和路透社就在那时侯应运而生。将新闻一股
脑儿打包出售是惯常做法，报纸网站和广播则如同零售商，把店面设在总部周围，
兜售重新组合后的各式新闻。
Some, such as AP (a co-operative owned by its subscribers) and the
state-backed French News Agency (AFP), have stuck to that model. But
Reuters, like the Dow Jones newswire (which grew out of the Wall Street
Journal), has developed a huge business providing information to
financial-services firms, for which rapid, accurate news is highly
valuable. A more recent arrival, Bloomberg, started out as a provider of
such information but has turned into a news agency as well, creating a
worldwide network of bureaus and syndicating stories to newspapers.
长久以来，这种“批发加零售”的运营模式一直为某些机构沿袭至今，例如美联
社（订购者享有的合作公司）和法新社（政府新闻机构），但路透社和道琼斯新
闻专线却已另起炉灶，开发了一笔大买卖——为金融服务公司提供第一手的准确
消息。彭博社也是最近以这种“信息供应商”的身份入行、随后发展成新闻机构
的例子。如今，彭博社的分支机构遍布世界各地，统一把快讯卖给报社。
The financial crisis is taking a terrible toll on both financial-services
firms and newspapers, so you might expect the news agencies that serve
them to be in trouble too. Not so. Christoph Pleitgen, a senior Reuters
executive, says the big newswires have been staffing up in the past year.
The Journal’s owner, News Corp, announced job cuts at the newspaper
earlier this month, but said that the Dow Jones newswire was adding
journalists at its bureaus, especially in India. Likewise, Bloomberg’
s recent announcement of around 190 job cuts at a foreign-language
television venture got more attention than its promise to create 1,000
jobs elsewhere, including in its news bureaus. And CNN, a television-news
network, plans to set up a new international agency to rival AP and Reuters.
你可能会觉得，既然报业和金融服务公司一样，在这次金融危机中受伤惨重，那
么为报纸提供素材的新闻机构也该举步维艰才是。其实不然。路透社高级执行主
管克里斯托夫•普雷根称，各大新闻专线去年一直在增添人手。本月早些时候，
美国新闻集团（华尔街日报所在公司）公布了旗下报纸裁员的消息，但也透露道
琼斯新闻专线正招募记者，尤其是驻印记者。近日，彭博社也宣布某外语频道的
岗位将削减 190 个。消息一出，人们的注意力都被吸引到裁员上，没怎么注意到
她还承诺要在别处——包括往新设的新闻机构新增 1000 份工作。还有美国有线
新闻网，计划成立一家国际新闻机构来与法新社和路透社抗衡。
A few struggling newspaper groups have stopped subscribing to newswires.
Many others, having cut their own newsrooms, have become more dependent
than ever on regurgitating agency copy. The proliferation of news websites,
hungry for content, but lacking staff to produce it themselves, has also
boosted the agencies. Last year printed newspapers contributed only 25%
of AP’s revenues, says its boss, Tom Curley, down from 55% in 1985. Mr
Pleitgen says that in developing regions, such as the Gulf, new television
stations, websites and even newspapers are springing up, compensating for
the newswires’ loss of customers elsewhere.
在当前的大环境下，一些新闻集团难以为继，便中断了新闻专线的服务，但更多
的则比以往任何时候都需要原封不动的专线快讯，因为这些集团已经削掉了编辑
室，无从加工。另外，新闻机构能在逆境中蓬勃发展，还得益于铺天盖地的网站
——既急需板面，又不能杜撰，只好大量购买快讯。美联社总裁汤姆•克里称，
去年美联社纸质报纸的销量仅占总额的 25%，较 1985 年下降 30%。普雷根先生也
说，在波斯湾这样的发展中区域，新电视台、网站、乃至报业大楼竞相拔地而起，
足以弥补他们在别处的损失。
But if newswires are thriving and newspapers are making ever more use of
wire copy, why don’t the wire services supply news direct to the consumer?
The risk that newspapers will be disintermediated is noted in a new report
by, of all people, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at
Oxford University. In some ways, it is already happening. Reuters and
Bloomberg offer their top stories direct to consumers on
advertising-financed websites.
但是，如果报纸里原封不动的快讯越来越多，新闻专线也蒸蒸日上，何不把快讯
直接出售给读者？人们对此议论纷纷。其中，牛津大学路透新闻学研究所的报告
提出了报纸被架空的可能。从某种程度上，这正变为现实。通过登陆某些靠广告
盈利的网站，读者已经可以直接浏览路透社和彭博社的头条新闻。
And as more people consume news via smart-phones and other mobile devices,
the newswires are providing it there, too. Norman Pearlstine, a senior
Bloomberg executive, says the firm’s application for the Apple iPhone
has been downloaded over a million times. Its service is free “for now”.
AP, which is owned by its main subscribers, is treading carefully: it has
struck deals with 1,200 American newspapers to create mobile websites,
for which AP provides national and international news and they provide
local news.
注意到越来越多的小灵通和其他移动设备正被用来阅读新闻，新闻专线也把触角
伸向了那里。彭博社的高级执行主管诺曼•佩尔斯坦称，为阅读他们的新闻而下
载苹果 iPhone 手机应用程序的人数已超过一百万次，且手机报是“暂时”免费
的。美联社这一步则迈得比较谨慎，因为她的客户都是付费用户：在与 1200 家
美国报社的协议下，双方将成立移动网站，美联社负责国内外新闻，报社提供当
地消息。
Nobody yet knows which business model, if any, will work for mobile news.
Mr Pearlstine notes that mobile users happily pay for a new ringtone, so
why not for news? It is unclear how good news agencies will be at marketing
direct to consumers. But as they continue building their worldwide news
bureaus and providing more comprehensive coverage, they may be more likely
to survive in the long term than those newspapers which, through constant
rounds of cuts, risk becoming ever less distinctive.
不过，移动新闻这个商业模式究竟该怎么走，走不走得通，眼下还不甚明朗。佩
尔斯坦先生指出，既然付费铃声能让移动用户买得心甘情愿，为什么新闻不能？
即便我们不知道新闻机构的这种“直销”方式能创下多大业绩，但只要继续扩张
世界各地的新闻网点、提供更加全面的报道，从长远看来，新闻机构就有可能挺
过一波又一波的裁员之痛存活下来。至于那些报社，则可能慢慢淡出人们的视线，
消失殆尽。
《纽约时报》对 Eco Team 的报道
类归于： BLOG 维护 — Eco Team @ 3:42 下午
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/business/media/02economist.
html
Volunteers Put the Economist Into Chinese
志愿者们将《经济学人》译成中文
By ANDREW BAIO
Published: March 1, 2009
Every day, Chinese fans produce unauthorized translations of Western pop
culture products and put them online, like subtitled episodes of “Heroes”
or the final Harry Potter novel. But a group calling itself the Eco Team
has picked a more cerebral target: the British newsweekly The Economist.
每天，众多中国英语爱好者自发地将一些西方热门文化作品译为中文发布在网
上，例如为电视剧《英雄》配上字幕，或是翻译小说《哈利·波特》的完结篇。
而一个自称为 Eco Team 的翻译团队则将更专业的目标锁定在了英国周刊杂志–
《经济学人》。
With each new issue, the group’s members work together to sharpen their
language skills by translating the magazine from cover to cover.
每当新一期的杂志发布，团队的成员就分工合作、逐篇翻译，以此来提高自己的
翻译技能。
The group meets on a message board at ecocn.org/bbs that is led by Shi
Yi, a 39-year-old insurance broker in Beijing. “Different people come
from different backgrounds with their own purpose,” Mr. Yi said. “But
we all like the style of The Economist.”
译员们通过 ecocn.org/bbs 这个网上论坛沟通交流，这个论坛由一名来自北京的
39 岁保险经纪人施轶创办，在他看来，虽然译员来自不同的专业背景，拥有各
自的目标，但大家都是因为喜爱《经济学人》而聚集到了一起。
Thirty to 40 of the group’s members work on each issue, Mr. Yi said. On
the message board, they interweave paragraphs of English and Chinese text
and collaborate on the translations. The final versions are bundled into
Eco Weekly, a publication in the PDF format that is released biweekly and
can be freely downloaded and printed.
施轶向我们介绍说，每期的翻译工作由 30-40 名团队成员共同完成，在论坛上，
他们以中英文逐段对照翻译的形式完成翻译稿。最终，所有的译稿被合成在一个
PDF 格式的文件中，即《经济学人杂志中文版》，该译本每两周发布一次，并且
允许网友免费下载和打印。
The translators know they are taking a political risk. The Chinese
authorities have ripped controversial articles about China out of some
issues of The Economist before they hit the stands there. In 2002, a full
issue was banned.
译员们深知他们所承担的政治风险。中国政府曾先入为主、和谐了《经济学人》
某几期杂志中一些对中国的评论具有争议的文章。2002 年中甚至有一期被整本
封禁。
As a result, several topics are taboo. In its published guidelines, the
Eco Team bans articles about China’s relationship with Taiwan, Tibet,
Falun Gong and the Tiananmen Square protests.
因此，有些话题谈不得。在 Eco Team 的发布规范中，凡涉及中国大陆与台湾的
关系、西/藏、法/轮/功以及抗议事件的文章是被禁止的。
Articles about China’s restrictions on the news media are also off limits,
as is discussion of the “Great Firewall of China,” a system used to block
some Internet content. “Political issues are quite sensitive in current
China,” Mr. Yi said. “We do not want to make any trouble to irritate
the government.”
有关中国对媒体新闻的严格管制的文章也是一大禁区，这样一个用于屏蔽某些特
定网络信息的体系被人们称作”中国的网上长城”。施轶表示，在当代中国，凡
涉及政治的话题都相当敏感，我们不希望与政府产生任何不愉快的矛盾。
So far, neither the Chinese authorities nor The Economist has tried to
stop the noncommercial, volunteer effort. Mr. Yi said that he had met
members of the magazine’s staff, including its editor, John Micklethwait,
and that they had granted their approval. A spokesman for The Economist,
Justin Hendrix, was unable to confirm that arrangement as of Sunday night.
到目前为止，无论是中国政府还是《经济学人》杂志都没有试图终止这样一项非
盈利的、纯属志愿性质的工作。施轶透露他拜访过一些《经济学人》杂志的员工，
包括《经济学人》主编 John Micklethwait，并获得了他们的许可。但是，杂志
发言人 Justin Hendrix 却未能在周日晚间证实该消息。
Meanwhile, the group is hard at work on the 50th issue of Eco Weekly. Who
needs the latest episode of “Lost” when a cover story on the fate of
European unity awaits?
与此同时，Eco Team 正加紧翻译第 50 期《经济学人杂志中文版》。考虑到当下
那篇有关欧盟命运的封面文章还等着人来翻译，谁还去稀罕《迷失》的最新一集
呢？
Translating "The Economist" Behind
China's Great Firewall
Posted Feb 26, 2009 (Updated Mar 5, 2009)
While researching Oscar screeners last month, I stumbled on a remarkable
example of online collaboration in China that's completely undiscovered here. In
short, a group of dedicated fans of The Economist newsmagazine are translating
each weekly issue cover-to-cover, splitting up the work among a team of
volunteers, and redistributing the finished translations as complete PDFs for a
Chinese audience.
It reminds me of the scanlation movement, in which groups of fans scan,
translate, and redistribute manga into another language. But I've never seen it
applied to a newspaper or magazine, especially one as high-minded as The
Economist.
It's an impressive example of online collaboration with simple tools, a completely
non-commercial effort by volunteers interested in spreading knowledge while
improving their English skills. In the process, they're taking a political risk in
translating controversial articles about their homeland behind the Great Firewall.
I can't read Chinese, but with the help of Google's translation tools and several
Chinese-speaking friends, I think I've pieced it together. (If anyone out there
knows more, please email or IM me and I'll add it in.)
How It Works
They call themselves The Eco Team, a group of about 240 passionate
Economist fans led by a 39-year-old insurance broker named Shi Yi. The ECO
China forum was originally founded in May 2006 by a mysterious character
named "nEo," though he's no longer involved with the site. On their About Us
page, nEo delivers the mission statement:
"Like the forum name says, producing a Chinese version of The Economist is our
goal. But we're still young and immature; very amateur, not professional. So what?
Because we are young, we have the fervor, the enthusiasm, the passion. Because
we are amateurs, we'll double our efforts to do our best. As long as we wish, we
can be successful and do a good job!"
Every week, in their Weekly Topics forum (translation), a moderator creates a
thread linking to every untranslated article from the newest issue on
Economist.com. Here's the list for this week's issue, published on February 21.
Volunteers choose their stories in the comments, while the moderator keeps track
of assignments. As each story's translated, it's posted as a new thread in
topic-specific forums, like Special Reports or Science & Technology.
Each article weaves together paragraphs of the original text and its translation,
while other volunteers suggest their corrections in the comments. The lead editor
incorporates all the comments, eventually arriving at a final draft ready for
publication.
The Finished Product
While the Eco Team works on translating every article as soon as each issue hits
the stands, the Eco PDF Team bundles up finished translations into Eco Weekly,
a bi-weekly PDF with two complete issues for forum members to enjoy and share.
Eco Weekly #49 was released only yesterday, encompassing the November 29
and December 6 issues.
The result is a bit rough around the edges, focusing more on the content than
presentation, but perfectly readable. Below is a side-by-side comparison of one
article from the issue (view larger).
Only logged-in users can view the PDFs, so I've mirrored one below. It's locked
with the password www.ecocn.org, largely so they get credit for their work.
Eco Weekly 2008049.pdf (5 MB)
Self-Censorship and Political Taboos
But The Economist frequently covers China with a critical eye, leading to frequent
clashes with Chinese authorities. In July 2002, an entire issue was banned from
the country because of an editorial by Beijing correspondent James Miles, who
noted that articles about China are often ripped from the magazine before it hits
the newsstands. And there have been reports that access to the Economist website
is being disrupted by China's firewall.
In an interview from 2006, former editor Bill Emmott said, "The Economist
would not publish a compromised or censored version of the magazine in order to
get into China. However, if the authorities tear out a page of an issue to censor it,
we do not then withdraw the whole copy on grounds that it is tainted: as the
censorship would be plain to anyone who saw it."
How do the members of the Eco Team tackle this touchy subject, without risking
the entire project? To start, they only translate articles about China in a protected
forum that blocks access to search engines and non-members.
Inside, most articles get translated without incident, but there are some
exceptions. In a thread explaining why the forum's protected, a moderator lists
some guidelines and some topics that are off-limits:
Along with rapid growth, China is starting to get more influence on the
international stage. This can be seen in the international media coverage, with
more articles involving China. Since the content of those articles comprises many
areas, some topics are prohibited by the Chinese government. To avoid any
unnecessary trouble and for the survival of ECO, all comments/articles published
in The Economist must abide by the following policy:
There's one general rule: If the article involves any sensitive topics, if you're not
sure whether it's permitted or not, please don't risk any chance by publishing it.
Even though this appears to be severe, people shouldn't be overly sensitive. In
China, not everything related to politics is off-limits. Some issues involving
politics can belong in the scope of discussion; for example, discussions on the
reform of local government architecture. Articles revolving around these matters
are often published in the government newspaper/magazines, it's not forbidden.
The list of sensitive subjects includes China-Taiwan's political relationship, Tibet,
Falun Gong, the Tiananmen Square protests, the Cultural Revolution, discussions
of freedom of the press or freedom of religion (including the "Great Firewall"),
and any discussion of the establishment of a new Chinese political party. They
note exceptions for the finances and social issues of Tibet or Taiwan, targeting
only the political issues.
"Violation of these rules is strictly prohibited. If someone breaks these rules in
your forum, don't allow it," the moderator writes. "Delete the note right away. If
this is the poster's first offense, give them a warning. If it's the second offense,
delete the ID and block the user!"
As far as I can tell, there's no political motive behind the Eco Team's efforts. They
simply want to improve their English, while learning about the world around
them and pursuing the unbiased truth. But they're not going to risk the entire
project to do it, which makes their moderation guidelines largely defensive. One
editor compares it to American political correctness, an attempt to look out for
other's feelings.
Copyright Issues and The Economist's Stance
I spoke to Shi Yi, the Eco Team's current leader, and he told me that he has a
good relationship with The Economist, including ongoing discussions with
executive editor John Micklethwait and the head of their Chinese office. Yi said
the Eco Team was granted official permission to do translation in their forum
exclusively, since it's an entirely non-profit and volunteer effort.
The Economist does not approve of the commercial reuse of their translation by
third parties. While the Eco Weekly issues are for members only, others have
taken their work without permission and syndicated them for commercial use on
sites like Blogbus and Ecosky.
Yi mentioned the Eco Forum is funded entirely by donations from an annual fund
drive. In the forum's primary navigation, they also prominently encourage
members to purchase a subscription. He also pointed me to the only other similar
project he knows of, a Chinese fan translation of TIME Magazine.
I reached out to The Economist several times myself over the past month, but I
was unable to get a response. If they respond, I'll be sure to post a followup.
Special thanks to all the translators that helped with this article, including Ernie,
mandroid, usernameguy, mcmjolnir, Melissa, and Secretmuffin.
Update: The New York Times asked me to rework this article for a shorter
version in Monday's print edition. Not surprisingly, the Eco Team translated it
into Chinese.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3d1ec800-e5b2-11dd-afe4-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
Alibaba prepares for global expansion
By Kathrin Hille in Beijing
Published: January 19 2009 02:04 | Last updated: January 19 2009 02:04
Alibaba, the world’s largest online platform for trade between businesses, intends to take
advantage of the global financial crisis as an opportunity to transform itself from a
China-focused e-commerce provider into a global web marketplace, according to Jack Ma, its
founder and chairman.
“Before this financial crisis, we were helping China’s products abroad. Now we are thinking
about helping small and medium-sized enterprises in other parts of the world,” said Mr Ma in
an interview.
As part of its drive for geographical diversification, Alibaba is moving its European
headquarters from Geneva to London this month, as it sees the UK as one of the most
promising markets for picking up suppliers.
Alibaba Group, which also includes Taobao, China’s leading consumer e-commerce website,
and Yahoo China, plans to increase its current workforce of 12,000 by more than 4,000 this
year. Alibaba.com, the Hong Kong-listed flagship which operates the business-to-business
trading platform, reported revenues of Rmb2.2bn ($321m) for the first nine months of 2008.
Although Alibaba serves buyers and sellers all over the world, Chinese companies seeking
buyers overseas account for the bulk of its revenues so far. But as demand from the US and
Europe has dropped off, the company has launched programmes to support domestic trade
and exports from other countries to China.
“[We want to] help them sell across the nations, help them sell to China,” said Mr Ma. “I believe
in the next three years, China will be one of the world’s largest buying markets. China needs to
buy these things.”
Given that China’s imports have also entered a period of sharp contraction, falling 13 per cent
year-on-year in November and 16.3 per cent last month, observers are likely to challenge the
near-term viability of Mr Ma’s plan.
“Most e-commerce plays are directly dependent on the level of underlying economic activity,
and hence they are among the most cyclical of internet business models,” said Citigroup in a
recent report.
However, Mr Ma’s plans are longer-term. Through programmes that encourage businesses to
export to China, he hopes to attract suppliers from other regions that would then stay with
Alibaba in better times.
“In Europe, there are so many SMEs. Why not help them to China? Why not help them to
America? Why not to India and Japan?” he said. “Alibaba has changed already. I cannot
imagine Alibaba as China-centred.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
China’s internet godfather
By Kathrin Hille
Published: January 18 2009 22:04 | Last updated: January 18 2009 22:04
Every time a salesperson at online trading site Alibaba signs up an important new account, the
entire sales department cheers in triumph. But today they have been asked to keep the noise
down as Jack Ma, founder and chairman of the world’s largest online trading platform for
businesses, is being interviewed in the open-plan office.
If Mr Ma feels most comfortable next to his sales force, it is because their work comes closest
to what the 44-year-old has been doing over the past 15 years: preaching the importance of
the internet and convincing companies to pay for offering their products on Alibaba’s website.
Today, Alibaba has 36m registered users worldwide and generated revenues of Rmb2.2bn
($322m, €245m, £220m) in the first nine months of 2008 – 43 per cent up from the previous
year. The group employs 12,000 people and intends to hire another 4,500 this year. It also
controls Yahoo China and Taobao, China’s leading consumer e-commerce platform, which Mr
Ma founded in 2003.
Jack Ma has been called China’s internet godfather. But when the slight, gaunt man – birdlike
in appearance – tried to sell online advertising space on China’s nascent internet in 1994,
people viewed him with scepticism and suspicion. “They would think I was crazy,” he says,
gesturing with his bony hands.
A gift for acting runs in the family. Mr Ma’s parents made their living as performers of ping tan,
a traditional art of storytelling that originated in Suzhou, a city close to his home town of
Hangzhou.
He grew up in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long mass campaign launched
by Mao Zedong in which millions were uprooted, families were destroyed and people lost their
lives.
At the age of 12, just as Chinese society started emerging from this period of turmoil, Mr Ma,
bad at maths but good at English, decided to learn the language to perfection. He worked for
free as a guide for foreign tourists to improve his language and open a door to the outside
world.
After failing the nationwide college entrance exam twice, he narrowly squeezed into Hangzhou
Normal College to study English. He became a teacher, but soon gave up what was widely
regarded as a safe and reputable profession to set up his own business, a translation agency,
in 1994. The work brought him to the US later the same year, where he first encountered
computers and the internet – and decided to build an internet business.
In 1995, he set up the China Yellow Pages, an online directory for Chinese businesses. But as
there was no internet connection in his hometown of Hangzhou, very few of his customers
were able to see if their advertisements were on the website or not. In the early days, he once
put a group of prospective clients in a room with a computer and then uploaded their pages via
a long-distance phone connection from Shanghai for them to see.
Four years later, Mr Ma again prompted an incredulous reaction when he founded Alibaba as
an internet start-up focused on small businesses rather than consumers or multinationals.
The key to Alibaba’s business model is the assumption that small- and medium-sized
enterprises are those that can benefit most from the internet because it gives them access to
buyers they would otherwise only meet at trade shows. With access to a wider pool of
customers, it also reduces their dependency on market-dominant clients.
“Companies like Wal-Mart, these big-size buyers, killed a lot of SME buyers,” says Mr Ma. “But
now most of the SME buyers and sellers started to do business throughout the world because
of the internet. So I think the world has moved. I strongly believe small is beautiful.”
Alibaba has transformed that belief into a strong revenue stream by offering Chinese suppliers
a presence on its website in exchange for fixed payments. But all that could be at risk if large
numbers of SMEs were to fall victim to the global economic crisis.
“We still have more than US$2bn (€1.5bn, £1.3bn) in cash reserves for the group, and the
internet is growing in China, everything is fine, so surviving ourselves is easy,” says Mr Ma.
“But if our customers die, if the SMEs who we are serving disappear, it will be a big disaster.”
Although China’s economy is so far faring better than others, domestic trade has slowed,
affecting a large chunk of Alibaba’s business – 28.7m of its registered users are in its home
market. To soften the blow, Alibaba has facilitated loans in excess of Rmb1bn to SMEs that
would otherwise have struggled to get money.
“We do the same thing as Muhammad Yunus,” says Mr Ma, referring to the father of
microcredit who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. “Let’s use the crisis to change the banks.”
But a bigger change for Mr Ma’s own company is the group’s shifting geographic focus.
“Before this financial crisis, we were helping China’s products abroad. Now we are thinking
about helping SMEs in the other parts of the world. Help them sell across the nations. Help
them to sell to China,” he says. “In the next 10 years, we are moving from a pure China
exporting centre to a global platform for SMEs to exchange products.”
In the past six months Alibaba has made a big push in this direction with a programme called
Export to China, which offers non-Chinese sellers virtual Chinese-language storefronts.
Taobao, he announces, will also go global. Beyond Japan, where the platform already has a
venture, he is targeting markets such as India or Mexico.
However, the company will not insist on applying its own business model to markets it does not
know, says Mr Ma, in a dig at US rivals. “How to go global when we see [its effects on] Ebay,
Amazon, Yahoo? They’re all facing trouble. We are not coming to India saying, we want 100
per cent all ourselves. This is not real globalisation, this is occupation.”
This is one of Mr Ma’s favourite topics – it was his company, after all, which overtook Ebay,
and Yahoo came to him when its foray into China ran into difficulties.
Yahoo took a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba in 2006 and Alibaba took control of Yahoo China. Mr
Ma argues that these companies failed in China because they tried to conquer the market with
foreign managers and techniques.
After some discussion of this, Mr Ma’s eyes begin darting about: he can hear mobile phones
going off in the sales department. He offers a comment about the global economy: “The ship is
moving into the most dangerous area now.” And with that, he gets back to work.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009