阿里巴巴20億美元追加投資東南亞電商同行

China’s Alibaba is doubling down on Lazada, pouring in a further $2bn and installing one of its top brass as chief executive, relegating the south-east Asian ecommerce company’s founder to an advisory role.

中國的阿里巴巴(Alibaba)對Lazada追加投資20億美元，并任命自己的一名高管出任這家東南亞電子商務公司的首席執(zhí)行官，將該公司創(chuàng)始人降格為顧問角色。

The move comes as the battle for the south-east Asian market heats up, as global players including Amazon and Google thrash it out with China’s tech titans and domestic players such as Sea.

采取此舉之際，對東南亞市場的爭奪正在升溫，亞馬遜(Amazon)和谷歌(Google)等全球企業(yè)與中國科技巨擘以及Sea等本土競爭者較量。

It also mirrors Alibaba’s tightening grip on Cainiao. In September Alibaba ploughed an extra $807m into its logistics network to lift its stake from 47 per cent to 51 per cent and pledged to invest another Rmb100bn ($15.2bn) over the following five years. Cainiao and Lazada are both lossmaking

此舉還與阿里巴巴對菜鳥(Cainiao)收緊控制如出一轍。去年9月，阿里巴巴對該物流網(wǎng)絡追加投資8.07億美元，將其所持股份從47%提高至51%，并承諾在未來五年再投資1000億元人民幣(合152億美元)。菜鳥和Lazada都處于虧損狀態(tài)。

Alibaba said the latest investment in Lazada, which brings its total to $4bn, was expected to deepen its integration into Alibaba’s ecosystem, which spans shopping, payments, entertainment and cloud services, mainly in China.

阿里巴巴表示，對Lazada的最新投資(使阿里巴巴對Lazada的總投資達到40億美元)預計將使后者更深地融入阿里巴巴的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，該生態(tài)系統(tǒng)包含購物、支付、娛樂和云服務，目前主要覆蓋中國。

“With a young population, high mobile penetration and just 3 per cent of the region’s retail sales currently conducted online, we feel very confident to double down on south-east Asia,” said Lucy Peng, one of Alibaba’s 18 founders and a member of its elite committee responsible for board appointments and other tasks, who will assume the role of chief executive at Lazada.

“東南亞地區(qū)崛起的青年群體、移動互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的高滲透率，以及僅占零售總額3%的電子商務體量，讓我們對加碼投資東南亞市場充滿了信心。”阿里巴巴的18位創(chuàng)始人之一、負責任命該公司董事的一個精英委員會的成員彭蕾(Lucy Peng)表示。她將擔任Lazada首席執(zhí)行官。

Investors and analysts, however, have been less convinced by Alibaba’s expansion into more cash-guzzling areas, including bricks and mortar stores, which marks a departure from its traditionally asset-lite model. That scepticism saw the share price slide earlier this year, though it has since rebounded.

然而，對于阿里巴巴擴張進入更加燒錢的領(lǐng)域(包括實體商店)、偏離其傳統(tǒng)的輕資產(chǎn)模式，投資者和分析師不那么信服。這種懷疑態(tài)度曾導致其股價在今年早些時候下跌，盡管此后已有所反彈。

One long-time follower of the company points to Intime, the department store that Alibaba bought into in 2014 and subsequently took private in January 2017. “That was the first shoe to drop,” he says. “People started thinking, they are bringing on an asset heavy low margin business and it’s goodbye to 62-63 per cent ebitda [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] margins [at Alibaba].”

長期追蹤該公司的一名人士舉了銀泰(Intime)的例子，阿里巴巴于2014年入股這家百貨商場運營商，后來在2017年1月將其收歸私有。“那是掉下的第一只鞋，”他說。“人們開始思考，他們正在引入重資產(chǎn)、低利潤率的業(yè)務，告別(阿里巴巴)62%至63%的EBITDA(利息、稅收、折舊和攤銷前利潤)利潤率。”

Lazada does however offer a ticket into one of the fastest growing markets for online shopping. Alibaba made its first investment in Lazada in April 2016, paying $1bn for a 51 per cent stake.

然而，Lazada確實提供了進入增長最快的網(wǎng)絡購物市場之一的門票。阿里巴巴于2016年4月首次投資該公司，以10億美元收購51%的股權(quán)。

That was followed in June last year by an additional $1bn investment taking its stake to 83 per cent.

隨后阿里巴巴在去年6月又以10億美元的追加投資增持其股份至83%。

Max Bittner, who founded Lazada, will become a senior adviser to Alibaba “to assist in the transition and future international growth strategy”, the company said. Mr Bittner becomes the second chief executive to exit from a south-east Asian platform following Nick Nash’s planned departure from Sea, announced last month.

Lazada表示，該公司創(chuàng)始人馬克斯•比特納(Max Bittner)將成為阿里巴巴的高級顧問，“協(xié)助交接和未來的國際增長戰(zhàn)略”。在上月尼克•納什(Nick Nash)宣布計劃從Sea離任之后，比特納成為第二位退出東南亞平臺公司的首席執(zhí)行官。

A December report by Google and Singapore’s state investment fund Temasek projects the region will have an ecommerce market worth $88.1bn by 2025.

谷歌和新加坡國家投資基金淡馬錫(Temasek)去年12月發(fā)表的一份報告預測，到2025年東南亞電子商務市場價值將達到881億美元。

Singapore-based Lazada was launched in 2012 and operates in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. It says it serves 560m people across the region. Alibaba has also invested $1.1bn in Indonesian online marketplace Tokopedia.

總部位于新加坡的Lazada于2012年成立，在印度尼西亞、越南、馬來西亞、菲律賓和泰國運營。該公司聲稱為該地區(qū)5.6億人服務。阿里巴巴還向印尼在線市場Tokopedia投資了11億美元。