阿里巴巴20亿美元追加投资东南亚电商同行
中国的阿里巴巴(Alibaba)对Lazada追加投资20亿美元，并任命自己的一名高管出任这家东南亚电子商务公司的首席执行官，将该公司创始人降格为顾问角色。
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.
采取此举之际，对东南亚市场的争夺正在升温，亚马逊(Amazon)和谷歌(Google)等全球企业与中国科技巨擘以及Sea等本土竞争者较量。
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
此举还与阿里巴巴对菜鸟(Cainiao)收紧控制如出一辙。去年9月，阿里巴巴对该物流网络追加投资8.07亿美元，将其所持股份从47%提高至51%，并承诺在未来五年再投资1000亿元人民币(合152亿美元)。菜鸟和Lazada都处于亏损状态。
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，对Lazada的最新投资(使阿里巴巴对Lazada的总投资达到40亿美元)预计将使后者更深地融入阿里巴巴的生态系统，该生态系统包含购物、支付、娱乐和云服务，目前主要覆盖中国。
“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.
“东南亚地区崛起的青年群体、移动互联网的高渗透率，以及仅占零售总额3%的电子商务体量，让我们对加码投资东南亚市场充满了信心。”阿里巴巴的18位创始人之一、负责任命该公司董事的一个精英委员会的成员彭蕾(Lucy Peng)表示。她将担任Lazada首席执行官。
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，对于阿里巴巴扩张进入更加烧钱的领域(包括实体商店)、偏离其传统的轻资产模式，投资者和分析师不那么信服。这种怀疑态度曾导致其股价在今年早些时候下跌，尽管此后已有所反弹。
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].”
长期追踪该公司的一名人士举了银泰(Intime)的例子，阿里巴巴于2014年入股这家百货商场运营商，后来在2017年1月将其收归私有。“那是掉下的第一只鞋，”他说。“人们开始思考，他们正在引入重资产、低利润率的业务，告别(阿里巴巴)62%至63%的EBITDA(利息、税收、折旧和摊销前利润)利润率。”
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确实提供了进入增长最快的网络购物市场之一的门票。阿里巴巴于2016年4月首次投资该公司，以10亿美元收购51%的股权。
That was followed in June last year by an additional $1bn investment taking its stake to 83 per cent.
随后阿里巴巴在去年6月又以10亿美元的追加投资增持其股份至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，该公司创始人马克斯•比特纳(Max Bittner)将成为阿里巴巴的高级顾问，“协助交接和未来的国际增长战略”。在上月尼克•纳什(Nick Nash)宣布计划从Sea离任之后，比特纳成为第二位退出东南亚平台公司的首席执行官。
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.
谷歌和新加坡国家投资基金淡马锡(Temasek)去年12月发表的一份报告预测，到2025年东南亚电子商务市场价值将达到881亿美元。
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.
总部位于新加坡的Lazada于2012年成立，在印度尼西亚、越南、马来西亚、菲律宾和泰国运营。该公司声称为该地区5.6亿人服务。阿里巴巴还向印尼在线市场Tokopedia投资了11亿美元。
