China’s Audacious and Inventive New Generation of Entrepreneurs

“New era, new revolution. I am a MAKER2maker本義為生產(chǎn)者、制造商，近年來“創(chuàng)客”成為流行語，專指具有創(chuàng)新理念、自主創(chuàng)業(yè)的人。, for the hearts of the dream.” So goes a rallying cry3rallying cry（團(tuán)結(jié)眾人的）戰(zhàn)斗口號(hào)。carved in giant letters on the wall of a warehouse in Shekou, a seaside enclave4enclave本義為飛地，此處指工業(yè)區(qū)、開發(fā)區(qū)。near Hong Kong. Many of China’s most promising entrepreneurs flocked there recently for a conference organised by TechCrunch5科技類博客，主要報(bào)道新興互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司、評論互聯(lián)網(wǎng)新產(chǎn)品，是美國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)產(chǎn)業(yè)的風(fēng)向標(biāo)。, a technology publisher from Silicon Valley. Yet Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent—established Chinese internet giants collectively known as the BAT—were overshadowed by upstarts such as Didi Chuxing, a ride-hailing firm that chased America’s Uber away from China, and Ofo, a bike-sharing startup that is going global.

“新時(shí)代，新革命。我是創(chuàng)客，全心逐夢?！痹谏呖凇R近香港的濱海開發(fā)區(qū)，一間倉庫墻上用巨幅大字雕刻著這句戰(zhàn)斗口號(hào)。許多前途無量的中國企業(yè)家最近聚集到那里，參加由來自硅谷的科技出版商TechCrunch主辦的大會(huì)。然而，與諸如滴滴出行和ofo小黃車之類迅速崛起的企業(yè)相比，百度、阿里巴巴和騰訊——被合稱為BAT的中國老牌互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭黯然失色。滴滴出行是一家提供叫車服務(wù)的公司，目前已把美國的優(yōu)步擠出中國。ofo小黃車則是一家經(jīng)營共享單車的初創(chuàng)公司，正進(jìn)軍全球。

[2] They are part of a new wave of inventive young firms emerging from China. A few years ago, Chinese innovation meant copycats and counterfeits. The driving force is now an audacious, talented and globally minded generation of entrepreneurs.Investors are placing big bets on them.Around $77bn of venture-capital (VC)investment poured into Chinese firms from 2014 to 2016, up from $12bn between 2011 and 2013.

[3] China’s 89 unicorns6unicorn神話動(dòng)物，在投資界用來指那些估值達(dá)到10億美元及以上的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，因其如獨(dú)角獸般稀有而高貴。(startups valued at $1bn or more) are worth over $350bn, by one recent estimate,approaching the combined valuation of America’s.

[4] Gone are the “C2C” (copy to China) and “JGE” (just good enough) strategies of their parochial7parochial地方性的；狹隘的。predecessors. China’s nimble new innovators are using world-class technologies from supercomputing to gene editing. Having established themselves in the cut-throat8cut-throat 割喉的，殘酷競爭的，形容競爭之激烈。mainland market, many are heading abroad.

[5] There are two main reasons why China’s determined entrepreneurs can expand their businesses rapidly.First, the economy, the world’s second largest, is big enough to let fi rms attain huge scale just by succeeding at home.It helps that language and culture are more homogeneous9homogeneous由同類事物（或人）組成的。than in Europe and physical infrastructure (such as roads and wireless broadband) is new and excellent, unlike in America.

[2]它們代表中國正在崛起的新一波創(chuàng)新型初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。幾年之前，中國的創(chuàng)新還只是意味著山寨貨和假冒產(chǎn)品?，F(xiàn)在的推動(dòng)力則是無所畏懼、富有才干而又擁有全球視野的一代企業(yè)家。投資者們把賭注押在他們身上。注入中國企業(yè)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本（VC）投資，從2011年至2013年的120億美元增加到2014年至2016年的約770億美元。

[3]根據(jù)最近的一項(xiàng)估算，中國89家獨(dú)角獸公司（估值達(dá)到10億美元及以上的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)）的價(jià)值超過3500億美元，接近美國同類公司的估值總額。

[4]其目光狹獈的前輩們所采用的“復(fù)制到中國”和“質(zhì)量還湊合”的戰(zhàn)略已成過眼煙云。機(jī)敏的中國新一代創(chuàng)新者，正在運(yùn)用從超級計(jì)算到基因編輯等世界級技術(shù)。在競爭激烈的大陸市場站穩(wěn)腳跟之后，許多人正在向海外進(jìn)軍。

[5]中國果敢的企業(yè)家們之所以能夠迅速擴(kuò)張業(yè)務(wù)，有兩個(gè)主要原因。第一，作為世界第二大經(jīng)濟(jì)體，中國經(jīng)濟(jì)規(guī)模龐大，企業(yè)僅憑在本土市場上的成功，就足以達(dá)到超大的規(guī)模。中國各地語言和文化的同質(zhì)性程度高于歐洲，而且跟美國不同，中國的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施（諸如道路和無線寬帶）既新又好，這些都助益良多。

[6] Second, Chinese shoppers are voracious10voracious渴求新知的，求知欲強(qiáng)的，形容購買欲強(qiáng)。and venturesome, an advantage to innovators with clever products but unfamiliar brands. They are also unusually eager to embrace technology. China’s penetration rates11penetration rate滲透率，產(chǎn)品（服務(wù)）擁有（使用）者的比例，用來衡量普及程度。for mobile phones and broadband internet are high, making it easy for startups to reach a vast market cheaply. And China is rapidly becoming cashless. The volume of mobile payments shot up almost fourfold in 2016, to $8.6trn, compared with just $112bn in America. This is why China breeds financial-technology startups so quickly and is home to many of the world’s most valuable fintech fi rms. Ant Financial, spun out of Alibaba,may be worth more than $60bn.

[6]第二，中國的購物者求知欲強(qiáng)又不怕冒險(xiǎn)，這對產(chǎn)品具獨(dú)創(chuàng)性但品牌知名度不高的創(chuàng)新者有利。他們接受新技術(shù)的熱切程度也異乎尋常。中國的移動(dòng)電話和寬帶互聯(lián)網(wǎng)滲透率很高，這讓初創(chuàng)企業(yè)很容易低成本進(jìn)入廣闊的市場。而且，中國正迅速變成無現(xiàn)金社會(huì)。2016年，中國的移動(dòng)支付總額暴漲了近4倍，達(dá)到8.6萬億美元，相比之下，美國僅有1120億美元。這就是為什么中國如此快速地培育了金融科技初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，成為世界上許多最具價(jià)值的金融科技企業(yè)的大本營。從阿里巴巴集團(tuán)派生出來的螞蟻金服，其價(jià)值可能超過了600億美元。

Moving at China speed

[7] The government’s willingness to support new ventures hastens innovation in areas such as transport.David Frey of KPMG, a consultancy,believes that it has played a useful role as a “market-maker12market-maker〈商〉（股市上的）旺市制造者，做市商?！? one reason why China is far ahead of America in both electric-vehicle (EV) registrations and the number of charging facilities. A recent announcement of an eventual ban on petrol engines (probably after 2030) could help to secure a long-term lead in the global EV market. But the most useful change was a decision to allow venture-backed startups without previous carmaking experience to enter a field previously dominated by inept fi rms cranking out13crank out粗制濫造。subpar EVs.

[8] Consider Nio, a three-year-old automotive company. Its headquarters and research centre are tucked away14be tucked away坐落在，位于（僻靜的地方）。in a huge complex of low-rise buildings in Shanghai’s Jiading district, a cluster15cluster（產(chǎn)業(yè)）集群。that aspires to become the Detroit of China. It is the brainchild of Li Bin,one of China’s most formidable serial entrepreneurs16seriall entrepreneur 連續(xù)創(chuàng)業(yè)者（指不斷成立新公司的企業(yè)家）。. He made a fortune through BitAuto, a pioneering online platform for buying and selling cars. He also conceived and launched Mobike,Ofo’s main rival in the booming bike-sharing market, and is still its chairman. Nio, backed by the country’s

most astute early-stage investors17early-stage investor早期投資者。早期階段投資是由風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本機(jī)構(gòu)在提供用于運(yùn)營前研發(fā)的種子資本和新公司成立之初的創(chuàng)業(yè)融資時(shí)所進(jìn)行的投資。,including China’s Hillhouse Capital and America’s Sequoia Capital, is valued at around $3bn. “From 2000 to 2017,”says Mr Li, “there was diminishing happiness from owning a car.” Traffic,pollution and accidents were to blame.

以中國速度突飛猛進(jìn)

[7]中國政府樂于支持新企業(yè)，這加速了諸如交通運(yùn)輸?shù)阮I(lǐng)域內(nèi)的創(chuàng)新。咨詢公司畢馬威會(huì)計(jì)事務(wù)所的戴維·弗雷認(rèn)為，中國政府扮演了“做市商”的有益角色，這是中國在電動(dòng)車發(fā)牌量和充電設(shè)施數(shù)量兩方面均遠(yuǎn)超美國的一個(gè)原因。最近公布的最終禁用燃油發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)（大概在2030年之后）的禁令，可能有助于中國在全球電動(dòng)車市場上保持長期的領(lǐng)先地位。但是，最有效的變革是做出決策，允許以前沒有造車經(jīng)驗(yàn)但有風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本支持的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)進(jìn)入原先由粗制濫造低標(biāo)準(zhǔn)電動(dòng)車的無能企業(yè)控制的領(lǐng)域。

[8]不妨看看成立僅三年的汽車公司NIO（蔚來汽車）。其總部和研發(fā)中心藏身于上海嘉定區(qū)一處低矮而龐大的樓群中，這處產(chǎn)業(yè)集群志在成為中國的底特律。蔚來汽車是李斌的創(chuàng)意成果，他是中國最了不起的連續(xù)創(chuàng)業(yè)者之一。他通過汽車在線交易平臺(tái)的先驅(qū)易車網(wǎng)賺到了大錢。他還構(gòu)想并創(chuàng)建了摩拜單車——繁榮的共享單車市場中ofo小黃車的主要競爭對手，至今仍擔(dān)任其董事長。蔚來汽車得到這個(gè)國家最為精明的早期投資者（包括中國高瓴資本和美國紅杉資本）的支持，現(xiàn)在估值約30億美元。李斌說：“從2000年到2017年，擁有汽車的幸福感一直在下降。”這要?dú)w咎于交通擁堵、空氣污染和意外事故。

Driven by innovation

[9] His solution is to combine cloud computing, artificial intelligence and sensing technologies to advance autonomous driving. This will not end traf fi c jams, he reckons, but it can bestow on erstwhile18erstwhile 以前的；先前的。drivers the gift of free time in their cars.

[10] The firm employs people from 40 countries, some poached19poach〈美口〉物色高級人才。from established carmakers including Ford and Volkswagen. Nio has an affiliate in Silicon Valley headed by Padmasree Warrior, a former chief technology officer of Cisco, which plans to raise funds as an independent entity this year. “We consider ourselves a global startup because we want to solve global problems,” Mr Li re fl ects.

創(chuàng)新驅(qū)動(dòng)

[9]李斌的解決方案是把云計(jì)算、人工智能和傳感技術(shù)結(jié)合起來推進(jìn)自動(dòng)駕駛。他認(rèn)為，這不會(huì)終結(jié)交通堵塞，但可以使從前的司機(jī)們在自己的車上享受空閑時(shí)間。

[10]這家企業(yè)雇用的員工來自40個(gè)國家，有些是從包括福特和大眾在內(nèi)的著名大汽車制造商那里挖來的。蔚來汽車在硅谷的分支機(jī)構(gòu)由伍絲麗率領(lǐng)，她曾擔(dān)任思科公司的首席技術(shù)官。該機(jī)構(gòu)計(jì)劃今年作為一個(gè)獨(dú)立的實(shí)體來籌措資金。李斌表示：“我們認(rèn)為自己是一家全球性的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，因?yàn)槲覀兿胍鉀Q全球性的問題?！?/p>

[11]敢于冒險(xiǎn)的消費(fèi)者在培育創(chuàng)新方面也發(fā)揮了作用。中國人渴望嘗試新產(chǎn)品，而且即使新產(chǎn)品不夠完美，他們也比西方人更寬容。中國的富人更年輕些（典型的奧迪車買主在德國是50多歲，在中國則是30多歲），因而更熟悉技術(shù)。因?yàn)槠囋谥袊幌裨诿绹菢樱潜蝗苏鋹鄣奈幕?hào)，所以當(dāng)?shù)厝瞬⒉怀撩杂谄囻{駛，愿意接受拼車之類的其他出行方式。

[12] That has been a boon to Didi.With a reported valuation of $50bn, it is the world’s most valuable startup after Uber. Didi’s investors include Japan’s SoftBank, all the BAT companies, as well as Apple. Didi is far more than a smartphone app for hailing cars,explains Connie Chan of Andreessen Horowitz, an American VC firm.The willingness of local consumers to experiment has helped shape its business model.

[13] Didi runs car pools, minibuses and buses in addition to taxis and luxury cars. It has services for the elderly and can send a driver to take you home in your own car. The fi rm provides about 20m rides a day in China, several times the number managed by Uber worldwide. Didi hopes to use AI to predict a customer’s transport needs,be that for cars, public transport or bicycles. Its platform offers 200,000 EVs, a figure set to rise to 1m within a few years, and it plans to promote autonomous cars heavily.

[12]這種情況惠及了滴滴。據(jù)報(bào)道，滴滴的估值為500億美元，它是繼優(yōu)步之后世界上最有價(jià)值的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。滴滴的投資者包括日本的軟銀集團(tuán)、所有BAT公司以及蘋果公司。美國風(fēng)投公司安德森·霍羅威茨的陳梅陵解釋說，滴滴遠(yuǎn)不只是用于打車的一款智能手機(jī)應(yīng)用程序。中國國內(nèi)消費(fèi)者樂于進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)的態(tài)度，幫助塑造了它的商業(yè)模式。

齊齊哈爾大學(xué)圖書館2017年以孔子誕辰為契機(jī)，分別開展孔子誕辰宣傳活動(dòng)、國學(xué)知識(shí)競賽、“六藝”文化晚會(huì)等豐富多樣的活動(dòng)，讓更多的學(xué)生能夠在活動(dòng)中鍛煉自己的同時(shí)掌握知識(shí)和了解傳統(tǒng)文化，讓更多的同學(xué)們能夠知禮懂禮，同時(shí)也能夠讓更多的學(xué)生參與進(jìn)來，讓自己身臨其境的了解我國的文化思想，更加真實(shí)的、生動(dòng)的、形象的了解知識(shí)脈絡(luò)，期望讓更多的學(xué)生喜歡上學(xué)習(xí)，熱愛我國的傳統(tǒng)文化，讓人文思想得到發(fā)揚(yáng)。

[13]除了出租車和專車，滴滴出行的經(jīng)營范圍還包括順風(fēng)車、小巴和大巴。它有服務(wù)于年長者的項(xiàng)目，可以派司機(jī)代駕送你回家。該公司在中國提供每天約2000萬次的乘車服務(wù)，這是優(yōu)步在全世界業(yè)務(wù)量的好幾倍。滴滴希望運(yùn)用人工智能預(yù)測顧客的交通出行需求，包括駕車、乘坐公交或騎乘單車的需求。其平臺(tái)提供了20萬輛電動(dòng)車，在未來幾年里，這個(gè)數(shù)字預(yù)計(jì)會(huì)增加到100萬，而且滴滴還計(jì)劃大力推進(jìn)自動(dòng)駕駛汽車的發(fā)展。

[14] “We’re de fi nitely going global,”declares Jean Liu, Didi’s president.Her firm owns stakes in ride-hailing services worldwide, from India’s Ola20印度最大的在線打車服務(wù)商。and South-East Asia’s Grab21格步，東南亞最大的移動(dòng)出行平臺(tái)。to Brazil’s 9922巴西本地移動(dòng)出行服務(wù)商。and America’s Lyft23美國共享出行公司。. In July Didi and SoftBank ploughed $2bn into Grab.In August the Chinese upstart invested in two Uber clones, Estonia’s Taxify,which serves Europe and Africa, and Dubai’s Careem, which operates in the Middle East.

[15] Didi’s success shows how local companies can cause global disruptions with sharing-economy services roadtested in China. The country’s urbanites already use smartphones to rent umbrellas, mobile-phone chargers,basketballs and other necessities for a small fee. The firms behind such services are pioneering the use of micropayments and credit verification using analysis of social media.

[14]滴滴總裁柳青宣稱：“我們確實(shí)是在走向全球。”從印度的Ola和東南亞的格步到巴西的99和美國的來福車，滴滴擁有全世界打車服務(wù)商的股份。7月，滴滴和軟銀向格步大筆注資20億美元。8月，這家迅速崛起的中國企業(yè)又向復(fù)制優(yōu)步業(yè)務(wù)的兩家公司投資，它們是服務(wù)于歐洲和非洲的愛沙尼亞的Taxify和在中東運(yùn)營的迪拜的Careem。

[15]滴滴的成功是本土化企業(yè)運(yùn)用在中國實(shí)地驗(yàn)證過的共享經(jīng)濟(jì)服務(wù)來打破全球市場格局的典型案例。這個(gè)國家的城市居民已經(jīng)在用智能手機(jī)廉價(jià)租用雨傘、移動(dòng)電話充電器、籃球和其他生活必需品。提供這類服務(wù)的企業(yè)，在使用小額支付和通過社交媒體分析進(jìn)行信用驗(yàn)證方面走在了世界前列。

Fast-mover advantage

[16] Some inefficient state-dominated industries are being upended. China’s logistics sector was roughly equal to 15% of GDP in 2016, costlier even than in Brazil or India. Many of the lorries owned by individuals miss out on jobs because they lack information about potential new loads. This is changing fast. Richard Zhang, the finance chief of logistics-technology unicorn Huochebang, estimates that the emptyload rate in China is 40%, well above the American level. Huochebang’s online marketplace matches drivers with loads at no charge (though he expects this service to become the main earner once the firm starts levying24levy征收。fees).It also offers lorry sales and leasing,insurance and fi nancial services.

[17] Older fi rms often stuck with the familiar home market, but the best new ones are born global and have the world in their sights. Many have founders educated abroad; others are backed by foreign venture capitalists. Edward Tse,an expert on Chinese innovation, argues that local startups have world-class people and technology at their disposal:“They know much more about what is going on in Silicon Valley or Israel than do Europeans.”

[18] The country’s vast and growing market, its urban hyper-density and its legions25legion大批。of tech-hungry and freespending26free-spending 揮霍無度的，消費(fèi)無節(jié)制的，揮金如土的。young people provide a better proving ground for aspiring global entrepreneurs than do the stagnant markets of the developed world.

快動(dòng)優(yōu)勢

[16]某些效率低下的國有產(chǎn)業(yè)正在被顛覆。2016年，中國的物流部門大致占GDP的15%，這成本甚至比巴西或印度還要昂貴。許多由個(gè)人擁有的運(yùn)貨卡車錯(cuò)失拉活兒的機(jī)會(huì)，因?yàn)樗麄內(nèi)鄙儆嘘P(guān)潛在的新貨運(yùn)需求的信息。這種狀況也在迅速改變。物流技術(shù)獨(dú)角獸貨車幫的首席財(cái)務(wù)官張遠(yuǎn)聲估算，中國貨車運(yùn)輸?shù)目蛰d率達(dá)40%，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過美國的水平。貨車幫的在線市場免費(fèi)為司機(jī)和載貨需求進(jìn)行配對（但他期待，一旦該企業(yè)開始收費(fèi)，這項(xiàng)服務(wù)會(huì)成為最主要的賺錢業(yè)務(wù)）。它還提供貨車銷售與租賃、保險(xiǎn)和金融服務(wù)。

[17]老企業(yè)常常固守熟悉的國內(nèi)市場，但最好的新企業(yè)生來就是全球性的企業(yè)，能夠放眼世界。許多創(chuàng)始人在國外受過教育；其他創(chuàng)業(yè)者則受到外國風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家的支持。研究中國創(chuàng)新問題的專家謝祖墀認(rèn)為，本土的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)能夠駕馭世界級的人才和技術(shù)：“他們對于在硅谷或以色列正在發(fā)生著什么的認(rèn)識(shí)，要比歐洲人所了解的多得多?！?/p>

[18]這個(gè)國家不斷成長著的廣闊市場，其城市的超高密度以及千千萬萬渴求科技、樂于消費(fèi)的年輕人，和發(fā)達(dá)世界的蕭條市場相比，為雄心勃勃的全球企業(yè)家們提供了一個(gè)更好的試驗(yàn)場。

[19] China’s new entrepreneurs are clearly on the ascendancy but there are plenty of ways in which they could yet stumble. Outside factors such as a sharp recession or banking crisis could lead to a panicky venture-capital bust. Many new fi rms, such as those in online fi nance and the sharing economy,operate in grey areas that are vulnerable to regulatory whim. Even the popular bike-sharing firms could one day find their business models undermined by arbitrary new rules.

[20] The high-octane27high-octane充滿活力的；強(qiáng)有力的。nature of innovation in China may also make for a bumpy ride. The spectacular rise of some firms could be mirrored by the precipitous28precipitous驟然的。fall of others. Even so, there are good reasons to think that the best of the bunch29the best of the bunch一批或一群中的最佳者。will overcome such obstacles and in time enhance competition and provide better goods and services everywhere. Because so many well-funded fi rms are chasing so many novel ideas so quickly, the battlehardened30battle-hardened久經(jīng)沙場的；身經(jīng)百戰(zhàn)的。winners will become worldbeaters. ■

[19]中國新一代企業(yè)家顯然正在崛起，但是他們還可能遭遇各種各樣的磕絆。諸如經(jīng)濟(jì)急劇衰退或銀行危機(jī)之類的外部因素可能導(dǎo)致恐慌性的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本破產(chǎn)。許多新企業(yè)，比如做在線金融和共享經(jīng)濟(jì)的企業(yè)，是在易受監(jiān)管新規(guī)奇想損害的灰色領(lǐng)域里運(yùn)營的。即便是廣受歡迎的共享單車企業(yè)，可能有一天也會(huì)發(fā)覺自己的商業(yè)模式因武斷的新規(guī)而受損。

[20]中國富有活力的創(chuàng)新活動(dòng)也可能走上崎嶇不平的旅途。一些企業(yè)的華麗崛起或許映射著其他企業(yè)的陡然衰落。雖然如此，我們?nèi)杂谐浞值睦碛烧J(rèn)為，其中的佼佼者將會(huì)克服這些障礙，適時(shí)增強(qiáng)競爭實(shí)力，在方方面面提供更好的產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)。因?yàn)橛腥绱酥嗟玫匠渥阗Y金支持的企業(yè)，在如此迅捷地追逐如此之多的新創(chuàng)意，所以身經(jīng)百戰(zhàn)的勝利者必將天下無敵。 □