騰訊收購芬蘭遊戲公司引發玩家擔憂
HONG KONG — In the world of Clash of Clans, Hou Dai has played — and paid — enough that he now leads his own clan of 50 online players.
香港——在《部落衝突》(Clash of Clans)的世界裏，候棣（音）投入的時間——以及金錢——足夠多，所以現在能領導一個由50名在線玩家組成的部落。
At one time, Mr. Hou, a 22-year-old recent college graduate from Shenyang, played the smartphone game as much as six hours a day. He estimates that he has spent 40,000 renminbi, about $6,000, on the game over the last three years.
22歲的候棣是瀋陽人，前不久剛大學畢業。有一段時間，他每天打這款手遊的時間長達六個小時。他估計自己過去三年裏在這款遊戲上花了4萬元人民幣。
Mr. Hou’s spending habits show why the Chinese internet giant Tencent just paid $8.6 billion for a controlling stake in Supercell, the Finnish creator of Clash of Clans, from the SoftBank Group Corporation of Japan.
候棣的消費習慣揭示了中國互聯網巨頭騰訊剛剛出資86億美元（約合565億元人民幣），從日本軟銀集團股份有限公司(SoftBank Group Corporation)手中購得《部落衝突》的芬蘭開發商Supercell控股權的理由。
The deal will most likely help Tencent bolster its reputation — rare among global technology companies — for having figured out how to make money from mobile devices. The company has already successfully integrated functions like shopping and money transfers into its popular Chinese chat apps.
這筆交易極有可能幫助騰訊鞏固其掌握移動設備賺錢訣竅的聲譽，而這在全球科技公司中實屬罕見。騰訊已經成功地將購物和轉賬等功能融合進了旗下用戶衆多的中文聊天應用。
It also adds to Tencent’s collection of video games so that it can become a truly global player — in contrast to most Chinese digital and media companies, which have often struggled to acquire and run valuable foreign products and services. The deal gives Tencent a particularly strong presence in mobile games, adding a global angle to a mobile menu that already includes the most popular smartphone chat app in China.
交易也會讓騰訊旗下的視頻遊戲家族再添新成員，使該公司能夠成爲一個真正全球化的競爭主體。相比之下，中國大部分數字和媒體公司往往無力收購和經營有價值的外國產品及服務。這筆交易讓騰訊成爲了移動遊戲領域一支特別強大的力量，爲其移動業務增添了全球視角。中國用戶最多的智能手機聊天應用便是騰訊的移動業務之一。
But it raises a question for the Chinese company: Can it retain the people that turned Supercell’s games into hits?
但它也給這家中國公司帶來了一個問題：能否留住讓Supercell的多款遊戲大獲成功的那些人？
Many devotees of Clash of Clans and other Supercell games spend real money on fake currency and other resources to build their in-game power and heft. With the help of dedicated players like Mr. Hou, the small in-game fees, known as micropayments, have turned into a huge revenue stream that makes Supercell a major player in mobile gaming.
很多《部落衝突》和Supercell其他遊戲的忠實玩家用真金白銀購買虛擬貨幣和其他資源，來打造他們在遊戲中的力量和影響力。在候棣這種專注的玩家的幫助下，遊戲中的小額費用，又叫微支付，演變成了一筆巨大的收入，讓Supercell成爲了移動遊戲領域的巨擘。
Supercell, in filings with the Finnish government, posted $2.4 billion in revenue last year. In April, the company was making just under $4 million a day in revenue from Clash of Clans, according to a SuperData Research estimate.
在提交給芬蘭政府的文件中，Supercell稱去年的收入爲24億美元。據超級數據研究公司(SuperData Research)估計，今年4月，《部落衝突》每天給Supercell帶來的收入接近400萬美元。
“Tencent makes about $1 billion from its gaming operations outside of China,” said Peter Warman, chief executive of Newzoo, a gaming analytics company based in Amsterdam. “With Supercell, they will more than double that. It’s a very strategic move for them.”
“境外遊戲業務給騰訊帶來了大約10億美元的盈利，”設在阿姆斯特丹的遊戲分析公司Newzoo的首席執行官彼得·沃曼(Peter Warman)說。“有了Supercell，這個數字會翻一番有餘。對他們來說，這是非常具有戰略意義的一步。”
The Supercell takeover is Tencent’s largest to date. Over the last five years, the Chinese company — which has a market value of $210 billion — has made strategic investments and acquisitions of games across the world. The company controls Riot Games, which created the hugely popular League of Legends, and the European mobile game maker Miniclip. It also has a stake in CJ Games of South Korea.
對Supercell的收購是騰訊迄今爲止最大的一筆交易。過去五年裏，這家市值2100億美元的中國公司在全球遊戲領域進行了多筆戰略投資和收購。它掌握着熱門遊戲《英雄聯盟》(League of Legends)的開發商Riot Games和歐洲移動遊戲開發商Miniclip的控股權，並持有韓國CJ Games的股份。
“Tencent has been aggressively out buying overseas developers,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of the technology research firm Marbridge Consulting, “not only with an eye to leveraging those companies’ games in China but also for expanding Tencent’s footprint globally.”
“騰訊一直在大力出擊，收購海外開發商，”科技調研公司邁博瑞諮詢有限公司(Marbridge Consulting)的執行董事馬克·納特金(Mark Natkin)說。“不僅着眼於在中國利用那些公司的遊戲，還希望在全球擴大騰訊的影響力。”
A sort of internet conglomerate, Tencent has no real analogue in the United States. Because internet advertising has had slow growth in China, the company has used games to make money from its hugely successful messaging and social media products. With its messaging app WeChat, which has more than 700 million monthly active users, Tencent can easily connect a huge number of new players to Supercell’s games.
美國沒有真正與騰訊類似的這種互聯網集團公司。因爲中國互聯網廣告增長緩慢，該公司便利用遊戲從旗下大獲成功的即時通訊和社交媒體產品中賺錢。通過月活躍用戶超七億的即時通訊應用微信，騰訊可以輕而易舉地將大量新玩家同Supercell的遊戲連接起來。
Tencent is hoping to retain the huge number of players as well as the engineers behind the games. Supercell has been able to chalk up a string of gaming successes, mostly by giving top talent a greater amount of independence to develop projects, experts say. But the Finnish gaming giant’s engineers could choose to leave if they are not given the same independence they enjoyed under SoftBank.
騰訊希望留住大量玩家和那些遊戲背後的工程師。專家稱，Supercell能夠在遊戲領域取得一連串的勝利主要是因爲它允許頂尖人才在項目開發中享有更多的獨立自主權。但如果享受不到軟銀控股時的那種獨立性，這家芬蘭遊戲巨頭的工程師可能會選擇離開。
To that end, executives at Tencent and Supercell emphasized in a conference call that Supercell would keep its autonomy.
爲了達到留人的目的，騰訊和Supercell在一次電話會議上強調，Supercell將保留自主權。
“We would say it makes a lot of sense for them to stay independent,” Martin Lau, president of Tencent, said on the call. “What is making them great, we want to preserve.”
“我們想說的是，讓他們保持獨立非常明智，”騰訊總裁劉熾平在會議上說。“對於那些讓他們取得成功的特色，我們希望保留。”
Ilkka Paananen, the chief executive of Supercell, said Tencent’s track record of allowing Riot to build out League of Legends on its own was reassuring.
Supercell首席執行官伊爾卡·帕納寧(Ilkka Paananen)表示，騰訊允許Riot獨立發展《英雄聯盟》(League of Legends)的過往記錄消除了這方面的擔憂。
Tencent said that Supercell employees would receive long-term incentive plans. Such an offer, analysts said, would signal that Tencent realizes that it owes the value of the company’s games to the large number of players and to Supercell’s game design prowess.
騰訊表示，Supercell的員工會收到長期激勵計劃。分析人士稱，這類待遇表明騰訊意識到，Supercell的遊戲的價值有賴於規模龐大的玩家羣體和該公司在遊戲設計方面的高超才智。
The acquisition also represents the latest push by large internet companies into the fast-growing mobile gaming industry, which had a combined revenue of almost $35 billion last year, according to Newzoo.
這筆收購交易也代表着大型互聯網公司進軍快速增長的移動遊戲行業的最新案例。據Newzoo稱，去年移動遊戲行業收入總額接近350億美元。
Companies like Supercell and Rovio, a Finnish counterpart that is behind the Angry Birds franchise, were once able to create hit after hit with smartphone games. But the increased competition for consumers’ attention, analysts say, has made it more difficult to break through with new games.
像Supercell和芬蘭另一家遊戲公司、《憤怒的小鳥》(Angry Birds)系列背後的開發商Rovio這種公司，曾經能夠憑藉智能手機遊戲創造一個又一個成功。但分析人士稱，爭奪消費者的競爭加劇，導致新遊戲取得成功的難度加大。
Faced with such cutthroat rivalries, independent gaming studios are being taken over by larger companies that can outspend the competition. Mobile gaming has become such a big business that even established players like Supercell need flush financial backers to fund their expansion.
面對這種殘酷的競爭，獨立遊戲公司紛紛被更大的公司收購。這些大公司擁有足夠財力，可以壓倒對手。移動遊戲這個市場變得如此之大，以至於連Supercell這樣的老牌競爭主體都需要財力雄厚的後臺爲自己的擴張提供資金。
“You need very deep pockets to play in this field,” said Mr. Warman, of Newzoo. “So if Tencent wants to play in this area, it has to be willing to pay top dollar.”
“財力得非常雄厚，才能在這個領域參與競爭，”Newzoo的沃曼說。“所以騰訊如果想在這個行業參與競爭，就得願意大手筆花錢。”
King Digital, the British-Swedish gaming company behind the Candy Crush franchise, for example, was bought by Activision Blizzard last year for $5.9 billion, in part to help the larger gaming company expand its global reach.
比如，開發出了糖果粉碎傳奇(Candy Crush)系列的英國和瑞典合資公司國王數碼(King Digital)，去年被規模比它大的遊戲公司動視暴雪(Activision Blizzard)以59億美元的價格收購。這筆交易在一定程度上是爲了幫助後者擴展自己的全球影響力。
Mr. Hou said he was excited about the prospect of new Chinese features, but he warned that players were also worried because Tencent has a reputation for wringing money out of games.
候棣說，他對可能會出現中國元素興奮不已，但他告誡稱玩家也很擔心，因爲騰訊有從遊戲上大肆撈錢的名聲。
Julianna Wu, a Hong Kong college student who plays Clash Royale, another popular Supercell title, with her boyfriend for about two hours a day, echoed those worries.
香港大學生朱莉安娜·吳每天會和男朋友打兩個小時的《皇室戰爭》(Clash Royale)。這是Supercell推出的另一款備受歡迎的遊戲。她也表達了這種擔心。
“Tencent buying the company may not be good for poor users like me who don’t have money to spend,” she said. “I’m worried it will become a game that only rich users are good at.”
“騰訊收購這家公司可能會對我這種沒錢的窮用戶不利，”她說。“我擔心它會變成一款只適合有錢人的遊戲。”
