百度啓動10億美元股票回購
Baidu has moved to restore investor confidence with a $1bn share buyback, after $12bn was wiped off the Chinese search engine’s stock market capitalisation in the wake of disappointing quarterly earnings.
百度(Baidu)發佈了令人失望的季度財報之後，股票市值蒸發120億美元，隨後這家中國搜索引擎啓動了10億美元的股票回購以恢復投資者信心。
The buyback will be funded with existing cash and will take place over 12 months, Baidu said yesterday, after its shares fell 14 per cent over the week. Baidu narrowly missed analysts’ estimates for second-quarter profits and guidance for third-quarter revenues
百度昨日表示，將在接下來的12個月內動用現有資金進行此次回購。此前，百度股價在一週內下跌了14%。百度第二季度利潤和第三季度營收指引都略低於分析師的估計。
The company said that the move “demonstrates Baidu’s confidence in the O2O [online-to-offline] opportunity and in our ability to capture it. It’s our commitment with nine zeros”.
該公司表示，此舉“證明百度對O2O（線上到線下）商機，以及我們捕捉該機會的能力有信心。於是我們作出10億美元回購的承諾。”
Reporting results on Monday, Baidu forecast revenue growth for the current quarter at 34-37 per cent.
百度在週一發佈營收結果，預測當前季度營收同比增長應在34%到37%之間。
“Last year, they had a full year of 50 or near 50 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, and now they’ve had two quarters sub-40 per cent and another quarter of guidance suggesting mid-30s. So basically the message is that for search, the party is over,” said Mark Natkin of Marbridge Consulting in Beijing.
北京Marbridge Consulting公司的馬克納特金(Mark Natkins)表示：“去年，他們全年營收同比增長50%，或接近50%，而現在他們已經有兩個季度的增長低於40%，並且第三季度營收指引在35%左右。所以從中基本可以看出，搜索行業的狂歡結束了。”
Analysts worry that the slowdown raises doubts about Baidu’s ability to manage the transition from an internet ruled by PC users to one dominated by smartphones, where users pick from a screen full of apps instead of finding content through search engines.
分析師擔心百度營收增長放緩會引起人們懷疑，認爲百度無法從個人電腦佔主導的互聯網順利過渡到智能手機佔主導的互聯網。在智能手機互聯網時代，用戶是在滿屏幕的應用(app)裏進行選擇，而不是通過搜索引擎尋找內容。
Robin Li, Baidu’s chairman, announced in June a Rmb20bn ($3.2bn) investment over three years in Baidu Nuomi, its Groupon-like marketplace, to lift its performance in mobile.
百度董事長李彥宏(Robin Li)6月份宣佈，未來三年將向百度糯米(Baidu Nuomi)投資200億元人民幣（約合32億美元），以提升百度在移動端的業績。百度糯米是百度旗下類似Groupon的團購網站。
Nuomi is envisioned as a focal point for services such as movie ticket sales and taxi hailing where physical and virtual commerce are combined in what is known as “online-to-offline” business funnelling users to online payments systems.
百度糯米的設想是成爲電影票銷售以及打車等服務的中心，將實體和虛擬商務結合成所謂的“O2O”業務，引導用戶使用在線支付系統。
Analysts have expressed concern that Baidu is losing focus, citing as an example Baidu wallet, the online payment system founded in April 2014 and the weakest of China’s major online payment services.
分析師擔心百度正失去關注，他們引用了百度錢包(Baidu Wallet)的例子。百度錢包成立於2014年4月，是百度旗下在線支付系統，在中國主要同類系統中的競爭力最低。
In data released for the third quarter of 2014 by Analysys, a Beijing-based consultancy, Baidu Wallet, its mobile payments service, was found to have 0.06 per cent of the market. This compared to 79 per cent for Ant Financial’s Alipay, the country’s most popular mobile payments service which is owned by rival Alibaba.
北京一家諮詢公司易觀國際(Analysys)2014年第三季度發佈數據顯示，作爲百度旗下的移動支付服務產品，百度錢包的市場份額爲0.06%，而螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)的支付寶(Alipay)的市場份額爲79%。支付寶是中國最普及的移動支付服務，其持有者爲百度競爭對手阿里巴巴(Alibaba)。
The companies published more recent figures which suggest the gap has closed slightly. Baidu said it had 35m active users for Baidu Wallet at the end of June, while Alipay said it had 400m.
根據易觀國際發表的最新數據顯示，百度錢包與支付寶之間的差距已有小幅縮短。百度表示至6月底，百度錢包的活躍用戶達到3500萬名，支付寶則表示同期其活躍用戶爲4億名。
“People are concerned that Baidu is not going to be able to move to online-to-offline because their payment system is a lot weaker than Tencent and Alibaba,” said Shaun Rein of China Market Research Group in stments in things like movie tickets and other “online-to-offline” businesses are “something they haven’t proved they are good at,” he added.
上海諮詢公司中國市場研究集團(China Market Research Group)的雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示：“人們擔心的是，百度無法向O2O轉型，因爲他們的支付系統比騰訊(Tencent)和阿里巴巴弱太多。”他還說，百度在電影票以及其他“O2O”業務上的投資，“還無法證明他們擅長於此”。
“They’re getting hammered because they’re making the investment they need to potentially thrive in the next five to 10 years. The concern is, are they making the right investments, and are they going to be good at those new businesses?”
“他們遭到了聲討，因爲他們需要這一投資在未來5年到10年內都保持蓬勃發展的潛力。值得關注的是，他們是否做出了正確的投資？還有他們是否能做好這些新業務？”
