強東走自己的路 挑戰阿里馬雲

BEIJing — Just about every June, on the anniversary of his company’s founding, Richard Liu dons a big motorcycle helmet and red uniform, hops on a three-wheeled electric bike and makes home deliveries for his e-commerce company .

北京——幾乎每年6月，在公司成立的週年紀念日上，劉強東都會戴上一頂大大的摩托車頭盔，穿上紅色的制服，跳上一輛三輪電動車，爲他的電子商務公司京東送貨。

It is in part a publicity stunt for Mr. Liu, the 41-year-old billionaire who is the company’s chairman and chief executive. But it is also a way to better understand the technical and logistical challenges facing JD, which is in a pitched battle for e-commerce supremacy in the world’s second-biggest economy after the United States.

這是京東董事局主席兼首席執行官、41歲的億萬富翁劉強東的公共宣傳活動的部分內容。但是，通過這種方式，人們也能更好地瞭解京東在技術和物流方面所面臨的挑戰。目前，京東正在僅次於美國的世界第二大經濟體中，激烈地爭奪電商霸主的地位。

Long overshadowed by its rival Alibaba, JD has emerged as China’s other online goliath by carving out its own distinct identity.

長期籠罩在對手阿里巴巴陰影下的京東，也通過刻畫自己的獨特身份，成爲了中國的另一個網絡巨頭。

While Alibaba’s marketplace serves as a platform to connect buyers and sellers, JD buys goods from manufacturers and distributors and holds the inventory in its own warehouses, in a model that echoes Amazon’s. It then arranges for quick delivery of virtually everything from television sets and refrigerators to socks and T-shirts, using motorbikes that weave in and out of traffic in some of the country’s biggest cities.

阿里巴巴的市場提供了一個連接買家和賣家的平臺，京東則從製造商和分銷商手中購買商品，把存貨放在自己的倉庫裏，這種模式與亞馬遜(Amazon)類似。然後，它會安排快速送貨服務，其配送的商品包羅萬象，既有電視機、冰箱，也有襪子和T恤，送貨的摩托車在中國大型城市的車流中進進出出。

Like Amazon, JD has invested heavily in infrastructure, pumping more than $1.5 billion into building and leasing warehouses and order-fulfillment centers around China. But JD has gone even further, venturing into home delivery with its own fleet of trucks and more than 20,000 couriers, all in the hope of capturing what is projected to be a $1 trillion Chinese e-commerce market by 2020.

與亞馬遜一樣，京東也在基礎設施方面投入了巨資，斥資逾15億美元（約合94億元人民幣）在中國各地修建和租賃倉庫與配送中心。但是，京東採取了更進一步的舉措，甚至還在用自己的貨車和20000餘名快遞員提供送貨到家的服務。這一切都是爲了奪取中國的電商市場。到2020年，中國電商市場預計將達1萬億美元。

JD, which is publicly traded in the United States, is now China’s biggest direct-sales retailer, with 46 million active users and an estimated $20 billion in revenue last year.

已在美國上市的京東目前是中國最大的直銷零售商，去年擁有4600萬活躍用戶和大約200億美元收益。

“This isn’t a business model for everyone, but they were smart to build it,” said Elinor Leung, a Hong Kong-based Internet analyst at CLSA, an investment bank. “Now, their traffic is exploding.”

“這種商業模式並不適用於每個人，但他們去建立起這個模式是很明智的，”投資銀行里昂證券(CLSA)駐香港的網絡分析師樑向奕(Elinor Leung)說。“現在，他們的流量正在飛速增長。”

And yet this costly approach to building an online retailer has worried some analysts, who say that JD could be weighed down by its physical assets and mounting debt. Several analysts say the company won’t turn a profit before 2017. Competitors like Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, have even disparaged the company’s business model, calling it tragically flawed.

然而，這種打造在線零售商的方式成本高昂，讓一些分析人士頗爲擔心。這些人表示，京東可能會被它的有形資產和日益增加的債務拖累。幾名分析人士說，公司在2017年前無法盈利。阿里巴巴董事局主席馬雲等競爭者都不認同京東的商業模式，稱之存在可悲的缺陷。

“It’s not that we are better,” Mr. Ma said in a recently published interview. “It’s an issue of direction. So, I tell my people: Definitely do not get involved with . Don’t come blaming us if you die one day.” He later apologized for his comments.

“不是我比他強，”馬雲在近期發表的一次採訪中說。“而是方向性的問題。所以，我在公司一再告訴大家，千萬不要去碰京東。別到時候自己死了賴上我們。”他後來對自己的言論表示了道歉。

Executives at JD, which is based in Beijing, insist they are building a company that will eventually have a commanding advantage in e-commerce, with strong customer service, speedy delivery and assurances that the products it ships are authentic, not counterfeit. Among the biggest challenges now, they say, is keeping up with an enormous volume of online orders, which have doubled in each of the last three years.

京東總部設在北京，其高管堅持認爲，他們正在建設的公司，最終將在電商行業獲得壓倒性優勢，擁有強大的客戶服務，快速的運輸，並且能保證它運送的貨物是真品，而非仿冒品。他們稱，目前面臨着許多重大挑戰，其中之一就是應對數量巨大的網絡訂單。過去三年中的每一年，網絡訂單的數量都翻了一番。

“If we wanted, we could be profitable right now,” said Shen Haoyu, chief executive of JD Mall, the company’s biggest division. “But our immediate goal is to grow our customer base.”

“只要我們想，馬上可以實現盈利，”公司最大部門京東商城的首席執行官沈皓瑜說。“但是我們的近期目標是擴大客戶羣。”

JD is a product of its founder’s ambitions. The son of a cargo shipowner, Mr. Liu grew up in one of the poorest parts of east China’s Jiangsu Province, before arriving in Beijing to study sociology at Renmin University.

京東是其創始人遠大抱負的產物。劉強東是一個貨運船主的兒子，在中國東部省份江蘇省最貧窮的地區長大，後來在位於北京的中國人民大學修讀社會學。

During his spare time in college, he wrote software code and earned enough money to buy a small restaurant near campus. He says the restaurant failed after staff members embezzled large sums of money.

大學期間，他利用業餘時間寫軟件代碼，用掙來的錢在學校附近開了一家小餐廳。他說，由於餐廳員工盜用了一大筆錢，餐廳最終倒閉。

After college, Mr. Liu, whose Chinese name is Liu Qiangdong, worked briefly for a Japanese company before going into business for himself. He rented space at an electronics market in the city’s high-tech zone, called Zhongguancun, to sell software and electronics, including compact disc burners. Within a few years, he owned brick-and-mortar electronics shops in three cities.

大學畢業後，劉強東在創業前曾在一家日企工作。他在北京的高科技區中關村的電子產品市場租了一個攤位賣軟件、電子產品和光盤刻錄機。幾年之內，他就在三座城市擁有了實體電子商店。

In 2004, when his stores began selling goods on the web, online shopping was just beginning to take shape in China, led by start-ups like Dangdang, Joyo and Alibaba’s Taobao site. JD, whose English name at the time was , thrived on low prices and fast delivery, part of its motto today.

2004年，當他的商店開始在網上銷售商品時，由噹噹、卓越和阿里巴巴的淘寶網所領導的中國網絡購物剛剛開始成形。當時英文名還叫做的京東，憑藉低廉的價格和快速的送貨獲得了蓬勃發展，這兩點在今天是京東的格言。

With money running low in 2006, Mr. Liu sought $2 million from a Hong Kong venture capital firm. The firm, Capital Today, put up $10 million instead, for a large minority stake. The stake is now worth close to $2.4 billion, even after the firm sold some of its shares.

2006年，由於資金不足，劉強東準備從一家香港風險投資公司獲取200萬美元（約合1250萬元人民幣）的資金。但這家投資公司——今日資本——提供了1000萬美元，以獲取少數股份。儘管該公司出售了一些股票，其股份價值現在仍接近24億美元。

The capital injection helped JD expand its product offering beyond electronics and develop new systems and software. The expansion, in turn, helped lure bigger investors, such as Tiger Global, the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and the Waltons, the family behind Walmart Stores.

這些資金幫助京東擴展了產品供應，在電子設備以外還提供其他產品，研發新的系統和軟件。產品供應的擴展幫助京東吸引了更大的投資商，比如老虎環球(Tiger Global)、俄羅斯億萬富翁尤里·米爾納(Yuri Milner)、沙特阿拉伯王子瓦利德·本·塔拉勒(Alwaleed bin Talal)，以及沃爾瑪超市(Wal-Mart Stores)背後的沃爾頓家族(Waltons)。

“The first time I met him, I knew he was smart and trustworthy, and that he had a killer instinct,” said Kathy Xu, the partner who led the Capital Today investment.

今日資本合夥人、總裁徐新說，“我一次見到他時，我知道他很聰明、可靠，他有一種好勝心。”

Investors bought into Mr. Liu’s vision for a full-service online retailer.

投資商相信劉強東對提供全面服務的網絡零售商的展望。

At the time, China’s package delivery services were terrible. The country had new roads and bridges, but truck shipments were hampered by poor service, toll roads and other bottlenecks. With no Chinese equivalent of FedEx or UPS, packages often arrived late, in dented boxes.

當時，中國的快遞服務非常糟糕。中國建造了新公路和新大橋，但卡車運輸卻因爲糟糕的服務，收費公路及其他瓶頸而受阻。中國沒有類似聯邦快遞(FedEx)和UPS的快遞服務公司，包裹經常不能及時到達，而且還被壓得變形。

“Back then, 70 percent of our complaints were about deliveries, and everything was very slow,” Mr. Liu said during an interview at the company’s headquarters. “We realized logistics is related to user experience.”

“當時，在我們收到的投訴中，70%是關於快遞，每一個環節都很慢，”劉強東在公司總部接受採訪時說。“我們意識到物流與用戶體驗有關。”

So beginning in 2007, JD did something no other Chinese e-commerce company was willing to do then or since. It started building an integrated logistics network from scratch, promising to cater to customers from click to drop-off.

因此從2007年開始，京東做了其他中國電子商務公司當時或以後都不願做的事情。京東從零開始，建造綜合物流網絡，承諾爲顧客提供從下單到送貨的服務。

Today, the company boasts seven fulfillment centers and 118 warehouses in 39 cities. There are also 1,045 smaller pickup centers in about 500 cities. And since 2010, the company has pledged that most online orders placed before 11 at night will be delivered by 3 p.m. the next day.

如今，京東擁有七個物流中心，在39個城市建立了118個倉庫，還在大約500個城市設立了1045個自提點。自2010年以來，京東承諾大多數在晚上11點前提交的網絡訂單都將在第二天下午3點前送到。

Morgan Stanley calls JD’s business model a combination of Amazon and UPS; other analysts say the company is beginning to look like Walmart, steeped in logistics and infrastructure and backed by a website.

摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)稱京東的商業模式是亞馬遜和UPS的結合體；還有一些分析人士表示，該公司現在看起來有點像沃爾瑪，致力於物流和基礎設施，同時又有網站作支撐。

JD “has made it clear they will not only be a retailer but also an online supply chain and finance company," said Lu Jianping, who teaches e-commerce at East China Normal University in Shanghai. “Retail is not profitable but it offers trading volume and cash flow. In the future, the main profits will come from finance and the supply chain."

京東“已經表明，他們不僅僅是零售商，還會是網絡供應鏈、金融公司”，上海華東師範大學電子商務教師陸建平說。“做零售沒有利潤，但能產生交易量和現金流。未來，主要的利潤來自金融及供應鏈業務。”

By following its own path, JD has sought to make online shopping easier for China’s growing consumer class, promising authentic goods, delivered on time, for little or no delivery fee — and with a receipt, something hard to come by in a country where tax evasion is rampant.

京東開闢了自己的道路，尋求爲中國快速增加的消費階層提供便利的網絡購物服務，承諾提供可靠商品，準時送貨，只收取少量運費或免費，並提供發票。在這個逃稅行爲猖獗的國家，很難獲得發票。

Today, traffic to its website is exploding and the company is filling more than two million orders a day. No other direct sales retailer in the world has seen its revenue grow as quickly as JD, not even Amazon.

如今，公司網站流量爆增，每天發送的訂單超過200多萬份。在這個世界上，沒有哪家直銷零售商的收益增長速度趕得上京東，包括亞馬遜。

American Internet start-ups have struggled in China. Amazon made its big foray into China in 2004, when it paid $75 million to acquire , then one of China’s biggest e-commerce start-ups. A decade later, Amazon’s China operation has less than 2 percent of the online shopping market, according to iResearch Consulting.

美國網絡初創公司在中國舉步維艱。亞馬遜於2004年大舉進入中國市場，當時該公司耗資7500萬美元收購了卓越網——當時中國最大的電子商務初創公司。艾瑞諮詢集團(iResearch Consulting Group)提供的數據顯示，10年之後，亞馬遜中國的業務在網絡購物市場中所佔的份額不到2%。

And though Alibaba is better known in the United States, Mr. Liu, JD’s biggest shareholder, is finding a warm reception. He led the company’s public stock offering on the Nasdaq early last year, which raised $1.78 billion.

阿里巴巴在美國的名氣比京東大，但京東最大股東劉強東正受到熱烈歡迎。去年早些時候，劉強東帶領公司在納斯達克掛牌上市，籌集到17.8億美元。

Around the same time, he also struck a deal with China’s social media and mobile gaming giant Tencent, which allows JD to tap into Tencent’s huge user base. Tencent now owns about 20 percent of JD.

劉強東在同一時間還與中國社交媒體、移動遊戲巨頭騰訊達成協議，讓京東可以利用騰訊巨大的用戶羣。騰訊現在持有京東20%的股份。

Mr. Liu is also pushing JD into online groceries and finance, and lending to his vendors the way Alibaba does. But unlike Alibaba and Amazon, he says he has little interest in developing film or entertainment divisions.

劉強東還將帶領京東涉足網購生鮮及金融方面的業務，像阿里巴巴一樣爲商家提供貸款。但與阿里巴巴、亞馬遜不同，劉強東稱他對開設電影或娛樂部門沒有多大興趣。

“We don’t want to produce films or TV shows, but finance, yes,” Mr. Liu said, before returning to his thoughts on infrastructure. “And every few years we’ll invest in new warehouses. We need some temperature-controlled warehouses.”

“我們不想製作電影或電視節目，但願意涉足金融領域，”在回到有關基礎設施的談話前，劉強東說。“我們每隔幾年就會投資建設新倉庫。我們需要一些溫控倉庫。”