優酷老總古永鏘專訪 詳述阿里入股與美劇禁播

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Holding Group continued its streak of deals yesterday, paying $1.22 billion for an 18.5% stake in one of China's most popular online video sites Youku Tudou. Part Youtube, part Netflix, Youku Tudou offers an array of content from self-produced talk shows and dramas to syndicated foreign shows like The Good Wife, and user created content.

中國電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴集團(Alibaba Holding Group)續寫了其交易記錄，該公司已同意斥資12.2億美元收購優酷土豆(Youku Tudou)18.5%的股份。作爲中國最受歡迎的視頻網站之一，優酷土豆兼具Youtube和Netflix的特點，提供的視頻內容豐富多樣，既有自創的脫口秀和戲劇，也有購買了播出權的海外節目（比如美劇《傲骨賢妻》(The Good Wife)）以及用戶自創內容。

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Youku Tudou Founder and Chief Executive Victor Koo said the company held talks with a few companies in parallel, eventually deciding on Alibaba after a series of meetings in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong in recent months. Koo spoke about how his company will make use of the funds, the rash of recent deals in China's Internet sector, and the government's recent crackdown on four American TV shows. The following is an edited excerpt of the interview.

Reuters在接受《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)採訪時，優酷土豆的創始人兼首席執行長古永鏘(Victor Koo)表示，優酷土豆與數家公司進行過洽談，最近幾個月在上海、北京和香港舉行了一系列會談後，最終決定引入阿里巴巴的投資。古永鏘談到了優酷土豆將如何使用這筆資金、中國互聯網行業最近的一系列交易以及政府最近禁播四部美劇的問題。

WSJD: What was the motivation for taking the investment from Alibaba?

《華爾街日報》：接受阿里巴巴的投資是出於什麼樣的動機？

Koo: When we first really considered a strategic investment, we talked to all potential partners and indicated Youku Tudou is an independently operated company so we were looking for strategic investments to take us to the next step. The strategic investment itself will help us accelerate our progress as well as the whole development of our Internet entertainment media platform.

古永鏘：在我們第一次真正考慮引入戰略投資時，我們就與所有的潛在合作伙伴都進行了磋商，並表明優酷土豆是一家獨立經營的公司，所以我們正在尋找戰略投資以便使公司進入下一個階段。這筆戰略投資本身將有助於加快優酷土豆的進步以及我們的互聯網娛樂媒體平臺的整體發展。

We've been around now for 7 or 8 years and we're looking at this as an important strategic step to progress us to the next level with financial resources, strategic use we see these opportunities happening around us, we want to leverage the market opportunity that is in front of us.

公司成立至今已有七、八年的時間，我們將引入戰略投資視爲通過財務資源和戰略資源使公司發展到一個新水平的重要戰略步驟，因爲我們看到了身邊的這些機會，我們希望利用擺在我們面前的市場機遇。

WSJD: What is Alibaba's motivation for making more investments into media and entertainment in China?

《華爾街日報》：阿里巴巴在中國媒體和娛樂領域進行更多投資的動機是什麼？

Koo: From their perspective, clearly the whole area of video as well as entertainment media is a growth sector as China moves to a consumer-led economy. This is an area where traditionally they have not focused, and they really felt that by investing in Youku Tudou they [can leverage that]. I think we have a lot of common vision and common goals in terms of what [the video and entertainment industry] can be in China.

古永鏘：從阿里巴巴的角度看，隨着中國向消費拉動的經濟轉變，整個視頻及娛樂媒體行業顯然是一個增長領域。這也是一個阿里巴巴之前未側重的領域，而且阿里巴巴也確實認爲，通過投資優酷土豆，他們將能夠撬動該領域。我認爲我們和阿里巴巴對於中國視頻和娛樂行業的發展前景有很多共同的看法和目標。

For example, the U.S. and Europe have a very developed media entertainment business, but in Asia you look at Korea for example, it's a relatively small country but its culture and entertainment industry has widespread influence in Asia as well as the rest of the world. China has a huge population and a very sizable Internet kind of reach can create a lot of interesting opportunities. With our base, I think whether it's in terms of content and how it ties with Alibaba's businesses in terms of commerce, big data, cloud as well as payment, there are a lot of interesting areas we will explore together.

例如，美國和歐洲擁有一個非常發達的媒體娛樂行業；在亞洲，以韓國爲例，雖然韓國是一個相對較小的國家，但其文化和娛樂業對亞洲乃至全球其他地方都有廣泛影響。中國擁有巨大的人口以及相當可觀的網絡空間，能創造大量有意思的機會。憑藉優酷土豆的用戶數，我認爲不管是內容，還是在與阿里巴巴的商務、大數據、雲以及支付業務的合作方式方面，兩家公司都有很多可以共同探索的有趣領域。

WSJD: What is your view on the recent crackdown by the government on several popular U.S. television shows including 'The Good Wife,' which you feature on your site?

《華爾街日報》：你如何看待中國政府近期要求包括優酷土豆熱播劇《傲骨賢妻》在內的多部熱門美劇在網站下線一事？

Koo: Besides our strength in web-based original content, syndication is also an area where we started global syndication earlier than any of our competitors and have the broadest library here. Overall, what we see is that the regulatory authorities are highly supportive of this and of course there may be isolated incidents or content [that have problems] -- that is something that as an industry we need to cooperate and work with under the overall framework here in China. And so we don't see that as a widespread phenomenon. I think it's new enough that we're also having communication [with the government].

古永鏘：我們除了在網絡原創內容方面很有優勢之外，全球整合動作也比競爭對手們先行一步，而且在這方面擁有最廣泛的視頻庫。總體而言，我們看到的是監管機構對此高度支持。當然，一些特例事件或者有問題的內容也是可能存在的，這一行業需要我們在遵守中國整體框架的前提下同心協力、共同建設。因此，我們不覺得此次美劇被下架會是普遍現象。在我看來，這件事尚屬首次，我們也在和政府進行溝通。

WSJD: What ' s going on in China ' s Internet sector now with all these big deals?

《華爾街日報》：伴隨着這些大手筆交易的發生，中國的互聯網領域將迎來何種時代？

Koo: I've recently talked about the 20 years of the Chinese Internet -- in my view there are a couple of inflection points in these 20 years and 2013 and 2014 is definitely one of those inflection points. I think in five to ten years when people look back [they will see] this is the beginning of the multi-screen age, and mobile Internet and smart TVs, all these things are coming together.

古永鏘：我最近一直在講中國互聯網的20年發展史。在我看來，這20年來有好幾次重大拐點，2013年、2014年毫無疑問就是其中之一。我認爲五到十年之後，那時的人們回看現在這段時期時，會覺得它拉開了多屏時代的序幕，移動網絡、智能電視等等事物都在不斷涌現出來。

So you've seen an acceleration of industry growth as well as an acceleration of strategic cooperation of different forms, investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and mergers and so forth. These kinds of strategic tie-ups [happen] when you see a market opportunity and a market inflection that has encouraged the key players in the industry to be more open-minded or more proactive in terms of thinking outside the box and being more strategic.

因此你可以看到，視頻行業的發展正在加快，不同形式的策略性合作、投資、夥伴關係、收購、合併等等也正在加速展開。當你捕捉到市場機會和市場變化時，這些策略性合作就會發生，要求行業內的重要參與者心態必須更加開放、跳出條條框框的思考必須更有前瞻性、更具有戰略眼光。

WSJD: How will this affect Youku Tudou's cooperation with other companies?

《華爾街日報》：這將如何影響優酷土豆和其他公司的合作？

Koo: Youku Tudou has an open cooperation strategy and that will continue to be the case, so we work with a wide variety of screen manufacturers, whether it's smart TVs or set-top boxes because we have the leading content software service and user base in terms of video.

古永鏘：優酷土豆擁有開放的合作策略，並且將繼續貫徹下去。有鑑於此，許多屏幕製造商都是我們的合作對象，無論是智能電視還是機頂盒，因爲我們在視頻行業擁有領先的內容軟件服務和龐大的用戶基礎。