The Other Chinese E-Commerce Giant
大陸另一個電子商務巨擘
By David Barboza

BEIJING – 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 JD.com.
在他的公司創立週年慶的日子，劉強東戴上騎摩托車的大型頭盔、穿著紅色制服，跳上電動三輪車，為他的電子商務公司「京東商城公司」送貨到府。

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 challenges facing JD, which is in a pitched battle for e-commerce supremacy in the world’s second-biggest economy after the United States.
對41歲的億萬富翁劉強東而言，這麼做部分理由是在搞宣傳噱頭。他是這家公司的董事長。然而這也是更加了解京東所面臨挑戰的一個方法；在僅次於美國的全球第二大經濟體中，該公司正為爭奪電子商務霸主地位陷入激戰。

Long overshadowed by its rival Alibaba, JD has emerged as China’s other online goliath by carving out its own distinct identity.
長期被對手阿里巴巴的陰影所籠罩的京東，已經藉由獨樹一幟成為大陸的另一個網路巨擘。

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 refrigerators to socks, using motorbikes in some of the country’s biggest cities.
阿里巴巴市場是連接買家和賣家的一個平台，京東則是向製造商和分銷商購貨，並以自己的倉庫存貨，商業模式較近似亞馬遜。接著京東公司會安排把貨物快速送達，從冰箱到襪子，幾乎無所不送。在大陸一些大城市，京東公司會以機車送貨。

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. 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.
和亞馬遜一樣，京東以重金投資於基礎設施，挹注逾15億美元在全大陸建造、租用倉庫以及設置訂單履行中心。京東還更進一步，以自己的卡車和2萬餘名快遞員的車隊送貨到府，所有這一切，都是為了搶奪大陸的電子商務市場。預估這個市場到2020年時營業額將高達1兆美元。已是美國上市公司的京東，現為大陸最大直銷零售商，擁有4600萬名活躍用戶，公司去年營收約為200億美元。

Yet this costly approach to building an online retailer has worried some analysts, who say that JD could be weighed down by physical assets and 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 flawed. “It’s not that we are better,” Mr. Ma said recently. “It’s an issue of direction.”
然而以這種成本高昂的方式去打造一家網路零售公司，卻令一些分析家憂心忡忡，他們認為京東可能被實物資產和債務給拖垮。數名分析師預估，該公司在2017年前無法獲利，競爭對手如阿里巴巴董事長馬雲等人甚至看衰他們的商業模式，認為它有瑕庛。馬雲最近說：「並不是說我們比較好，這是方向問題。」

Executives at JD, which began selling goods on the web in 2004, insist they are building a company that will eventually have a commanding advantage in e-commerce. A big challenge, they say, is keeping up with an enormous volume of online orders, which have doubled in each of the last three years.
京東2004年開始網路銷售，公司的高管堅持，他們打造的，是最終會在電子商務上具備領先優勢的公司。他們說，巨大挑戰之一，是如何才能跟得上數量龐大網路訂單的腳步，過去3年，訂單數量每年都翻一倍。

The company has seven fulfillment centers and 118 warehouses in 39 cities. There are 1,045 smaller pickup centers in about 500 cities. 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.
京東公司在39個城市設有7個訂單履行中心和118座倉庫。另外約在500個城市有1045個較小的取貨中心。自2010年起，該公司承諾，晚間11時前下的網路訂單，多數貨物翌日下午3時之前即會送達。

Morgan Stanley calls JD’s business model a combination of Amazon and UPS; other analysts say it is beginning to look like Walmart, steeped in logistics and infrastructure and backed by a website.
摩根士丹利把京東的商業模式稱作亞馬遜和快遞服務業「優比速」的合體；另有一些分析師則認為，京東開始看起來有些像沃爾瑪，以物流和基礎設施為其基礎，並有一個網站提供支撐。

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.
京東公司每天完成的訂單，總數超過200萬件。京東營收的成長速度在全球直銷零售商中居冠，甚至超過亞馬遜。

Mr. Liu is finding a warm reception in the United States. He led the company’s public stock offering on the Nasdaq early last year, which raised $1.78 billion.
劉強東在美國受到熱情歡迎。他去年初率領公司在納斯達克市場上市，募得17億8000萬美元資金。

Mr. Liu 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.
劉強東還與大陸社群媒體兼行動遊戲巨擘騰訊達成協議，允許京東進軍騰訊的龐大用戶群。騰訊現在擁有京東約20%的股權。

Mr. Liu is 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.
劉強東正推動京東成為網路雜貨店和金融商店，和阿里巴巴一樣，京東也借錢給他的供貨商。然而京東與阿里巴巴和亞馬遜不同，劉強東說，他對發展電影或娛樂部門興趣缺缺。

“We don’t want to produce films or TV shows, but finance, yes,” Mr. Liu said. “And every few years we’ll invest in new warehouses. We need some temperature-controlled warehouses.”
劉強東說：「我們不想製作電影或電視節目，而金融嗎，我們要做。每隔數年，我們會投資於新的倉庫。我們還需要一些溫控倉庫。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/business/international/jdcom-chinas-other-e-commerce-giant-follows-its-own-path.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/business/20150127/c27chinashop/zh-hant/

2015-02-10聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報八版左