双语阅读｜滴滴叫车的商业蓝图

FOREIGN internet giants often struggle in China. Facebook, Twitter and Google are largely irrelevant on the mainland. Uber, an American car-hailing app that is conquering markets everywhere else, is also finding China hard to crack. But unlike those other tech titans, the taxi disrupter is not being frozen out by unfair Chinese regulations favouring local firms. Uber’s biggest problem is that it has encountered a world-class local upstart.

海外互联网巨头在中国总是举步维艰。Facebook、推特（Twitter）和谷歌（Google）均与中国大陆毫无干系。就连称霸世界的打车软件优步（Uber）也认为中国市场难以攻克。不同于其它技术巨头，阻碍这款叫车软件发展的不是中国对本地公司的偏袒政策，而是优步与中国本土世界级新星企业狭路相逢。

Didi Kuaidi was forged last year by the merger of rival taxi-hailing apps controlled by Alibaba and Tencent, two Chinese internet giants. It now dominates China’s online market for personal transport. Last year it arranged 1.4 billion rides in China, more than Uber has done worldwide in its history. It has perhaps two-thirds of the market for private-car rides (the source of most of its revenues) and provides a taxi-hailing service in several hundred cities. Uber, with a third of the market for private-car service, this week announced plans to expand to cover 55 Chinese cities. Both have spent heavily on subsidies to lure drivers to sign up.

2015年，作为竞争对手的两大打车软件，分别隶属于阿里巴巴和腾讯的滴滴和快合并为滴滴快的，已占据中国个人用车网上市场主位。2015年，滴滴快的在中国接单14亿次，超过优步全球订单量历史记录。滴滴快的拥有三分之二的专车领域市场份额（是其收入的主要来源），并在数百个城市中提供出租车叫车服务。而本周，占有三分之一专车市场的优步宣布将将其业务扩大到55个城市。滴滴和优步都在加大补贴，吸引司机注册。

Unlike Uber, which in China focuses on private-car services, Didi lets users select a taxi, private car, shared car, shuttle van or bus to pick them up. During next month’s Chinese New Year mass migration, when millions of travellers will encounter sold-out flights and trains, Didi will help users share intercity rides at prices comparable to train fares.

与优步在中国集中专车服务不同，滴滴则向消费者提供出租车、专车、拼车、班车等服务。在二月春运期间，数百万旅客可能抢不到机票、火车票，届时滴滴将会为用户跨城顺风车，费用与火车票价相当。

It has also forged alliances with, and invested in, Uber’s rivals elsewhere: GrabTaxi in South-East Asia, Ola in India and Lyft in America. Jean Liu, Didi’s president and a former Goldman Sachs dealmaker, helped Didi raise $3 billion to take on Uber. Soon half of the global market will be on her alliance’s technology platform, Ms Liu says, which will help both Chinese people travelling abroad and foreigners visiting China.

同时，滴滴还与优步在全球各地竞争对手结盟或投资它们：东南亚的GrabTaxi、印度的Ola和美国的Lyft。滴滴总裁，前高盛集团投资经理人柳青为滴滴融资30亿美元与优步竞争。柳青表示，不久，全球的一半市场将纳入她的联盟科技平台之中，能帮助在国外旅游的中国人或是来华的外国人。

But getting people from A to B is just the start of Didi’s ambitions. It plans to offer a variety of other services that make the most of its huge base of users and the trove of data it holds on them. On January 26th the firm announced an agreement with China Merchants Bank (CMB). A growing number of Didi’s drivers want to buy a new car, and many have a steady income thanks to the app, but often lack formal credit. Didi and CMB will start offering car loans—first to drivers, but in future perhaps to passengers as well.

不过，接送乘客只是滴滴梦想的起点。滴滴计划开展多种不同服务，充分利用其大规模用户资源和数据库。1月26日，滴滴与招商银行宣布达成协议。越来越多的滴滴司机想要购买新车，而得益于滴滴软件，许多人拥有稳定收入，却没有正式信用记录。滴滴和招商银行将提供购车贷款——先对司机开发，后续也有可能对乘客开放。

Didi’s app already lets passengers book test drives of new cars on behalf of several carmakers, including Mercedes and Audi. Some 1.4m customers have taken one of 92 models for a spin since this service was launched in October.

滴滴应用已经能让乘客试驾多个汽车品牌的新车，其中包括奔驰和奥迪。自该功能在2015年10月上线以来，有140万用户从92款车型中挑选一款体验试驾。

Perhaps Didi’s quirkiest new sideline is that of matchmaker. Hitch, its ride-sharing service, will soon allow drivers and passengers to select each other based on their shared interests. It already has a deal with LinkedIn, to let people join up their accounts on the two networks. The intention of such initiatives is that white-collar workers, who often endure daily commutes of an hour or two, will have more fruitful journeys during which business, friendship and maybe even romance will develop.

也许滴滴最奇特的附带功能就是红娘功能了。提供拼车服务的滴滴顺风车很快可以实现让司机和乘客根据共同兴趣互选。滴滴已与领英（LinkedIn）达成协议，为用户提供网站账号关联。该计划旨在为每日上下班耗时一两个小时的白领人士提供更有收获的旅程，在通勤路上谈成生意，交到朋友，甚至可能发展一段罗曼史。

译者：沈翼飞

审校&编辑：王旭泉

英文来源：经济学人