Rise of the micro-multinational
Chinese and overseas
A new breed of startup is entering foreign markets early on
微型跨國公司的興起
中國與海外
一種新型創(chuàng)業(yè)公司從成立之初就開始進(jìn)入海外市場
ON THE outskirts of Guangzhou, a city in southern China, lies an abandoned park filled with crumbling replicas of the wonders of the world. To the right are fading golden spires that are meant to represent Angkor Wat, a temple in Cambodia. On the left, a row of dusty Egyptian statues towers over a desolate Greek amphitheatre. Adding to the surrealism, the tops of the trees have been lopped off and a buzzing noise fills the night air.
在中國南方城市廣州郊區(qū)一個(gè)廢棄的公園里，到處是東倒西歪的世界奇觀微縮復(fù)制品。右邊褪了色的金黃尖塔原本代表的是柬埔寨寺廟吳哥窟。左邊屹立著一排落滿塵土的埃及雕像，旁邊是一個(gè)破敗的希臘露天劇場。樹梢被砍掉了，夜空中充斥著一種嗡嗡的噪音，更增添了超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的氛圍。
This strange place is the testing ground for EHang, a Chinese startup that makesdrones. (The treetops were chopped off, an employee explains, because droneskept crashing into them.) Hu Huazhi, EHang’s founder, is beaming本意發(fā)光. His firm has just set a world record for a drone-swarm light show in Guangzhou, where it flew a thousand small drones in perfect unison. Next it plans to launch an autonomous flying-taxi service with a giant drone big enough to take a person (pictured). Dubai has just signed a deal with EHang to launch drone taxis this summer.
這個(gè)奇怪的地方是制造無人機(jī)的中國創(chuàng)業(yè)公司億航的試飛場地（修飾關(guān)系）（一名員工解釋說，砍掉樹梢是因?yàn)闊o人機(jī)總是撞上去）。億航的創(chuàng)始人胡華智面露喜色。他的公司剛剛在廣州創(chuàng)下了無人機(jī)燈光秀的世界紀(jì)錄：一千架小型無人機(jī)上演了完美的編隊(duì)表演。接下來，億航計(jì)劃推出可搭載一名乘客的大型無人機(jī)（如圖），提供自動飛行的無人機(jī)的士服務(wù)。迪拜剛剛與億航簽署了一項(xiàng)協(xié)議，將在今年夏天推出無人機(jī)的士。
EHang is an example of a new kind of Chinese firm, labelled “micro-multinationals” by some. In the past, Chinese consumer-goods firms focused on the home market; startups were particularly inward-looking. The rare exceptions to this rule—firms like Lenovo, Haier and Huawei—were giant technology companies with deep pockets（小詞活用）. That made sense: the mainland economy was growing at double-digit rates and China’s rising middle classes were eager for new products. Marketing and distributionwere easier to get right on the mainland than overseas.
億航代表了一類新型的中國公司，一些人稱之為“微型跨國公司”。過去，中國消費(fèi)品公司專注于國內(nèi)市場，創(chuàng)業(yè)公司尤其注重國內(nèi)發(fā)展。聯(lián)想、海爾和華為這些為數(shù)不多的特例都是財(cái)力雄厚的大型科技公司。這種選擇不無道理：那時(shí)中國大陸的經(jīng)濟(jì)每年以兩位數(shù)的速度增長，崛起的中產(chǎn)階級渴望獲得新產(chǎn)品，在中國大陸營銷和分銷要比在國外更易獲得成功。
But times are changing: more Chinese startups want to go global from the start. Often founders are mainlanders who have worked or studied abroad. In some cases, says Benjamin Joffe of Hax, a hardware “accelerator” in Shenzhen, the startups may have little choice but to widen their horizons. Their products may simply be too innovative and expensive for China’s frugal consumers.
然而時(shí)移世易（四字結(jié)構(gòu)）：如今更多的中國創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)剛起步便想走出去。這些企業(yè)的創(chuàng)始人通常都是曾在國外工作或?qū)W習(xí)的大陸人士。深圳的硬件創(chuàng)業(yè)“加速器”Hax公司的本杰明·約菲（Benjamin Joffe）說，有時(shí)創(chuàng)業(yè)公司可能別無選擇，只能擴(kuò)大視野。對中國節(jié)儉的消費(fèi)者來說，它們的產(chǎn)品可能太過超前也太過昂貴了。
One such firm is Makeblock, a startup based in Shenzhen that sells do-it-yourself robot kits. Jasen Wang, its founder, says he went “global” from day one. His firm has quickly entered developed markets. Foreign sales (including to such big retailers as America’s Radio Shack) make up nearly three-quarters of the firm’s total revenues.
深圳銷售DIY機(jī)器人套裝的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司Makeblock就屬于這種情況，創(chuàng)始人王建軍說他從第一天起就“走出去”了。他的公司已迅速進(jìn)入發(fā)達(dá)市場，海外銷售（包括對美國的Radio Shack等大型零售商的銷售）占了公司總收入的近四分之三。
The fact that the mobile internet is particularly advanced in China means the mainland can throw up truly inventive new business models, says Shi Yi, a serial entrepreneur. DotC United, his company, looks for models on the mainland and then adapts them for foreign markets. “We are like Rocket Internet, but in reverse,” he declares, referring to a German e-commerce conglomerate that takes business models from advanced markets and adapts them for developing ones. For example, Wifi Master Key is a Chinese sharing-economy app that lists details of private and public wifi networks around the world. Swift WiFi, Mr Shi’s homage to it, now has over 150m users in 50 countries.
多次創(chuàng)業(yè)的企業(yè)家石一說，移動互聯(lián)網(wǎng)在中國特別發(fā)達(dá)，這意味著中國大陸可以推出真正有創(chuàng)造性的新型商業(yè)模式。石一的公司DotC United在大陸尋找商業(yè)模式，調(diào)整之后應(yīng)用于海外市場。 “我們就像‘火箭網(wǎng)絡(luò)（Rocket Internet）’，但做法剛好和它相反?！笔惶岬降倪@家德國電子商務(wù)集團(tuán)從先進(jìn)市場汲取商業(yè)模式，加以調(diào)整后用于發(fā)展中國家市場。Wifi萬能鑰匙是一個(gè)中國的共享經(jīng)濟(jì)應(yīng)用，列出了世界各地私人和公共WiFi網(wǎng)絡(luò)的詳細(xì)信息。石一推出了這款應(yīng)用的“致敬作品”：Swift WiFi，現(xiàn)在在50個(gè)國家擁有超過1.5億個(gè)用戶。
Musical.ly is another micro-multinational. Valued at about $500m, it is one of the most fashionable apps among Western youngsters. More than 100m teenagers use it to share short videos of themselves lip-synching to popular songs. Teens and parents alike may be surprised to discover that this trendy app is run by Chinese engineers, working round the clock in an open-plan office in Shanghai in the company of the firm’s mascot, a small white dog named Mu Mu. Musical.ly是另一家微型跨國公司，估值約5億美元，是西方青少年中最流行的應(yīng)用之一，有超過1億的青少年用它來分享自己跟著流行歌曲對口型的視頻短片。這些青少年和家長們可能不會想到，這么潮的應(yīng)用竟是由中國工程師運(yùn)營的，他們就在上海一家開放式辦公室里通宵達(dá)旦地工作著，陪伴他們的是公司的吉祥物——一只名叫Mu Mu的小白狗。
Alex Zhu, Musical.ly’s co-founder, reckons his firm can become “Instagram for music videos”. Unlike other micro-multinationals, Musical.ly did give the local market a go but has flopped at home. Mr Zhu notes that Chinese schoolchildren typically have hours of homework and tutoring after school. They did not use his firm’s app. In contrast, he observes, “American kids have lots of free time to play and experiment with social media after 3pm.” Musical.ly的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人朱駿認(rèn)為他的公司可以成為“音樂視頻界的Instagram”。與其他微型跨國公司不同，Musical.ly也在本地市場做過嘗試，但卻在主場失利了。朱駿指出，中國學(xué)生通常在放學(xué)后要花幾個(gè)小時(shí)做作業(yè)和上輔導(dǎo)課，不會去玩他公司的應(yīng)用。相比之下，他注意到，“美國孩子下午3點(diǎn)后有大量的空閑時(shí)間在社交媒體上玩樂，做各種各樣的嘗試?！?/span>
In the past, fear of getting sued over intellectual property (IP) kept many Chinese firms at home. The new micro-multinationals are tackling the issue head-on. Ninebot, a Beijing-based firm, makes better versions of the clunky, self-balancing scooters that were invented by America’s Segway. Confronted with an IP lawsuit from the latter firm, Ninebot simply bought Segway. Now, argues Mr Joffe, it innovates “on top of Segway”, which was stagnating, and the combined firm’s strategy will be global. 在過去，由于擔(dān)心因知識產(chǎn)權(quán)問題被起訴，許多中國公司只在本土經(jīng)營。新的微型跨國公司正在正面迎擊這個(gè)問題。北京公司納恩博在美國賽格威（Segway）公司發(fā)明的笨重平衡車的基礎(chǔ)上推出了改進(jìn)的產(chǎn)品。面對來自賽格威的知識產(chǎn)權(quán)訴訟，納恩博干脆收購了賽格威。約菲認(rèn)為納恩博如今是“站在賽格威的肩膀上”進(jìn)行創(chuàng)新，在此之前賽格威已經(jīng)停滯不前，合并后公司的戰(zhàn)略將面向全球。
Neil Shen of Sequoia, an American venture-capital firm, reckons this all adds up to a trend. Slowing growth in China means the domestic market is less attractive than it used to be. A younger generation of founders unafraid of going global is in charge. David Cogman of McKinsey, a consultancy, who works with many Chinese entrepreneurs, recalls that a decade ago it was almost unheard of for small, consumer-oriented firms to look abroad. When he advises companies today, it is “a regular conversation”.
美國風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司紅杉資本（Sequoia）的沈南鵬認(rèn)為這一切都促成了一種趨勢。中國增長放緩意味著國內(nèi)市場的吸引力不如以往。不懼怕走出國門的年輕一代創(chuàng)始人成為企業(yè)掌舵人。咨詢公司麥肯錫的岑名彥（David Cogman ）與許多中國企業(yè)家都有合作關(guān)系。他回憶道，十年前，面向消費(fèi)者的小型公司尋求海外市場的案例幾乎聞所未聞。如今在他為公司提供咨詢服務(wù)時(shí)，走出去已成為“常見的話題”。
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