中国公司逐鹿全球电商大市场

巨头们的较量

    就电商企业染指付费搜索领域的能力而言，阿里巴巴在中国的发展模式具有有趣的长期影响——它可能会造就有史以来最大的“印钞机”。今天，绝大多数访问阿里巴巴网站的用户会直接搜索某种产品，实质上剥夺了百度（Baidu）和其他搜索引擎的用武之地。通过拉动真实的产品销售、而不仅仅是给用户留下印象，电商网站能为商家的广告提供更高、也更容易衡量的回报。值得注意的是，亚马逊和eBay都在积极投资开发下一代搜索引擎。

    与搜索引擎或社交媒体企业相比，电商企业会收集消费者、商户和交易过程中所有的大数据。这些信息包括了从一开始的产品搜索到完成销售的实际交易过程的所有“闭环数据”。随着时间积累，挖掘这些数据就能向用户提供更智能的商品推荐，向商户和零售商提供更有价值的服务和工具。

    中美两国的搜索巨头——谷歌和百度，以及社交媒体巨头——Facebook和腾讯，都有心利用自己的行业领导地位和庞大的用户数试水电子商务。在阿里巴巴、亚马逊和eBay所占领的市场之外，它们正开足马力和当地商贸市场展开竞争，同时正在谋求海外扩张的新据点。竞争，以及移动电商和跨境交易这样的创新趋势，将会创造全新的商业模式和混合式的商业战略。

    全球电子商务竞争日益激烈，这些技术巨头的成功将在很大程度上决定未来全球互联网经济的未来，同时可能把其中某家巨子推上全球最具价值公司的宝座。（财富中文网）

    本文作者是银湖投资的管理合伙人。银湖投资是一家全球性的科技投资公司，其管理的资产和承诺资本总规模高达230亿美元。

    译者：清远

Competition Among Giants

    Alibaba's model in China has interesting long-term implications for the ability of e-commerce players to encroach on paid search -- perhaps the greatest monetization machine ever invented. Today, the majority of users access an Alibaba site directly to search for products, effectively dis-intermediating Baidu and other search engines. E-commerce sites can provide merchants higher and more measurable returns on advertising by delivering real product sales, not just user impressions. Notably, Amazon and eBay are aggressively investing in next-generation search capabilities.

    In comparison to search or social media companies, e-commerce companies collect the Holy Grail of big data sets across consumers, merchants, and transactions. This information encompasses "closed loop" data based on actual transaction histories from initial product searches to completed sales. Over time, the mining of this data will enable more intelligent recommendations to users and enhanced value-added services and tools to merchants and retailers.

    In both the United States and China, the Internet giants in search -- Google (GOOG) and Baidu (BIDU) -- and social media -- Facebook (FB) and Tencent -- nurture ambitions to leverage their leadership positions and user traffic into e-commerce initiatives. Alongside Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay, they are aggressively positioning themselves to compete in local commerce markets and are looking for new footholds overseas. Competition and disruptive trends such as mobile and cross-border trade will lead to new monetization models and hybrid business strategies.

    The success of these technology powerhouses in the intensifying global e-commerce competition will, to a large degree, define the future of the global Internet economy -- and may possibly crown one of the Internet giants as the world's most valuable company.

    Ken Hao is a managing partner of Silver Lake, a global technology investment firm with $23 billion in assets under management and committed capital.