佳士得CEO：亚马逊卖艺术品不足为虑

那么对在线零售业务呢？

    是这样，亚马逊刚刚进入这一领域，所以我了解到的情况还不够多，但我觉得我们两家公司的目标客户稍有区别，我们为客户服务的方式也不一样。今年是我们开展在线业务的第一年，我们已经从最初的七次测试发展到了60场在线拍卖会，今后我们的在线业务将完全成形。它和我们的经营场所以及我们的展示厅之间的关系更像是服装公司为促进自身在线业务的发展而设立的店面。我们的在线业务将提供导购服务，顾客能在这里看到我们的艺术品——这和亚马逊有非常大的区别。

我猜最重要的差异化因素是你们待客之道和留客之道，而就这一点而言，谁都可以成为亚马逊的顾客，或者说它并不在乎顾客是谁。

    是的，没错。瞧，在这一点上我很豁达。我认为真正重要的是当新事物出现时予以接纳，而不是简单地说，一边去，我绝不会让你成为现实。我清楚地记得美国电影协会前主席杰克•瓦伦蒂在国会试图禁止个人制作音像制品，而当时已经有人在这样做了。这就像那个关于铁路公司的老故事，他们觉得自己从事的是铁路生意，而实际上他们的业务是客运。如果不是那样的话，他们就不会错失飞机带来的机会。我们从事的是客户业务，而且我们的工作重点就落在他们的反应上。

    我们刚刚拍卖了一批精美的18世纪中国瓷器，拍卖过程非常有品位，非常出彩……这些瓷器的价位有2万美元（12.34万元人民币）、8千美元（4.94万元人民币）或4.5万美元（27.77万元人民币）——这是一批专门为爱好者准备的艺术品。我们在网上拍卖了55件瓷器，成交了50件，整个过程都在网上进行。50位买家中，有25人是首次参与我们的拍卖，他们来自加拿大、中国、美国和欧洲。现在我们开始和他们进行联络，有时候给他们打电话，但不是要卖什么东西给他们，只是邀请他们回来，看看我们能为他们拍下的艺术品提供哪些信息，看看他们还想了解些什么。两天前在我们的拍卖会上花了2万美元的顾客可能想知道他拍下的艺术品背后有什么样的故事，而我们可以为他提供这些信息。我不知道亚马逊能不能做到这一点。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

And the online retail game?

    Look, it's early days at Amazon in this space, so I don't really know enough about it, but I imagine we're serving slightly different audiences in different ways. When our online business comes to complete fruition -- this is the first year, and we've gone from seven tests to 60 online auctions -- we're approaching the relationship between our network of buildings and exhibition space more in the same way that apparel companies might have a store to drive their online business. So there will be things being toured, seen -- so it's very different than Amazon.

I imagine that the key differentiator is how you treat your customers, and retaining them, which is something that, well, with Amazon, you could be anybody, or nobody.

    Yes. Yes. Look, philosophically I think it's really important when new things happen to embrace them and do it better rather than say: Go away, this will never happen. I remember vividly Jack Valenti going to Congress to try and stop home recording when it was already happening. It's like that old story about the railroads thinking they're in the railroad business when they were in the people-moving business, otherwise they wouldn't have missed the airplane. We're in the client business, and the mandate has been to focus on how they interact.

    We just did a very tasty, beautiful little sale of some wonderful Chinese porcelain from the 18th century ... The price point is $20,000 or $8,000 or $45,000 -- it's an aficionado's category. We had 55 pieces in the online sale, sold 50, and only marketed online. Twenty-five of the 50 buyers were brand new, from Canada, China, the U.S., and Europe. Now they've just received contact, sometimes phone calls, we're not selling them, just inviting them back in: What information can we provide them about their purchase? What more do they want to know? Someone who just spent $20,000 two days ago might like to know the story behind what he bought, and we can give that to them. I don't know if Amazon can.