張勇：阿里巴巴宏偉藍(lán)圖的執(zhí)行人

China’s Singles Day is an annual frenzy of online consumerism that ranks as one of the wonders of the modern commercial world. The 24-hour sale far outstrips Black Friday in the US, on which it was modelled.

中國(guó)的“光棍節(jié)”(Singles Day)成了網(wǎng)上消費(fèi)的年度狂歡節(jié)，可算是現(xiàn)代商業(yè)世界的一項(xiàng)奇跡。其24小時(shí)的銷(xiāo)售額遠(yuǎn)超美國(guó)黑色星期五(Black Friday)——其模仿的對(duì)象。

Last year, Chinese and international superstars including Scarlett Johansson and David Beckham were enlisted to generate a buzz. Singles Day racked up $17.8bn of sales generating some 467m parcels, more than five times more than US consumers spent on Black Friday.

去年，包括斯嘉麗•約翰遜(Scarlett Johansson)、大衛(wèi)•貝克漢姆(David Beckham)在內(nèi)的一些中外巨星受邀為光棍節(jié)造勢(shì)。光棍節(jié)當(dāng)天銷(xiāo)售額達(dá)178億美元，生成約4.67億個(gè)包裹，是美國(guó)消費(fèi)者在黑色星期五支出的5倍以上。

The man behind this extravaganza is far from the showman you might expect. Daniel Zhang, the chief executive of Alibaba who developed the concept in 2009, is a mild-mannered, bespectacled accountant who speaks in a quiet hush in a Berlin hotel lobby on a swing through Europe.

這場(chǎng)狂歡背后的男人卻不是你可能以為的那個(gè)愛(ài)出風(fēng)頭的人?，F(xiàn)任阿里巴巴(Alibaba)首席執(zhí)行官的張勇(Daniel Zhang)于2009年提出了這一構(gòu)想。他戴著一副眼鏡，性格溫和，說(shuō)話輕聲細(xì)語(yǔ)，正在歐洲周游的他在柏林一間酒店大堂里接受了采訪(見(jiàn)題圖)。

Mr Zhang was chief financial officer of Taobao, Alibaba’s online shopping site, when the company was looking to expand into the business-to-consumer market. In Alibaba’s fluid management structure, he took responsibility for the project and launched Tmall, as the B2C business is called, on November 11, or Singles Day.

張勇曾是阿里巴巴在線購(gòu)物網(wǎng)站淘寶(Taobao)的首席財(cái)務(wù)官，當(dāng)時(shí)阿里巴巴正尋求進(jìn)軍B2C市場(chǎng)。在阿里巴巴的非固定管理架構(gòu)中，張勇是該項(xiàng)目的負(fù)責(zé)人，并推出了天貓(Tmall)這一B2C業(yè)務(wù)。

“If people are single, they must be alone, so we should give them some shopping fun on Singles Day,” he says.

張勇說(shuō)：“單身的人肯定是孤獨(dú)的，所以我們應(yīng)該在光棍節(jié)給他們一些購(gòu)物樂(lè)趣。”

The concept has grown at a startling rate, like so much else in China’s freewheeling internet market, which has grown from 137m users in 2006 to 731m last year. Retailers offer big discounts on a wide array of goods and consumers save for months to snap up self-indulgent treats, ranging from Buddha-shaped pears to cars. Mr Zhang, however, says he restricts himself to buying jackets and shirts.

就像狂野生長(zhǎng)的中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)市場(chǎng)的其他眾多事物一樣——中國(guó)網(wǎng)民從2006年的1.37億增至去年的7.31億——光棍節(jié)概念以驚人的速度成長(zhǎng)起來(lái)。在光棍節(jié)，零售商對(duì)大量商品提供了大幅折扣，消費(fèi)者們節(jié)省數(shù)月只為搶購(gòu)心儀商品，包括形如佛像的梨、汽車(chē)等。不過(guò)張勇表示他限制自己只許買(mǎi)外套和襯衫。

The real showman at Alibaba is the company’s super-charged founder, Jack Ma, who has turned the Hangzhou-based start-up into a multinational empire with more than 500m users in some 200 countries. In 2014, Alibaba became the biggest stock market flotation in the world when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a valuation of $167.6bn. Today, it boasts a market capitalisation of about $380bn.

阿里巴巴真正愛(ài)出風(fēng)頭的人是該公司精力充沛的創(chuàng)始人馬云(Jack Ma)，他已經(jīng)將這家總部位于杭州的初創(chuàng)公司發(fā)展成了一家跨國(guó)企業(yè)，在200來(lái)個(gè)國(guó)家擁有逾5億用戶。2014年，阿里巴巴在紐約證券交易所( New York Stock Exchange)上市，市值達(dá)1676億美元，創(chuàng)全球最大上市紀(jì)錄。現(xiàn)在其市值約為3800億美元。

Mr Ma has outlined even more ambitious plans: hitting 2bn users within 20 years and creating a global online commercial platform to promote a new model of trade, called Globalisation 2.0. While Mr Ma tours the world touting his vision to the likes of US president Donald Trump, Mr Zhang is entrusted with delivering Alibaba’s strategic ambition.

馬云描繪了更宏偉的藍(lán)圖：20年內(nèi)用戶達(dá)到20億，打造一個(gè)全球網(wǎng)絡(luò)商務(wù)平臺(tái)，以推動(dòng)一個(gè)被稱(chēng)為“全球化2.0”(Globalisation 2.0)的新的貿(mào)易模式。當(dāng)馬云周游世界，向美國(guó)總統(tǒng)唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)這樣的對(duì)象兜售其愿景時(shí)，張勇則被托付了實(shí)現(xiàn)阿里巴巴戰(zhàn)略目標(biāo)的責(zé)任。

“Jack Ma is a guy with many ideas. He is very, very creative,” says Mr Zhang. “But I’m the guy who always wants to put my foot on the ground.”

張勇說(shuō)：“馬云是一個(gè)點(diǎn)子很多的人。他非常非常有創(chuàng)意。而我這個(gè)人總想要腳踏實(shí)地。”

Outlining the three main means to achieve the company’s goals, Mr Zhang says Alibaba will continue to expand internationally; move more deeply into the offline world; and squeeze extra value out of its vast data assets.

張勇概述了實(shí)現(xiàn)公司目標(biāo)的三大途徑，他表示阿里巴巴將繼續(xù)進(jìn)軍國(guó)際;更深入線下市場(chǎng);并從其龐大的數(shù)據(jù)資產(chǎn)中汲取額外價(jià)值。

The first goal involves bringing the rest of the world’s products to China and Chinese products to the rest of the world. To that end, Mr Zhang visited Vinexpo in Bordeaux in June, where Alibaba has been working with French winemakers. As he sees it, Vinexpo has a physical platform, Alibaba has a virtual platform. Together, they can form a powerful combination.

第一個(gè)方面涉及將全球其他地區(qū)的產(chǎn)品帶到中國(guó)，和將中國(guó)產(chǎn)品帶到全球其他地區(qū)。張勇于6月份參加了法國(guó)波爾多的國(guó)際葡萄酒及烈酒展覽會(huì)(Vinexpo)，阿里巴巴一直與當(dāng)?shù)囟嗉揖魄f有合作。在他看來(lái)，Vinexpo擁有實(shí)體平臺(tái)，而阿里巴巴擁有虛擬平臺(tái)，兩者結(jié)合可以形成一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的組合。

“Selling wine online is not simple. You have to get a lot of input from the wineries, from the châteaux, from the families who have been in the business for so many years. Then bring this culture from France to China,” he says.

他說(shuō)：“在線賣(mài)葡萄酒并非易事。你必須從釀酒廠、酒莊以及浸淫該行業(yè)多年的家族那里大量進(jìn)貨。然后把這種酒文化從法國(guó)帶到中國(guó)。”

The company is fixated on expansion in China, aiming to connect the online and the offline world. Long before Amazon snapped up Whole Foods, Alibaba had been buying bricks-and-mortar retail stores, enabling the company to track consumers from one realm to the other. Mr Zhang says China’s online retail market accounts for about 15 per cent of total sales. “It’s all about how to transform the remaining 85 per cent into digital,” he says.

阿里巴巴把焦點(diǎn)放在了在中國(guó)的擴(kuò)張上，立志要連接線上和線下市場(chǎng)。早在亞馬遜收購(gòu)全食(Whole Foods)之前，阿里巴巴已經(jīng)在收購(gòu)實(shí)體零售商店，從而實(shí)現(xiàn)對(duì)消費(fèi)者從一個(gè)活動(dòng)領(lǐng)域到另一個(gè)活動(dòng)領(lǐng)域的追蹤。張勇表示，中國(guó)的在線零售市場(chǎng)約占零售總售額的15%。他說(shuō)：“關(guān)鍵就是怎么將剩下的85%轉(zhuǎn)化為數(shù)字銷(xiāo)售。”

But it would be wrong, in Mr Zhang’s view, to describe Alibaba as an ecommerce platform. The company’s core strength is becoming clear as it sucks up data through its mobile super-apps, which cover shopping, entertainment, finance and social networking.

但張勇認(rèn)為將阿里巴巴稱(chēng)為電子商務(wù)平臺(tái)是不對(duì)的。該公司的核心力量越來(lái)越明顯，它正在通過(guò)覆蓋了購(gòu)物、娛樂(lè)、金融和社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的移動(dòng)端超級(jí)應(yīng)用程序來(lái)獲取數(shù)據(jù)。

“We are positioning ourselves as a data company,” he says. “We have half a billion customers with us with shopping intentions and a method to pay. We know who they are, what they want, what they hate.”

他說(shuō)：“我們將自己定位為數(shù)據(jù)公司。我們有5億個(gè)有購(gòu)物意圖和一種支付方式的用戶。我們知道他們是誰(shuí)，他們想要什么，他們討厭什么。”

This data revolution has enabled Alibaba to create personal credit profiles, known as Sesame scores, for most of its users. In turn, that has facilitated the development of unrelated new businesses, such as Mobike bicycle hire, which assumes that those with high Sesame scores are trustworthy enough not to pay a deposit. But it has also led to privacy concerns as the government uses the data, too.

這一數(shù)據(jù)革命讓阿里巴巴能夠?yàn)榇蠖鄶?shù)用戶創(chuàng)建了個(gè)人信用檔案，即“芝麻信用”。這進(jìn)而促進(jìn)了無(wú)關(guān)的新業(yè)務(wù)的發(fā)展，例如摩拜(Mobike)自行車(chē)租賃，后者假設(shè)芝麻信用分高的用戶足以信賴(lài)，無(wú)須支付押金。但由于這些數(shù)據(jù)也被政府使用，因此也引發(fā)了隱私問(wèn)題。

Mr Zhang has a formidable path ahead of him if he is to realise Mr Ma’s vast ambitions. But he appears unflappable about the challenges and has grown used to accidental events.

張勇若要實(shí)現(xiàn)馬云的雄心壯志，等待他的是一條艱難的道路。但是面對(duì)挑戰(zhàn)他似乎毫不慌張，而且已經(jīng)習(xí)慣于意外事件。

In 1995, as a freshly minted finance graduate in Shanghai, Mr Zhang was set to join Barings, the British bank. Then the rogue trader Nick Leeson’s huge losses triggered the bank’s collapse. A spell at Arthur Andersen ended when the accounting firm was hit by the Enron scandal and Chinese operations were subsumed into PwC. Mr Zhang later gained experience working at Shanda, the online gaming company run by one of China’s richest businessmen, Chen Tianqiao.

1995年的上海，剛從金融專(zhuān)業(yè)畢業(yè)的張勇本準(zhǔn)備加入英國(guó)巴林銀行(Barings Bank)，卻趕上流氓交易員尼克•里森(Nick Leeson)造成的巨額虧損連累這家銀行倒閉。他在安達(dá)信會(huì)計(jì)師事務(wù)所(Arthur Andersen)的職業(yè)生涯又因這家事務(wù)所受安然丑聞打擊、中國(guó)業(yè)務(wù)被并入普華永道而終結(jié)。張勇后來(lái)進(jìn)入中國(guó)網(wǎng)游公司盛大工作，該公司的經(jīng)營(yíng)者陳天橋是中國(guó)最富有的商人之一。

Mr Ma’s outsized personality and the lure of working in such a fast-changing world won him over and he joined Alibaba in 2007. But Mr Zhang still commutes to his home city of Shanghai at weekends to see his family. “I’m single in Hangzhou, that’s why I can spend so much time on work,” he laughs.

馬云非凡的人格魅力以及在這樣一個(gè)快速變化的領(lǐng)域工作的誘惑，贏得了張勇的青睞，他于2007年加入了阿里巴巴。不過(guò)張勇每到周末仍會(huì)回上海看望家人。他笑道：“我在杭州是單身漢，所以才能將大把時(shí)間花在工作上。”

The observer

觀察員

Duncan Clark, author of Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built, says Mr Zhang’s skills, experience, and temperament have complemented those of Mr Ma. “He is the necessary adjunct of Jack,” Mr Clark says. “He has a lot of street cred internally having built up Tmall. And as a finance guy he has the ability to speak to investors.

《阿里巴巴：馬云的基業(yè)》(Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built)一書(shū)的作者鄧肯•克拉克(Duncan Clark)稱(chēng)張勇的才能、經(jīng)驗(yàn)和性情都剛好補(bǔ)充了馬云的。“他是馬云必不可少的臂助。把天貓做大為他在公司內(nèi)部贏得了大量口碑。而且作為一名財(cái)務(wù)人員，他有與投資者交流的能力。

“Daniel does not seek the limelight. But the culture within Alibaba is very much the smart boffin types. They do not always look like corporate titans.”

“張勇并不愛(ài)出風(fēng)頭。不過(guò)阿里巴巴的內(nèi)部文化也基本屬于技術(shù)牛人那類(lèi)。他們并不總是像企業(yè)巨人。”