FT2013年度人物：马云

　　The billionaire determined to transform his country

　　The sound of 16,000 people chanting “Ali, Alibaba” fills the Yellow Dragon Stadium in Hangzhou, a city on China’s eastern coast. As the theme to The Lion King begins to blare over the sound system, a diminutive figure rises through the stage floor.在华东城市杭州的黄龙体育馆，16000人有节奏地反复喊着“阿里，阿里巴巴”。接着，《狮子王》的主题曲在音响系统中响起，一个瘦小的身影从舞台中升了起来。

　　Dressed in leather and sporting a giant spiked Mohawk, black lipstick and a nose ring, Jack Ma begins to belt out an off-key rendition of Elton John’s “Can you Feel the Love Tonight” to his adoring employees.马云(Jack Ma)身穿皮衣，戴着一顶巨大而有尖顶的莫西干式假发，涂着黑色唇膏并穿了一个鼻环。他拉开嗓门，有点走调地向崇拜他的员工们演唱埃尔顿?约翰 (Elton John)的《今夜你能感觉到爱吗》(Can you Feel the Love Tonight)。

　　It had been 10 years since Mr Ma founded Alibaba, the internet company that made him a billionaire, and it was time to celebrate. Soon, it will be time to celebrate again: Alibaba, the world’s most successful ecommerce company, is preparing to sell shares in a global initial public offering that is expected to be valued at well over $100bn.这是马云创立阿里巴巴10周年纪念会，这家互联网公司使他成为了亿万富翁，这是一个庆祝的时刻。不久，另一个值得庆祝的时刻又将到来：阿里巴巴这家全球最成功的电子商务公司正准备进行首次公开发行(IPO)，预计其市值将远超1000亿美元。

　　Mr Ma has been a cult figure in China for years. But he captured the attention of the world this year as excitement built around the impending IPO, which will let investors own a slice of the fastest-growing internet market on the planet.多年来，马云在中国一直是受人崇拜的偶像人物。但在今年，随着市场对阿里巴巴即将进行的IPO越来越感兴趣，他也吸引了世界的关注。上市将让投资者有机会在全球增长最快的互联网市场持有股份。

　　Alibaba’s sales now exceed those of eBay and Amazon combined and make up about 2 per cent of China’s gross domestic product. Seventy per cent of all Chinese package deliveries come from Alibaba sales. Roughly 80 per cent of Chinese ecommerce transactions are conducted through Alibaba’s sites. And this is probably just the beginning, considering more than half of China is still offline. With 600m people using the internet and counting, China will soon overtake the US as the world’s biggest ecommerce market.阿里巴巴的销售额如今超过了eBay和亚马逊(Amazon)之和，占到了中国国内生产总值(GDP)的约2%。中国所有的快递包裹中约有70%来自于阿里巴巴的销售。中国的电商交易中大约有80%是通过阿里巴巴的网站进行的。而这很可能只是一个开始，因为仍有一半以上的中国人不上网。鉴于中国网民人数已经达到6亿，而且还在不断增加，中国将在不久超越美国，成为全球最大的电商市场。

　　Mr Ma, godfather of China’s scrappy entrepreneurial spirit, is the FT’s 2013 Person of the Year because he personifies the Chinese internet – with all its potential and its contradictions.身为中国斗志旺盛的企业家精神“教父”的马云，被英国《金融时报》评为2013年度人物，因为他是中国互联网的化身——体现了中国互联网的全部潜力和矛盾。

　　In a nation whose success has been built largely on business ideas developed elsewhere, Mr Ma is a true innovator. His contemporaries have mostly copied established business models to create “China’s Google”, “China’s Amazon” or “China’s Twitter”. But when Mr Ma started Alibaba in his apartment in 1999, this type of business-to-business ecommerce website did not exist.在中国，创业成功大多依赖于借鉴海外发展起来的商业理念，但马云是一位真正的创新者。与他同时代的人，大多复制成熟的商业模式，创立“中国的谷歌 (Google)”，“中国的亚马逊(Amazon)”以及“中国的推特(Twitter)”。但当马云1999年在自己的公寓里创立阿里巴巴时，企业对企业(B2B)电子商务网站还不存在。

　　Mr Ma is now setting his eyes on a new goal: shaking up Chinese finance. This has sent shockwaves through the staid, state-dominated financial sector and shows that his ambitions extend well beyond online retail.马云现已将目光投向新的目标：撼动中国的金融业。这在古板的、公有制为主体的中国金融行业激起了轩然大波，并表明马云的雄心远远超出了在线零售业。

　　But there is another reason for choosing Mr Ma this year: his decision in May to step down as Alibaba’s chi executive at the age of 48 to devote himself to tackling some of China’s biggest problems – in particular its looming environmental disaster.但将马云评为今年的年度人物还有另一个原因：今年5月，他决定在年届48岁之际卸任阿里巴巴首席执行官职务，转而投身于应对中国一些最大的问题——尤其是中国日益迫近的环境灾难。

　　He remains executive chairman of the company but his decision to focus less on the blind pursuit of riches and more on improving the state of the world rlects a profound shift in Chinese society – one that is being facilitated by the rise of the internet. After three decades of double-digit economic growth, the country’s growing and increasingly vocal middle class is no longer content with a myopic focus on GDP growth rates.马云仍是阿里巴巴的执行董事长，但他决定将更少的精力用于盲目追求财富，而将更多精力用于改善世界面貌，这反映了中国社会的深刻转变——互联网的崛起正使这种转型变得更加容易。在经历了30年的两位数经济增长后，中国不断壮大且越来越愿意表达自身诉求的中产阶层不再满足于短视地关注于GDP增长率。

　　“In China, because of problems in water, air and food safety, in 10 or 20 years we will face a lot of health problems, like increased cancer. So that is one area where I will invest my money and time,” Mr Ma said in a telephone interview last week. “My second focus is people’s culture and education – if we don’t do this then young Chinese people will grow up with deep pockets but shallow minds.”马云上周在接受电话采访时表示：“在中国，因为水源、空气质量以及食品安全等方面的问题，10至20年后我们将面临大量健康问题，例如癌症发病率上升。因此我将在这个领域投入我的资金和时间。我的第二大关注领域是民众的文化和教育——如果我们无所作为，中国的年轻人将成长为富裕但浅薄的一代。”

　　Mr Ma’s energy and optimism inspire many. But that does not mean he is a saint. Some former colleagues and confidants say his incredible success and the adulation it has brought has made him overconfident in his ability to change the world.马云的活力和乐观精神鼓舞了很多人。但这并不意味着他是个圣人。一些前同事和密友表示，马云惊人的成功以及由此带来的过度美誉，使他对自己改变世界的能力过于自信。

　　In almost the same breath, he will say the internet is going to make China more open and transparent, while also vowing to hand over to the authorities information on any netizen who dares criticise the authoritarian Communist party.他会在几乎同一句话里表示，互联网将使中国变得更加开放透明，而他将继续向当局提供任何敢于批评威权的共产党的网民的信息。

　　His own authoritarian tendencies, and his sometimes dizzying reversals in business strategy, have bred resentment among a minority at Alibaba. But his cult-like following ensures even disgruntled former employees do not dare criticise him openly.马云自己的专断倾向，以及他有时令人眩晕的商业战略逆转，使阿里巴巴的少数人产生反感。但他近乎偶像人物的光环意味着，即便是心怀不满的前员工也不敢公开批评他。

　　“Anybody who wants to do anything in the Chinese tech industry in future has to be carul what they say about Jack Ma because he is just so powerful,” says a former employee who asks not to be named.一位要求匿名的前员工表示：“任何未来想在中国科技行业中做点什么的人，在谈到马云时都必须慎言，因为他的影响力太过强大。”

　　“But even people like me who don’t buy into his cult of personality recognise that he epitomises the entrepreneurial new China, where a person from a very poor background can become huge through pure perseverance and by rallying people around him.”“但即便像我这种不吃他的个人崇拜那一套的人也承认，他是中国新一代企业家的代表，一个背景很穷的人通过坚持不懈和笼络人才成长为巨头。”

　　Born in the southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in 1964, Ma Yun (his Chinese name) inherited a gift for showmanship from his parents, who earned their living as performers of “ping tan”, a traditional musical storytelling technique.马云1964年出生于杭州，他从父母那里继承了表演的天赋。马云的父母靠表演评弹(一种传统曲艺形式)为生。

　　Mr Ma’s early life cannot have been easy: traditional ping tan was banned during the Cultural Revolution, the catastrophic decade-long political campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 in which millions were persecuted, killed or banished to remote parts of the country.马云的早年生活肯定不容易：评弹在文化大革命期间遭禁，这场由毛泽东在1966年发动的灾难性政治运动持续了整整十年，其间数百万人受到迫害、被杀死或下放到中国的偏远地区。

　　As a child, Mr Ma was bad at maths but fascinated by English. As China emerged from the trauma of Maoism and began opening up to the world, he decided he would devote himself to learning the language.马云小时候数学较差，但他对英语很有兴趣。随着中国渐渐抚平毛时代的创伤，开始向世界开放，他决定全身心投入英语学习。

　　For nine years he got up early every morning and rode his bike to the Hangzhou Hotel, where he briended foreign tourists and worked for free as a tour guide in order to practise English.有整整九年时间，他每天都早早起床，骑上他的自行车奔向杭州大酒店(Hangzhou Hotel)，他在那里和外国游客交上朋友，免费充当导游，以练习自己的英语。

　　After twice failing China’s national university entrance exam he was eventually admitted to Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute, where he graduated in 1988.在参加高考两次落第之后，他最终进入了杭州师范学院，并于1988年毕业。

　　He worked as an English teacher at a local university making $12 a month but in 1994 he started a translation business that took him to the US, where he was introduced to the internet. At the time, China’s state media were not allowed even to mention its existence.此后他在杭州当地的一所高校担任英语老师，每月的工资相当于12美元。但1994年他成立了一家翻译公司，这使他有机会去美国出差，在那里接触到了互联网。那时中国的官方媒体甚至不能提及互联网的存在。

　　After a failed attempt to start an online Chinese version of the Yellow Pages, Mr Ma went to work for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, where one day he was assigned to take an American visitor on a tour of the Great Wall.在创办中国黄页(China Yellow Pages)失败之后，马云进入中国对外经济贸易部工作。有一天，他被指派陪同一位美国游客游览长城。

　　The visitor was Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo. The meeting would turn out to be transformative for both men.这位游客就是雅虎(Yahoo)的联合创始人杨致远(Jerry Yang)。事实证明，这次的见面将成为两人事业生涯的转折点。

　　Early in 1999, Mr Ma gathered 17 friends and founded Alibaba in his apartment in Hangzhou, giving rousing lectures that revealed his ambition, his vision and his fighting spirit.1999年初，马云联合17位朋友在他位于杭州的公寓里创建了阿里巴巴。他发表了励志演讲，展示了自己的雄心、愿景和战斗精神。

　　“Chinese brains are just as good as theirs and this is the reason we dare to compete with Americans,” Mr Ma told his comrades in a speech that was caught on camera. “If we’re a good team and we know what we want to do then one of us can deat 10 of them.”马云在这段被录制下来的演讲中向他的战友们表示：“中国人的大脑和美国人一样聪明，这正是我们敢于和他们竞争的原因。如果我们是一个优秀的团队，而且我们知道自己想要做什么，那么我们就能以一当十。”

　　Alibaba’s model was simple: allow small and medium-sized Chinese companies to find global buyers they would otherwise only be able to meet at trade shows. It worked brilliantly.阿里巴巴的模式非常简单：帮助中国的中小企业找到原本只能在交易会上见到的全球买家。这种模式取得了极大的成功。

　　In 2003, Alibaba made its first tiny profit and launched Taobao (“search for treasure”) to compete with US ecommerce group eBay, which then dominated in China with market share of about 80 per cent.2003年，阿里巴巴首次实现了小额盈利，同时为了与美国电子商务集团eBay竞争而创建了淘宝网，当时eBay在中国占据主导地位，拥有大约80%的市场份额。

　　In a series of interviews with global media, Mr Ma announced he was “going to war” with eBay. At the time, it seemed like a comical mismatch.在接受全球媒体的一系列采访时，马云宣布与eBay“开战”。当时，这种宣战显得有些可笑，因为双方实力悬殊。

　　By 2007, eBay’s market share in China had dropped to less than 8 per cent and it had in fect quit the market. Taobao’s share price had soared to 84 per cent, making Mr Ma the unrivalled king of Chinese ecommerce.到2007年，eBay在中国的市场份额降至不足8%，实际上已经退出了中国市场。淘宝的市场份额飙升至84%，这让马云成为了无可匹敌的中国电商之王。

　　He struck a landmark deal with his old friend Mr Yang in 2005, with Yahoo paying $1bn for a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba and handing its China operations over to Mr Ma to run.2005年，他与自己的老朋友杨致远达成了里程碑式的协议：雅虎支付10亿美元收购阿里巴巴40%的股权，并将其中国业务交给马云运营。

　　In taking over Yahoo China, Alibaba inherited a scandal that would cast a shadow over Mr Ma’s reputation in the west but cement his image as a safe pair of hands in the eyes of the Chinese government.阿里巴巴接管雅虎中国(Yahoo China)的同时也继承了一桩丑闻，这将为马云在西方的形象带来阴影，但巩固了其在中国政府眼里办事可靠的形象。

　　Yahoo’s earlier decision to hand over private email information to the Chinese authorities had led to at least two Chinese journalists and democracy advocates being thrown in prison for subversion.此前，雅虎将私人邮件信息移交给中国有关部门的决定，导致了至少两名中国记者和民主人士因颠覆罪被捕入狱。

　　When asked how he would handle such a situation now that he was in charge of Yahoo’s China operations, Mr Ma’s reply was unambiguous.当时有记者问马云，既然你现在负责雅虎中国业务，你将如何处理这种局面，他的回答相当干脆。

　　“We create value for the shareholders and the shareholders don’t want us to oppose the government and go bankrupt,” he told reporters at the time. “Whatever [government officials] say, we’ll do it.”马云向记者表示：“我们为股东创造价值，股东不希望我们与政府作对，走上破产之路。无论(政府官员)说什么，我们都会配合。”

　　When asked last week in the interview about the challenges of dealing with the Chinese government, Mr Ma pointed out that there had never been an organisation in China or perhaps anywhere that is as large as Alibaba. It boasts more than 600m registered accounts and welcomes about 100m shoppers a day.在上周采访中被问及与中国政府打交道的种种挑战时，马云指出，中国(或许全世界)从来没有阿里巴巴这么大的企业。阿里巴巴号称有6亿多注册账户，每天有大约1亿人通过其平台购物。

　　“At the beginning I thought the government would worry,” Mr Ma said. “[But] we focus on business and the creation of jobs. The government seems to feel more comfortable now.”马云说道：“起初我以为政府会感到不安。(但)我们致力于商业和创造就业。政府现在似乎放心多了。”

　　To his employees he has often said that Alibaba should “be in love with the government but never marry it”. Over the years he has repeatedly turned down offers to establish joint ventures with the state.在公司内部，他经常对员工表示，阿里巴巴应该“跟政府谈恋爱但不要嫁给他们”。多年来，他一再拒绝了与政府建立合资企业的提议。

　　Apart from the Chinese government, Mr Ma seems willing to pick a public fight with almost anyone.除了中国政府以外，马云似乎愿意与几乎所有人公开作对。

　　That includes Alibaba investors such as Yahoo and, most recently, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which this year rused to change its listing rules to accommodate the corporate structure Alibaba would like to use for its forthcoming IPO.这包括雅虎等阿里巴巴投资者，最近还有香港交易所(Hong Kong Stock Exchange)。香港交易所今年拒绝为了配合阿里巴巴希望采用的股权结构而修改上市规则。

　　Within Alibaba, this fighting spirit is celebrated constantly and employees – or “Alipeople” as they are called – assume nicknames taken from characters in the kung fu novels that Mr Ma loved to read as a young man.在阿里巴巴内部，这种战斗精神不断得到赞扬，而员工们(他们被称为“阿里人”)几乎都有一个来自马云年轻时非常喜欢阅读的武侠小说的化名。

　　This is more than a gimmick for Mr Ma, whose own nickname – “Feng Qingyang” – comes from a reclusive swordsman character who was unpredictable and aggressive.对马云来说，这不只是一种噱头。马云自己的绰号是“风清扬”，它来自一个隐居山中的剑侠角色，行事不可预测而且非常好斗。

　　“People don’t realise how much martial arts and kung fu novels influence Jack and his strategy for business,” says a former confidant. “They also helped shape his idealism because they are all about upholding the righteous way.”马云以前的一位密友表示：“人们没有意识到武术和武侠小说对马云及其企业战略的影响有多大。它们还帮助塑造了马云的理想主义，因为它们的要义都是弘扬正义。”

　　Outside the ruling Communist party it is hard to find anyone today in China who has had a bigger impact on the lives of ordinary people than Mr Ma.在执政的共产党以外，在当今中国很难找到另一个人像马云一样，对普通人的生活影响如此之大。

　　His decision to address some of the biggest problems facing China shows that his ambition extends far beyond changing the way people do their shopping. In an essay published this year, he laid out the scope of his vision.他决定应对中国一些最大的问题，这表明他的雄心远不止改变人们的购物方式。在今年发表的一篇文章中，他阐述了自己的愿景。

　　“Just as the internet is revolutionising retail,” Mr Ma wrote, “we at Alibaba believe it will eventually do the same to fundamentally information-driven industries such as finance, education and healthcare. Once this change happens – once we are all connected – I believe the spirit of equality and transparency at the heart of the internet will make it possible for Chinese society to leapfrog in its development of a stronger institutional and social infrastructure.”马云写道：“就像互联网正在改写零售业那样，在阿里巴巴，我们相信它最终也将转变那些根本上由信息驱动的行业，比如金融、教育和医疗。一旦发生这种变化，一旦我们全面实现互联互通，我相信，互联网核心的平等与透明精神，将让中国社会有可能在发展更强大的制度和社会基础设施方面实现飞跃。”

　　But he also included a warning: “Our water has become undrinkable, our food inedible, our milk poisonous and worst of all the air in our cities is so polluted that we often cannot see the sun,” he wrote. “Twenty years ago, people in China were focusing on economic survival. Now, people have better living conditions and big dreams for the future. But these dreams will be hollow if we cannot see the sun.”但他也提出了警告：“现在我们的水不能喝了，食物不能吃了，牛奶有毒，最糟糕的是，我们的城市空气污染如此严重，以至于我们经常看不到太阳。20年前，中国人只想着经济生存。现在人们的生活条件变好了，对未来有更远大的梦想。但如果我们看不到太阳，这些梦想将是空洞的。”

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