為尊重原文，本文添加了原文與翻譯文的對照查看和必要的注釋文字。

Ant's Jumbo IPO

螞蟻集團超大型IPO

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導讀：

本文主要講述螞蟻集團的來龍去脈。螞蟻集團是如何起家的?螞蟻是什么?螞蟻的本質是什么?它對金融體系有什么影響?螞蟻集團的規(guī)模有多大?它跟傳統(tǒng)金融有什么區(qū)別和優(yōu)勢?螞蟻給我們的日常生活帶來什么便利和影響?螞蟻的支付、信貸、資產(chǎn)管理和保險等業(yè)務是如何發(fā)展的?在發(fā)展過程中遇到什么問題?螞蟻最大的創(chuàng)新是什么?螞蟻對中小企業(yè)有什么影響?螞蟻的發(fā)展存在哪三個風險?政府對螞蟻的態(tài)度如何?螞蟻有哪些競爭對手?他們之間有什么區(qū)別?螞蟻跟全球金融有什么共鳴?螞蟻的無抵押貸款的拖欠貸款率為什么會比傳統(tǒng)銀行低?螞蟻跟銀行的關系如何?螞蟻的海外發(fā)展戰(zhàn)略如何?未來如何?

格式說明：

• 英文原文
• 中文翻譯
• 單詞詞組
• 單詞詞組解釋
• 譯注及說明

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譯注：這張原文配圖乍一看比較枯燥，結合文章內(nèi)容我才稍微體會到這張配圖不簡單，本文主要講螞蟻集團，圖中像是一群螞蟻，類比螞蟻集團的不同業(yè)務、眾多小微企業(yè)客戶和個人用戶等，而且這些螞蟻有序往前爬行，表示螞蟻旗下不同業(yè)務的發(fā)展。什么?沒看到螞蟻?只看到人民幣符號“¥”?嗯，可能是這些螞蟻搬運的人民幣太多把螞蟻遮蓋住了，表示螞蟻集團的每個業(yè)務都很賺錢，整個螞蟻生態(tài)有超強的吸金能力。但畢竟細細品味才能理解一點這張圖的意思，為了更加直觀，個人在前面添加了一張亮麗一點的螞蟻集團配圖。

Queen of the colony

蟻群王后

colony

• a country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country殖民地(biology生物) a group of plants or animals that live together or grow in the same place(同地生長的植物或動物)群體，集落，群。例：a colony of ants蟻群。

譯注：雙關語標題。初看這個標題，colony有“殖民地”的意思，標題可譯為“殖民女王”或“殖民王后”，原文作者也許是想表達螞蟻集團類比英國強盛殖民時期女王。不過這個用詞有點激進，怕與天朝和諧社會氣氛不合，一度想刪掉這個副標題。不過colony還有另外一個意思動物“群體”，這里把螞蟻集團類比為蟻群。“蟻群王后”中的“王后”首先表示螞蟻集團是眾多企業(yè)的榜樣。另外，在白蟻的王國中，一個蟻巢里只有一只母蟻，又叫蟻后。蟻后的體形是最大的，而且通常情況下不露面，它只負責不停地生出新的卵來繁衍后代，在本文中類比螞蟻集團不停地產(chǎn)生新的業(yè)務和發(fā)展更多的企業(yè)和個人客戶，具有超強的業(yè)務繁衍能力。

Does the giant Chinese fintech upstart represent the future of finance?

中國龐大的金融科技新貴是否代表了金融的未來?

upstart

• a newly successful person, business, etc.新貴;新興事業(yè)

In the staid world of Chinese banking, it is rare for executives to voice public criticism. So Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, made headlines in 2008 when he bemoaned how hard it was for small businesses to get loans: “If the banks don’t change, we’ll change the banks.” He has not repeated his warning since then. He has not needed to.

在中國沉寂的銀行業(yè)中，高管很少會公開表達意見。因此，電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的創(chuàng)始人馬云(Jack Ma)在2008年成為頭條新聞，當時他哀嘆小企業(yè)獲得貸款有多難：“如果銀行不改變，我們就改變銀行。” 之后他再也沒有說過同樣的警示。他不需要了。

staid

• not fun or interesting; boring and old-fashioned沒意思的;古板的;一本正經(jīng)的

bemoan something

• to complain or say that you are not happy about something哀怨;悲嘆

Through Ant Group, which began life as a payments service on Alibaba, Mr Ma’s impact on the Chinese financial system has been profound. Ant has helped establish China as the world leader in digital transactions, given entrepreneurs and consumers far greater access to loans, and changed the way that people manage their money. It is now a giant in its own right. Over the past year it counted more than 1bn active users. Last year it handled 110trn yuan ($16trn) in payments, nearly 25 times more than PayPal, the biggest online payments platform outside China (see chart 1 on next page).

憑借阿里巴巴支付服務起家的螞蟻集團，馬云對中國金融體系的影響深遠。螞蟻集團幫助中國在數(shù)字交易領域確立了全球領導地位，給了企業(yè)家和消費者更多的貸款機會，同時也改變了人們管理資金的方式?，F(xiàn)在它本身就是一個巨人。在過去的一年中，它的活躍用戶超過10億。去年，它處理了110萬億元人民幣(合16萬億美元)的支付，幾乎是中國以外最大的在線支付平臺PayPal的25倍(見圖表1)。

access

• the opportunity or right to use something or to see somebody/something(使用或見到的)機會，權利

in its own right

• because of its own special qualities and not because of a connection with something else

An initial public offering (IPO) in the coming weeks will bear testimony to Ant’s growth. It is expected to raise more than $30bn, eclipsing Saudi Aramco’s debut last year as the biggest IPO—a symbol of the world’s transition from a century in which oil was the most valuable resource to an era that prizes data. With a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 40, in line with big global payments companies, Ant could fetch a market capitalisation in excess of $300bn, more than any bank in the world.

未來幾周的首次公開募股(IPO)將證明螞蟻的成長。預計它將籌集超過300億美元，超過沙特阿美(Saudi Aramco)去年的全球最大的首次公開募股(IPO)，標志著世界從一個石油是最有價值的資源的世紀到重視數(shù)據(jù)的時代的轉變。早先40倍的市盈率，加上大型全球支付公司，螞蟻的市值可能超過3000億美元，超過世界上任何一家銀行。

prize

• to value something highly珍視;高度重視

in line with something

• similar to something or so that one thing is closely connected with another與…相似(或緊密相連)

A four-legged insect

四足昆蟲

More important than its size is what Ant represents. It matters globally in a way that no other Chinese financial institution does. China’s banks are huge but inefficient, burdened by state ownership. By contrast foreign financiers look at Ant with curiosity, envy and anxiety. Some hawks in the White House reportedly want to rein in the company or hobble its IPO. Ant is the most integrated fintech platform in the world: think of it as a combination of Apple Pay for offline pay, PayPal for online pay, Venmo for transfers, Mastercard for credit cards, JPMorgan Chase for consumer financing and iShares for investing, with an insurance brokerage thrown in for good measure, all in one mobile app.

比其體量更重要的是螞蟻所代表的含義。它在全球的重要性是其他任何中國金融機構無法比擬的。中國的銀行規(guī)模龐大，但效率低下，并有國營的負擔。相比之下，外國金融家對螞蟻充滿好奇、嫉妒和焦慮。據(jù)報道，白宮的一些鷹派人士想控制該公司或阻礙其IPO。螞蟻是世界上集成度最高的金融科技平臺?？梢詫⑵湟暈橐韵逻@些工具的組合：Apple Pay(用于線下支付)、PayPal(用于線上支付)、Venmo(用于轉賬)、Mastercard(用于信用卡)、JPMorgan Chase(用于消費者融資)和iShares(用于投資)。保險經(jīng)紀人可以在一個移動應用程序中充分發(fā)揮作用。

rein somebody/something↔back | rein something↔in

• to start to control somebody/something more strictly嚴格控制;加強管理

for good measure

• as an extra amount of something in addition to what has already been done or given作為額外增添;外加的項目

Given the abundance of consumer data in China and the relatively lax safeguards around its use, Ant has more to work with than fintech peers elsewhere. More than 3,000 variables have gone into its credit-risk models, and its automated systems decide whether to grant loans within three minutes—a claim that may seem farfetched but for Alibaba’s proven ability to handle 544,000 orders per second. Ant is, in short, the world’s purest example of the tremendous potential of digital finance. But as it advances further, it may also be an early warning of its limitations.

鑒于中國大量的消費者數(shù)據(jù)以及相對寬松的使用這些數(shù)據(jù)的保障措施，與其他地方的金融科技同行相比，螞蟻集團有更多的合作余地。包含3000多個變量的信用風險模型，自動化系統(tǒng)可以在三分鐘內(nèi)決定是否發(fā)放貸款，這些聽起來有點不可思議，但現(xiàn)在阿里巴巴已每秒可以處理54.4萬份訂單。簡而言之，螞蟻是全球數(shù)字金融巨大潛力的最純粹的例子。但是隨著它的進一步發(fā)展，它同時也可能預示著一些局限性。

Start with a deceptively simple question: what is Ant? In its decade as an independent company it has changed names three times—from Alibaba E-Commerce to Ant Small and Micro Financial Services to Ant Group. The company once called itself a fintech leader. Then Mr Ma inverted the term to techfin, in order better to capture its priorities. Such are its efforts to distinguish itself from a purely financial firm that it has asked some brokerages to assign tech analysts to cover it. (Of course, it does not hurt that the valuations for tech stocks are much plumper than for bank stocks.)

從一個看似簡單的問題開始：什么是螞蟻?在作為獨立公司的十年中，它已經(jīng)三度更名，從阿里巴巴電子商務到螞蟻小微金融服務再到螞蟻集團。該公司曾經(jīng)自稱為“金融科技”領導者。然而，馬云將其反過來稱為“科技金融”，以便更好地把握其優(yōu)先事項。為了將其與純粹的金融公司區(qū)分開來，螞蟻要求一些經(jīng)紀公司指派技術分析師來為其提供服務。(當然這并不影響科技類股票的估值遠高于銀行類股票的估值。)

plump

• having a soft, round body; slightly fat豐腴的;微胖的

Yet there is no doubt that Ant, at its heart, is about finance. The clearest way of understanding its business model is to look at the four sections into which it divides its revenues. The first is payments—how it started and still the foundation of the company. Ant began in 2004 as a solution to a problem. Shoppers and merchants were flocking to Alibaba but lacked a trusted payment option. Alipay was created as an escrow account, transferring money to sellers after buyers had received their products. With the launch of a mobile Alipay app, it moved into the offline world, super-charging its growth in 2011 with the introduction of QR codes for payments. A shop owner needed to show only a QR code print-out to accept money, a big advance for a country previously reliant on cash.

但是，毫無疑問，螞蟻的核心是金融。理解其業(yè)務模型的最好的方法是了解其營收的四大部分。首先是支付，螞蟻從支付起家，現(xiàn)在依然是公司的基礎。螞蟻從2004年解決一個問題開始。顧客和商家涌向阿里巴巴，但缺乏可信賴的支付方式。作為第三方托管帳戶的支付寶應運而生，在買家收到商品后將錢轉賬給賣家。隨著移動支付寶應用程序的發(fā)布，它進入了線下世界，2011年引入了二維碼支付，從而為其增長提供了動力。商店老板只需出示一張打印的二維碼即可收款，這對以前依賴現(xiàn)金的方式來說是一大進步。

escrow

• money , property , or a legal document that is kept by someone until a particular thing has happened 暫交第三者保管的東西(如錢、財產(chǎn)、法律文件等)

For China as a whole, digital transactions reached 201trn yuan in 2019, up from less than 1trn in 2010. Alipay’s market share has been whittled down by Tencent, which added a payments function to WeChat, China’s dominant messaging app. Both companies earn as little as 0.1% per transaction, less than banks do from debit-card swipes. Given the sheer volume, this still adds up to a lot. Ant generated nearly 52bn yuan of revenues from its payments business last year. But growth is slowing, dropping from 55% of Ant’s revenue in 2017 to 36% in the first half of this year. Instead, the crucial point is that payments are a gateway: how Ant attracts users, understands them and ultimately monitors them.

中國數(shù)字交易額從2010年的不到1萬億人民幣增加到2019年的201萬億人民幣。支付寶的市場份額被騰訊削減了，騰訊給微信添加了支付功能。兩家公司的每筆交易收益僅為0.1%，低于銀行從借記卡刷卡中獲得的收益。考慮到龐大的體量，這仍然很多。去年，螞蟻的支付業(yè)務創(chuàng)造了近520億元的收入。但增長速度正在放緩，從2017年螞蟻收入的55%下降到今年上半年的36%。然而關鍵點在于支付是入口：螞蟻如何吸引用戶、理解用戶并最終跟蹤用戶。

whittle something ↔ down

• to reduce the size or number of something減少，縮減(…的大小或數(shù)目)

The biggest beneficiary of all this data is Ant’s lending arm, the second part of the company (which Ant, never one to shy away from jargon, calls CreditTech). Ant began consumer lending as recently as 2014, with the launch of Huabei, a revolving unsecured credit line for purchases— basically a virtual credit card. Alipay users can tap into Huabei to defer payments by a month or to break them into instalments. Credit cards had never taken off in China, so Huabei was lapped up. That led to Jiebei, an Alipay feature which allows users to borrow larger sums. Ant also offers loans, with a focus on very small businesses. Annualised interest rates hover between 7% and 14%, lower than the alternatives from small-loan companies.

所有這些數(shù)據(jù)中最大的受益者是螞蟻的借貸部門，這是公司的第二部分(螞蟻稱為CreditTech)。螞蟻于2014年開始提供消費者貸款，推出了花唄，這是一種無抵押、循環(huán)消費信貸產(chǎn)品，也可以說是一種虛擬信用卡。支付寶用戶可以點進花唄，將付款推遲一個月或分期付款。當時信用卡還未普及，所以花唄大顯身手。后來有了借唄，它是支付寶的一個功能，它允許用戶借入更大的金額。螞蟻還提供貸款，主要給非常小的企業(yè)。年利率在7%至14%之間徘徊，低于小額貸款公司的替代利率。

unsecured

• not protected against risk or loss : not secure無擔保的;無保證的;無抵押的

take off

• (of an idea, a product, etc.觀念、產(chǎn)品等) to become successful or popular very quickly or suddenly突然大受歡迎;迅速流行

lap up

• to drink all of something and to enjoy doing so開懷暢飲

Like many Ant clients, Zhu Yifan, owner of Rabbits Go Home, a convenience store in Dongyang, an eastern city, started small. Four years ago she and her husband wanted to open their store. With no property as collateral, they could not get a bank loan. Instead, they pulled together money from friends and relatives, and, on a whim, borrowed 10,000 yuan from Ant, the most they could obtain then. By repaying that initial loan and getting customers to use Alipay— giving Ant a look at her cash flow—Ms Zhu’s credit score improved. Now, she has a 100,000 yuan credit line from Ant, which lets her stock up before busy holidays.

像許多螞蟻客戶一樣，浙江東陽的“兔子回家”便利店老板朱一帆起步規(guī)模小。四年前，她和丈夫想開店。沒有財產(chǎn)作為抵押，他們無法獲得銀行貸款。取而代之的是，他們從親戚朋友那里籌集了資金，一時興起，向螞蟻借了1萬元，這是當時他們所能獲得的最大額度。通過償還最初的貸款并讓客戶使用支付寶(讓螞蟻了解其現(xiàn)金流)，朱女士的信用評分提高了。現(xiàn)在，她從螞蟻那里獲得了10萬元的信用額度，這使她可以在繁忙的假期到來之前囤積貨物。

collateral

• property or something valuable that you promise to give to somebody if you cannot pay back money that you borrow抵押物;擔保品

whim

• a sudden wish to do or have something, especially when it is something unusual or unnecessary心血來潮;一時的興致;突發(fā)的奇想

credit line = lines of credit

• an amount of money that a person is allowed to borrow信用額度

In barely half a decade Ant has reached 1.7trn yuan in outstanding consumer loans, or roughly a 15% share of China’s consumer-lending market. Its loans to small businesses total about 400bn yuan, about 5% of the micro-enterprise loan market. From a financial perspective, Ant’s biggest innovation is the way that it funds the credit. Initially, it made the loans and then packaged them as securities, sold to other financial institutions. But regulators feared parallels with the securitisation boom that preceded the financial crisis of 2007-09. They required that the originators of securities hold capital much like any bank—a rule that cut into Ant’s margins.

在不到五年的時間里，螞蟻的未償還消費貸款達到1.7萬億元，約占中國消費貸款市場的15%。給小企業(yè)的貸款總額約為4000億元，約占微型企業(yè)貸款市場的5%。從金融角度來看，螞蟻最大的創(chuàng)新就是它為信貸提供資金的方式。最初，它提供貸款，然后打包為證券，出售給其他金融機構。但監(jiān)管機構擔心這與2007-2009年金融危機爆發(fā)之前的證券繁榮類似。要求證券的發(fā)起人要像任何一家銀行一樣持有資本，這就削減了螞蟻的利潤。

outstanding

• (of payment, work, problems, etc.款項、工作、困難等) not yet paid, done, solved, etc.未支付的;未完成的;未解決的

parallel

• very similar or taking place at the same time極相似的;同時發(fā)生的;相應的;對應的

So Ant devised a new approach. It now identifies and assesses borrowers, but passes them on to banks which extend the loans. Ant collects a “technology service fee”. For borrowers it is seamless. With a few taps on their smartphones, their credit requests are approved or rejected. Ant ends up with a cash-rich, asset-light lending model. Fully 98% of the loans are held as assets by other firms. Credit has become Ant’s biggest single business segment, accounting for 39% of its revenues in the first half of this year (see chart 2 on next page).

因此，螞蟻設計了一種新方法。現(xiàn)在，它可以識別和評估借款人并將其轉給銀行，讓銀行來發(fā)放貸款。螞蟻收取“技術服務費”。這個過程對于借款人而言是無感知的。在智能手機上輕點幾下，即可批準或拒絕其信貸請求。螞蟻最終得到了一個重資金、輕資產(chǎn)的貸款模型。足足98%的貸款被其他公司作為資產(chǎn)持有。信貸已成為螞蟻最大的獨立業(yè)務板塊，占今年上半年收入的39%(見表2)。

extend

• (formal) to offer or give something to somebody提供;給予

fully

• (formal) (used to emphasize an amount強調(diào)數(shù)量) the whole of; as much as整整;足足

The strength of Ant’s platform is what enables its third and fourth business segments: asset management and insurance (InvestmentTech and InsureTech, to use Ant’s nomenclature). Ant got started on asset management in 2013 with the launch of Yu’ebao, or “leftover treasure”. The idea was that merchants or shoppers with cash in Alipay could get a small return by parking it in a money-market fund. That attracted people interested in Yu’ebao purely for storing cash, since its yields (now roughly 1.7%) were higher than those available on current accounts at banks. By 2017 Yu’ebao had given rise to the world’s biggest money-market fund by size.

螞蟻的平臺優(yōu)勢造就了其第三和第四個業(yè)務部分：資產(chǎn)管理和保險(使用螞蟻的術語叫InvestmentTech和InsureTech)。隨著“余額寶”的推出，螞蟻于2013年開始資產(chǎn)管理。這個想法是，商家或顧客可以將支付寶中的現(xiàn)金存入貨幣市場基金以獲得少量回報。這激起了純粹為了存錢的人對余額寶的興趣，因為它的收益率(現(xiàn)在約為1.7%)高于銀行活期賬戶的收益率。截至2017年，余額寶催生了全球最大的貨幣市場基金。

strength

• a quality or an ability that a person or thing has that gives them an advantage優(yōu)勢;優(yōu)點;長處

nomenclature

• a system of naming things, especially in a branch of science(尤指某學科的)命名(法)

give ˈrise to sth

• (formal) to cause sth to happen or exist 使發(fā)生(或存在)

Ant broadened its offerings to become one of China’s most powerful distribution channels for investments. Today 170 companies sell more than 6,000 products such as stock and bond funds on Ant. Altogether these firms have roughly 4.1trn yuan in assets under management enabled by the app. As with its lending business, Ant screens prospective clients and directs them to products. It then collects a service fee. “Our growth on Ant has been faster than on any other digital platform,” says Li Li, deputy CEO of Invesco Great Wall Fund Management. Her group’s two money-market funds soared from 665m yuan in assets under management in early 2018, when it started selling them on Ant, to 114bn yuan in June.

螞蟻擴大了產(chǎn)品范圍，使其成為中國最強大的投資分銷渠道之一。如今，有170家公司在螞蟻上銷售股票和債券基金等6000多種產(chǎn)品。這些公司用余額寶app管理著約4.1萬億元的資產(chǎn)。與貸款業(yè)務一樣，螞蟻會篩選潛在客戶并將其定向到產(chǎn)品。然后它收取服務費。景順長城基金管理公司副總裁李黎說：“我們在螞蟻上的增長比在任何其他數(shù)字平臺上的增長都要快”。她公司旗下兩只貨幣市場基金從2018年初在螞蟻上開始售賣時的6.65億元人民幣激增至6月份的1140億元人民幣。

offering

• something that is produced for other people to use, watch, enjoy, etc.用品;劇作;作品;供消遣的產(chǎn)品

Ant’s push into insurance happened more recently. For a decade it offered shipping insurance for purchases on Alibaba, letting dissatisfied customers return goods for no charge. But it is only in the past two years that it has applied its asset-management template to insurance. In partnership with big insurance firms, it has unveiled life, car and medical insurance—again collecting fees as a distribution platform. Asset management and insurance now make up nearly a quarter of revenues.

螞蟻保險是最近才開始的。十年來，它為在阿里巴巴購物提供了運輸保險，讓不滿意的客戶免費退貨。但是直到最近兩年，它才將其資產(chǎn)管理模板應用于保險。與大型保險公司合作，它推出了人壽、汽車和醫(yī)療保險——再次收取分銷平臺費。資產(chǎn)管理和保險現(xiàn)在占收入的近四分之一。

All the ants are marching

所有的螞蟻都在前行

譯注：螞蟻集團Ant Group下的每個業(yè)務部分和客戶都比作一只螞蟻，每個業(yè)務都在發(fā)展，好比每個螞蟻都在前行

Simply looking at the numbers, Ant can appear unstoppable. It has chalked up dizzying growth rates in every market that it has targeted. It benefits from the network effects so familiar in the tech world: the more people use it, the stronger its attraction for yet more borrowers, lenders and investors. It is a virtuous cycle, especially for Ant’s shareholders. Nevertheless, there exist three kinds of risks that could slow it down: regulatory, competitive and those that are intrinsic to its own model.

單從數(shù)字上看，螞蟻看起來勢不可擋。在每一個目標市場都有令人眼花繚亂的增長率。這得益于科技界熟悉的網(wǎng)絡效應：使用的人越多，它對更多借方、貸方和投資方就有更大的吸引力。這是一個良性循環(huán)，特別是對于螞蟻的股東而言。盡管如此，仍然存在三種可能放緩其發(fā)展的風險：監(jiān)管風險、競爭風險和自身模型固有的風險。

chalk up something

• to achieve or record a success, points in a game, etc.獲得，取得(成功);記下，記錄(成就、比賽得分等)

dizzying

• making you feel dizzy使人眩暈的;使人頭昏眼花的

virtuous circle

• a series of events in which each one seems to increase the good effects of the previous one良性循環(huán)

The regulatory landscape in China is treacherous. Officials endlessly tweak rules for banks and investors, patching up holes as they emerge in the fast-growing but debt-laden economy. Many have long assumed that the government will give Ant, a private-sector firm, only so much leeway in the state-controlled system.

中國的監(jiān)管環(huán)境有潛在風險。官員們不斷地為銀行和投資者調(diào)整規(guī)則，在快速增長但負債累累的經(jīng)濟發(fā)展中修補漏洞。長期以來，許多人一直認為政府能給予私營企業(yè)螞蟻集團的也就這么多活動余地了。

treacherous

• dangerous, especially when seeming safe有潛在危險的

tweak something

• to make slight changes to a machine, system, etc. to improve it稍稍調(diào)整(機器、系統(tǒng)等)

patch something/somebody ↔ up (rather informal)

• to repair something, especially in a temporary way by adding a new piece of material or a patch修理;(尤指)臨時修補

leeway

• the amount of freedom that you have to change something or to do something in the way you want to自由活動的空間

Indeed, regulators have already put numerous hurdles in Ant’s path. Its first attempt at launching a virtual credit card was blocked. The securitisation crackdown upended its lending model. A government plan to standardise QR codes could weaken it in payments, potentially reducing Ant’s market dominance. Another new rule, taking effect in November, will force Ant to hold more capital.

實際上，監(jiān)管機構已經(jīng)在螞蟻的道路上設置了許多障礙。它首次啟動虛擬信用卡的嘗試被阻止。對證券化的嚴厲打擊改變了其貸款模式。政府制定的二維碼標準化計劃可能會削弱其支付功能，從而有可能降低螞蟻的市場主導地位。另一項將于11月生效的新規(guī)定將迫使螞蟻持有更多資本。

But if all these hurdles were meant to stop Ant, they have not succeeded. So there exists an alternative explanation. Regulators, wary of the pitfalls in financial innovation, continue to erect guardrails around Ant. In general, though, they like it. Not only has it steered credit towards small consumers and businesses, it has also given the government more information about money flows. Duncan Clark, author of a biography of Jack Ma, notes that regulators have long struggled to monitor all corners of China, referencing the old saying that the mountains are high and the emperor far away. “Ant has basically let Beijing tunnel through the mountains and fly drones over their summits,” he says.

但是，如果所有這些障礙都是為了阻止螞蟻，那么它們是不成功的。因此，存在另一種解釋。監(jiān)管機構對金融創(chuàng)新的隱患保持警惕，持續(xù)在螞蟻周圍架設護欄?？偟膩碚f，他們喜歡它。它不僅為小額消費者和企業(yè)提供信貸，還向政府提供了有關資金流動的更多信息。杰克·馬(Jack Ma)傳記的作者鄧肯·克拉克(Duncan Clark)指出，監(jiān)管機構長期以來一直在努力關注中國的各個角落，并引用了一句古話：山高皇帝遠。他說：“螞蟻基本上已經(jīng)讓政府穿越了山脈，并在山頂飛過無人機。”

guardrail

• a strong metal bar along the side of a road that prevents vehicles from driving off the road(道路的)防撞護欄

monitor

• to watch, observe, listen to, or check (something) for a special purpose over a period of time監(jiān)視;監(jiān)聽;關注

譯注1：馬云傳記原名：《Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built》，中文名《阿里巴巴—馬云和他的102年的夢想》

譯注2：這里將“監(jiān)視”譯作“關注”，緩和氣氛

譯注3：在紙幣時代，可以說山高皇帝遠，但在支付寶普及的信息社會，政府可以觸及每一個人的每一個細節(jié)。好比穿山打洞飛無人機，再沒有山高皇帝遠了。

Another threat to Ant is its competitors. Until 2013 mobile pay was, more or less, Ant’s exclusive domain. But Tencent has used its ubiquitous WeChat app to muscle in, taking nearly a 40% market share. Other firms also have financial ambitions. Meituan, an app known for food delivery, now also offers credit. The financial arm of JD.com, an e-commerce firm, and Lufax, an online wealth-management platform, are on track for IPOS this year.

螞蟻的另一個威脅是其競爭對手。在2013年之前，移動支付或多或少是螞蟻的專屬域名。但是騰訊利用其無處不在的微信進軍市場，占據(jù)了近40%的市場份額。其他公司也有金融抱負。美團(Meituan)是一款以送餐聞名的應用程序，現(xiàn)在也可以提供信貸。電子商務公司京東(JD.com)的金融部門和在線財富管理平臺上海陸家嘴國際金融資產(chǎn)交易市場股份有限公司(Lufax)今年都有望上市。

muscle in (on somebody/something)

• (informal, disapproving) to involve yourself in a situation when you have no right to do so, in order to get something for yourself強行干涉;粗暴干涉

So far these competitors have a much smaller financial footprint than Ant’s. Partly this is because they do not have the same breadth. Shawn Yang of Blue Lotus, a boutique Chinese investment bank, says that Tencent, for instance, has high-frequency but low-value consumption data, less rich than the trove that Ant has thanks to Alibaba, which accounts for more than half of Chinese online retail sales.

到目前為止，這些競爭對手的金融足跡要比螞蟻人小得多。部分原因是因為它們他們涉足領域沒有螞蟻廣。中國精品投行藍蓮花(Blue Lotus)的楊子瀟(Shawn Yang)舉例說：騰訊擁有高頻但低價值的消費數(shù)據(jù)，其數(shù)據(jù)不如螞蟻豐富。螞蟻的數(shù)據(jù)主要來源于占中國在線零售一半以上的阿里巴巴。

footprint

• the amount of space that is covered on a surface by something (such as a computer)(某物的)占用空間，覆蓋區(qū)域

breadth

• the quality of including many things : the wide scope or range of something廣度;廣泛性

trove

• a large supply of something such as art or information 大量;大批

But it is also a matter of business culture. The most controversial episode in Ant’s history came in 2011 when Mr Ma spun it out from Alibaba, without notifying SoftBank and Yahoo, which together held about 70% of Alibaba’s shares back then. Mr Ma explained that Chinese regulations forbade foreigners from owning domestic payments firms, though there may have been work-arounds. Some suspected that he wanted to bring in powerful investors closer to home. Ant’s earliest rounds of fundraising as an independent firm did indeed attract major state-owned enterprises. A stake was also sold to a private equity firm managed by the grandson of Jiang Zemin, China’s paramount leader during Alibaba’s early years.

但這也是企業(yè)文化的問題。螞蟻有史以來最具爭議的事件發(fā)生在2011年，當時馬云將螞蟻從阿里巴巴分拆出來，卻沒有告知軟銀和雅虎，當時軟銀和雅虎共同持有阿里巴巴約70%的股份。馬云解釋說：盡管當時可能還有其他一些解決辦法，但中國的法規(guī)禁止外國人擁有國內(nèi)支付公司。有人懷疑他想引入更親近的強大投資者。作為獨立公司，螞蟻最早的幾輪融資確實吸引了大型國有企業(yè)。#這里省略一句話，有興趣的自己看原文#。

spin out = spin off

• A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business.

spin something ↔ off

• (business商業(yè), especially North American English) to form a new company from parts of an existing one從…脫離出來(組建新公司)

Yet in retrospect the spin-off has a clear strategic rationale. As a standalone company Ant has had the motivation to explore distant corners of the banking system and act aggressively. An executive with another e-commerce company says that its financial unit worries about making mistakes that might taint the group’s core retail business. Ant, by contrast, has diversified, with less than 10% of its revenues now from Alibaba. For China’s other e-commerce dynamos, its success offers a template. They may be several years behind but the fintech race is far from over.

但是回想起來，分拆具有明確的戰(zhàn)略依據(jù)。作為一家獨立公司，螞蟻曾積極探索銀行系統(tǒng)的遙遠角落并采取積極行動。另一家電子商務公司的高管表示，其金融部門擔心會犯下可能損害集團核心零售業(yè)務的錯誤。相比之下，螞蟻更加多元化，阿里巴巴的收入只占整個螞蟻集團的不到10%。對于中國的其他電商公司來說，螞蟻的成功是一個榜樣。他們可能落后了幾年，但金融科技競賽還遠沒有結束。

rationale

• rationale (behind/for/of something) the principles or reasons which explain a particular decision, course of action, belief, etc.基本原理;根本原因

taint

• to damage or harm the quality of something or the opinion that people have of somebody/something使腐壞;污染;玷污，敗壞(名聲)

The final danger for Ant has the most global resonance: the nature of its model. Unsecured lending to small borrowers is risky, whichever way it is done. Indeed the coronavirus pandemic has offered a sharp test for Ant. Delinquent loans (more than 30 days past due) issued via its app nearly doubled from 1.5% of its outstanding total in 2019 to 2.9% in July. Yet that is better than most other banks in China. Is that because of Ant’s prowess? Some critics say that it reflects its market power. Given the centrality of Alipay and Alibaba to their operations, few dare to default on Ant loans, worried that a downgraded credit rating may damage other parts of their business.

螞蟻的最終危機具有最大的全球共鳴：其模型的本質。無論采取哪種方式，向小額借款人提供無抵押貸款都是有風險的。確實，新冠疫情向螞蟻提出了一個嚴峻的考驗。通過其應用程序發(fā)行的拖欠貸款(逾期30天以上)幾乎從其2019年未償還總額的1.5%翻了一番，到7月達到2.9%。但這比中國大多數(shù)其他銀行都要低。那是因為螞蟻的能力嗎?一些批評家說：這反映了它的市場力量?？紤]到支付寶和阿里巴巴在其業(yè)務中的核心地位，幾乎沒有人敢于拖欠螞蟻貸款，擔心信用評級被降級可能損害其其他業(yè)務。

delinquent

• (North American English, finance金融) (of a sum of money款項) not having been paid in time到期未付的

prowess

• great skill at doing something非凡的技能;高超的技藝;造詣

default (on something)

• to fail to do something that you legally have to do, especially by not paying a debt違約，不履行義務(尤指不償還債務)

Still, many bankers are persuaded that Ant truly does have an advantage in its analytics. “They don’t need quarterly statements. They see your daily flow of funds. They know who your customer is. They know who your customer’s customer is,” says one. Based on the address for e-commerce deliveries, Ant has more up-to-date information about where someone lives and works than a bank. Based on what that person buys, Ant can work out their income bracket and their habits, preferences and way of life.

盡管如此，許多銀行家還是相信螞蟻確實在分析方面具有優(yōu)勢。有人說：“他們不需要季度報表。他們能看到你每天的資金流向。他們知道你的客戶是誰。他們知道你的客戶的客戶是誰。”根據(jù)電商快遞的地址，螞蟻擁有比銀行更新的關于用戶的生活和工作地點的最新信息。根據(jù)其所購買的商品，螞蟻可以計算出他們的收入檔次以及他們的習慣、偏好和生活方式。

statement

• a printed record of money paid, received, etc.結算單;清單;報表

bracket

• price, age, income, etc. bracket prices, etc. within a particular range(價格、年齡、收入等的)組級，等級

But according to Hui Chen, a finance professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has worked on research projects with Ant, individual and systemic risks are different. The machine learning that underpins Ant’s algorithms observes individual behaviour again and again, and is then able to detect patterns and anomalies. But if risks do not appear in the historical data—say, a big economic shock—the same machine learning may stumble.

但是，根據(jù)麻省理工學院金融學教授陳輝(Hui Chen)的研究，他與螞蟻一起從事研究項目，個人風險和系統(tǒng)風險是不同的。支持螞蟻算法的機器學習可以一次又一次地觀察個體行為，然后能夠檢測出模式和異常。但是，如果歷史數(shù)據(jù)中沒有出現(xiàn)風險(例如：巨大的經(jīng)濟沖擊)，則同一機器學習可能會失敗。

There are also some limitations hardwired into Ant’s strategy. By design, it aims for high-volume, small-scale borrowers and investors. “Their analytical advantage is most significant with this mass market, where traditional banking models are most inaccessible,” says Mr Chen. Most corporate lending—about 60% of all credit in China—will remain off limits. Ant also has an awkward relationship with banks. It relies on them to fund the loans on its platform, but as it grows it may become a competitor in their eyes. For now that is not much of a concern, given that it focuses on borrowers ignored by banks. But it means that Ant must befriend the very institutions that it once set out to disrupt.

螞蟻的戰(zhàn)略也有其固有的局限性。通過設計，它針對的是大批量、小規(guī)模的借款人和投資者。陳先生說：“他們的分析優(yōu)勢在這個大眾市場最為重要，而傳統(tǒng)銀行模式很難觸及大眾市場。”大多數(shù)企業(yè)貸款(約占中國總信貸的60%)將無法實現(xiàn)。螞蟻與銀行之間的關系也很微妙。它依靠他們在其平臺上為貸款提供資金，但是隨著它的發(fā)展，它可能會成為他們眼中的競爭者。就目前而言，這并不是什么大問題，因為它關注的是銀行看不上的借款人。但這意味著，螞蟻必須與曾經(jīng)打算改變的機構友好相處。

hardwired

• (of a skill, quality or type of behaviour) present as part of who you are and the way your brain is made, not learned from experience(某種技能、品質或行為)與生俱來的，固有的

off-limits

• off-limits (to somebody) (of a place地方) where people are not allowed to go不準進入的;禁止入內(nèi)的

befriend somebody

• to become a friend of somebody, especially somebody who needs your help(尤指和需要幫助者)做朋友;友善相待

Doubts exist about its investment and insurance platforms, too. Ant has excelled in selling money-market funds to a plethora of retail investors. Moving up the value chain could be harder. “They are great at selling penny products. But that’s not where you make the money in insurance,” says Sam Radwan of Enhance, a consultancy. To close a deal on a valuable, complex policy like a variable annuity, brokers typically speak with consumers several times. “No ordinary customer is going to trust an online broker for something that complicated,” says Mr Radwan.

對其投資和保險平臺也存有疑問。螞蟻擅長將貨幣市場基金出售給眾多散戶投資者。提升價值鏈的難度可能更大。咨詢公司Enhance的Sam Radwan說：“他們擅長銷售便士產(chǎn)品。但在保險業(yè)里這種方式行不通。”為了完成一項有價值的、復雜的保險單(如可變年金)交易，經(jīng)紀人通常會與消費者多次對話。Radwan先生說：“沒有任何普通客戶會因為復雜的事情而相信一個在線經(jīng)紀人。”

plethora

• an amount that is greater than is needed or can be used過多;過量;過剩

policy

• a written statement of a contract of insurance保險單

Doing the jitterbug

• 跳吉特巴舞(20世紀40年代的一種歡快的舞蹈)

Ant’s global ambitions are also running into problems beyond its control. It has stakes in around ten different fintech companies in Asia, such as Paytm in India. Boosters once imagined a world connected by Ant, its credit-to-investment architecture straddling borders. The first blow to that vision came in 2018 when America blocked Ant’s acquisition of MoneyGram, a money-transfer firm, which would have established Ant as a force in global remittances. Security concerns over Ant have increased as China’s foreign policy has become more aggressive. Little wonder that Ant plans to devote just a tenth of its IPO proceeds to cross-border expansion.

螞蟻的全球目標也遇到了無法控制的問題。它擁有亞洲大約十家不同金融科技公司的股份，例如印度的Paytm。Boosters公司曾經(jīng)想象過一個由螞蟻連接的世界，它的信貸-投資的架構跨越國界。該愿景第一次受到打擊是在2018年，當時美國阻止了螞蟻收購匯款公司MoneyGram，這本來可能成為螞蟻全球匯款的一支力量。隨著中國外交政策變得更加積極，對螞蟻的安全問題也越來越多。難怪螞蟻計劃僅將其IPO收益的十分之一用于跨境擴張。

remittance

• the act of sending money to somebody in order to pay for something匯付;匯款

blow

• blow (to somebody/something) a sudden event that hurts or damages somebody/something, causing the people affected to be sad or disappointed打擊;挫折

Despite all these limitations, one lesson from Ant’s decade in existence is that future possibilities remain vast. Ms Li of Invesco gushes about her fund-management firm’s mini-site within the Alipay app, one of the tens of thousands of separate sections that constitute the Ant ecosystem. In September Invesco hosted a live-stream on the mini-site to discuss its market outlook. More than 700,000 tuned in—just one example of how Ant has become the main doorway into the financial system for tens of millions of people. And for all those who have walked through it, many more have not. Ant will soon know where they live, how much they earn and what they want. It is coming for them.

盡管存在所有這些局限，但從螞蟻的十年歷程中可以得出的一個經(jīng)驗：未來的可能性仍然很大。景順長城的李女士盛贊自己的基金管理公司在支付寶應用程序中的微型網(wǎng)站，該網(wǎng)站是是成千上萬個構成螞蟻生態(tài)的網(wǎng)站之一。9月，景順長城在微型網(wǎng)站上主辦了一場直播，討論了其市場前景。當時有70萬人收看了直播，這只是螞蟻如何成為數(shù)千萬要進入金融系統(tǒng)的人的主要門戶的一個例子。對于所有經(jīng)歷過它的人來說，還有更多的人沒有經(jīng)歷過。螞蟻很快就會知道他們的住所、收入和期望。螞蟻正向他們走來。

gush

• (disapproving) to express so much praise or emotion about somebody/something that it does not seem sincere過分稱贊;夸張地表現(xiàn)對…的感情;裝腔作勢

tune in (to something)

• to listen to a radio programme or watch a television programme收聽(收音機廣播節(jié)目);收看(電視節(jié)目)

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