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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Holding Group continued its streak of deals yesterday, paying $1.22 billion for an 18.5% stake in one of China's most popular online video sites Youku Tudou. Part Youtube, part Netflix, Youku Tudou offers an array of content from self-produced talk shows and dramas to syndicated foreign shows like The Good Wife, and user created content.
中國電子商務(wù)巨頭阿里巴巴集團(tuán)(Alibaba Holding Group)續(xù)寫了其交易記錄，該公司已同意斥資12.2億美元收購優(yōu)酷土豆(Youku Tudou)18.5%的股份。作為中國最受歡迎的視頻網(wǎng)站之一，優(yōu)酷土豆兼具Youtube和Netflix的特點(diǎn)，提供的視頻內(nèi)容豐富多樣，既有自創(chuàng)的脫口秀和戲劇，也有購買了播出權(quán)的海外節(jié)目（比如美劇《傲骨賢妻》(The Good Wife)）以及用戶自創(chuàng)內(nèi)容。
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Youku Tudou Founder and Chief Executive Victor Koo said the company held talks with a few companies in parallel, eventually deciding on Alibaba after a series of meetings in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong in recent months. Koo spoke about how his company will make use of the funds, the rash of recent deals in China's Internet sector, and the government's recent crackdown on four American TV shows. The following is an edited excerpt of the interview.
Reuters在接受《華爾街日報(bào)》(The Wall Street Journal)采訪時(shí)，優(yōu)酷土豆的創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行長古永鏘(Victor Koo)表示，優(yōu)酷土豆與數(shù)家公司進(jìn)行過洽談，最近幾個(gè)月在上海、北京和香港舉行了一系列會(huì)談后，最終決定引入阿里巴巴的投資。古永鏘談到了優(yōu)酷土豆將如何使用這筆資金、中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)行業(yè)最近的一系列交易以及政府最近禁播四部美劇的問題。
WSJD: What was the motivation for taking the investment from Alibaba?
《華爾街日報(bào)》：接受阿里巴巴的投資是出于什么樣的動(dòng)機(jī)？
Koo: When we first really considered a strategic investment, we talked to all potential partners and indicated Youku Tudou is an independently operated company so we were looking for strategic investments to take us to the next step. The strategic investment itself will help us accelerate our progress as well as the whole development of our Internet entertainment media platform.
古永鏘：在我們第一次真正考慮引入戰(zhàn)略投資時(shí)，我們就與所有的潛在合作伙伴都進(jìn)行了磋商，并表明優(yōu)酷土豆是一家獨(dú)立經(jīng)營的公司，所以我們正在尋找戰(zhàn)略投資以便使公司進(jìn)入下一個(gè)階段。這筆戰(zhàn)略投資本身將有助于加快優(yōu)酷土豆的進(jìn)步以及我們的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)娛樂媒體平臺的整體發(fā)展。
We've been around now for 7 or 8 years and we're looking at this as an important strategic step to progress us to the next level with financial resources, strategic resources...because we see these opportunities happening around us, we want to leverage the market opportunity that is in front of us.
公司成立至今已有七、八年的時(shí)間，我們將引入戰(zhàn)略投資視為通過財(cái)務(wù)資源和戰(zhàn)略資源使公司發(fā)展到一個(gè)新水平的重要戰(zhàn)略步驟，因?yàn)槲覀兛吹搅松磉叺倪@些機(jī)會(huì)，我們希望利用擺在我們面前的市場機(jī)遇。
WSJD: What is Alibaba's motivation for making more investments into media and entertainment in China?
《華爾街日報(bào)》：阿里巴巴在中國媒體和娛樂領(lǐng)域進(jìn)行更多投資的動(dòng)機(jī)是什么？
Koo: From their perspective, clearly the whole area of video as well as entertainment media is a growth sector as China moves to a consumer-led economy. This is an area where traditionally they have not focused, and they really felt that by investing in Youku Tudou they [can leverage that]. I think we have a lot of common vision and common goals in terms of what [the video and entertainment industry] can be in China.
古永鏘：從阿里巴巴的角度看，隨著中國向消費(fèi)拉動(dòng)的經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)變，整個(gè)視頻及娛樂媒體行業(yè)顯然是一個(gè)增長領(lǐng)域。這也是一個(gè)阿里巴巴之前未側(cè)重的領(lǐng)域，而且阿里巴巴也確實(shí)認(rèn)為，通過投資優(yōu)酷土豆，他們將能夠撬動(dòng)該領(lǐng)域。我認(rèn)為我們和阿里巴巴對于中國視頻和娛樂行業(yè)的發(fā)展前景有很多共同的看法和目標(biāo)。
For example, the U.S. and Europe have a very developed media entertainment business, but in Asia you look at Korea for example, it's a relatively small country but its culture and entertainment industry has widespread influence in Asia as well as the rest of the world. China has a huge population and a very sizable Internet space...that kind of reach can create a lot of interesting opportunities. With our base, I think whether it's in terms of content and how it ties with Alibaba's businesses in terms of commerce, big data, cloud as well as payment, there are a lot of interesting areas we will explore together.
例如，美國和歐洲擁有一個(gè)非常發(fā)達(dá)的媒體娛樂行業(yè)；在亞洲，以韓國為例，雖然韓國是一個(gè)相對較小的國家，但其文化和娛樂業(yè)對亞洲乃至全球其他地方都有廣泛影響。中國擁有巨大的人口以及相當(dāng)可觀的網(wǎng)絡(luò)空間，能創(chuàng)造大量有意思的機(jī)會(huì)。憑藉優(yōu)酷土豆的用戶數(shù)，我認(rèn)為不管是內(nèi)容，還是在與阿里巴巴的商務(wù)、大數(shù)據(jù)、云以及支付業(yè)務(wù)的合作方式方面，兩家公司都有很多可以共同探索的有趣領(lǐng)域。
WSJD: What is your view on the recent crackdown by the government on several popular U.S. television shows including 'The Good Wife,' which you feature on your site?
《華爾街日報(bào)》：你如何看待中國政府近期要求包括優(yōu)酷土豆熱播劇《傲骨賢妻》在內(nèi)的多部熱門美劇在網(wǎng)站下線一事？
Koo: Besides our strength in web-based original content, syndication is also an area where we started global syndication earlier than any of our competitors and have the broadest library here. Overall, what we see is that the regulatory authorities are highly supportive of this and of course there may be isolated incidents or content [that have problems] -- that is something that as an industry we need to cooperate and work with under the overall framework here in China. And so we don't see that as a widespread phenomenon. I think it's new enough that we're also having communication [with the government].
古永鏘：我們除了在網(wǎng)絡(luò)原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容方面很有優(yōu)勢之外，全球整合動(dòng)作也比競爭對手們先行一步，而且在這方面擁有最廣泛的視頻庫?？傮w而言，我們看到的是監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)對此高度支持。當(dāng)然，一些特例事件或者有問題的內(nèi)容也是可能存在的，這一行業(yè)需要我們在遵守中國整體框架的前提下同心協(xié)力、共同建設(shè)。因此，我們不覺得此次美劇被下架會(huì)是普遍現(xiàn)象。在我看來，這件事尚屬首次，我們也在和政府進(jìn)行溝通。
WSJD: What ' s going on in China ' s Internet sector now with all these big deals?
《華爾街日報(bào)》：伴隨著這些大手筆交易的發(fā)生，中國的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)領(lǐng)域?qū)⒂瓉砗畏N時(shí)代？
Koo: I've recently talked about the 20 years of the Chinese Internet -- in my view there are a couple of inflection points in these 20 years and 2013 and 2014 is definitely one of those inflection points. I think in five to ten years when people look back [they will see] this is the beginning of the multi-screen age, and mobile Internet and smart TVs, all these things are coming together.
古永鏘：我最近一直在講中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的20年發(fā)展史。在我看來，這20年來有好幾次重大拐點(diǎn)，2013年、2014年毫無疑問就是其中之一。我認(rèn)為五到十年之后，那時(shí)的人們回看現(xiàn)在這段時(shí)期時(shí)，會(huì)覺得它拉開了多屏?xí)r代的序幕，移動(dòng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)、智能電視等等事物都在不斷涌現(xiàn)出來。
So you've seen an acceleration of industry growth as well as an acceleration of strategic cooperation of different forms, investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and mergers and so forth. These kinds of strategic tie-ups [happen] when you see a market opportunity and a market inflection that has encouraged the key players in the industry to be more open-minded or more proactive in terms of thinking outside the box and being more strategic.
因此你可以看到，視頻行業(yè)的發(fā)展正在加快，不同形式的策略性合作、投資、伙伴關(guān)系、收購、合并等等也正在加速展開。當(dāng)你捕捉到市場機(jī)會(huì)和市場變化時(shí)，這些策略性合作就會(huì)發(fā)生，要求行業(yè)內(nèi)的重要參與者心態(tài)必須更加開放、跳出條條框框的思考必須更有前瞻性、更具有戰(zhàn)略眼光。
WSJD: How will this affect Youku Tudou's cooperation with other companies?
《華爾街日報(bào)》：這將如何影響優(yōu)酷土豆和其他公司的合作？
Koo: Youku Tudou has an open cooperation strategy and that will continue to be the case, so we work with a wide variety of screen manufacturers, whether it's smart TVs or set-top boxes because we have the leading content software service and user base in terms of video.
古永鏘：優(yōu)酷土豆擁有開放的合作策略，并且將繼續(xù)貫徹下去。有鑒于此，許多屏幕制造商都是我們的合作對象，無論是智能電視還是機(jī)頂盒，因?yàn)槲覀冊谝曨l行業(yè)擁有領(lǐng)先的內(nèi)容軟件服務(wù)和龐大的用戶基礎(chǔ)。
