中美高科技公司角逐印度市场

Indian soil has played host to many a fight involvinginvading foreign powers, from the Mughals to theBritish. Its ecommerce sector faces a similarprospect. The largest technology companies arepiling in, seeking to replicate in India thedominance they enjoy in their home markets. Thecontest will pit US tech groups against rivals fromAsia, and China in particular.

印度国土上发生过许多史诗般的战斗，从蒙古人到英国人，多个外来强权都曾入侵过这片土地。如今，印度的电子商务领域面临着相似的前景。全球大型科技公司正蜂拥而至，试图将自己在本土市场的主导地位复制到印度。很快，美国科技集团将与来自亚洲、尤其是中国的竞争对手展开一场争夺战，不知最后谁能胜出?

The attractions of India for both sides are obvious. The market is potentially very large buttechnologically underdeveloped. About 130m Indians owned smartphones last year, a numberthat is set to hit 750m by 2020, according to Ericsson. The prospect of such rapid growth hasprompted a record funding rush from venture capital groups over the past year. It gives thesouthern IT hub of Bangalore a boomtown feel.

对上述两方来说，印度的吸引力显而易见。印度市场潜力巨大，但技术上仍欠发达。爱立信(Ericsson)数据显示，去年印度智能手机用户约有1.3亿人，到2020年时这一数字将达7.5亿。在如此快速增长前景的激励下，过去一年全球风险投资机构在该市场的投资额创下了纪录。印度南部的IT中心班加罗尔也因此变成了一座充满活力、欣欣向荣的城市。

India is attractive to the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter as they seek to expand intoAsia. The trio face severe operating restrictions in Chinese mainland, which would otherwise bean obvious growth market. Those US participants that are allowed to set up shop in Beijing orShanghai face stiff competition from local incumbents. India is relatively open territory.

对谷歌(Google)、Facebook和Twitter等美国龙头企业而言，印度尤其具有吸引力，因为它们正寻求将业务拓展至亚洲。这三家公司在中国内地面临严格的经营限制——那里其实本应是个明摆着的增长市场。而那些获准在北京或上海设立分支的美国公司，也仍要面临来自当地既有企业的激烈竞争。相比之下，印度则是个相对的“开阔地。

The Americans have a head start, too. India is Facebook’s second largest market by users andTwitter’s third largest. They are boosted by consumers who warm to western tech brands. In afew years Indians will become the largest market for both companies, even though thecountry’s minuscule online advertising market means neither has much chance of turning aquick profit. Amazon is also expanding aggressively, having decided to throw $2bn into Indialast year, as it takes on domestic online retailer Flipkart. A similarly fierce contest faces Uber asit grapples with local taxi hailing app Ola Cab, and its Japanese backer SoftBank, which haspledged to plough $10bn into Indian internet businesses over the next decade.

而且，美国人还拥有一个优势。以用户数计，印度已是Facebook的第二大市场、Twitter的第三大市场。印度消费者喜爱成熟的西方科技品牌，这一点对Facebook和Twitter有利。用不了几年，印度就将成为这两家公司的最大市场，尽管印度的在线广告市场规模很小、两家公司都没多少机会从中快速获利。亚马逊(Amazon)也在积极拓展，去年该公司决定向印度投入20亿美元，以便与印度国内最大的在线零售商Flipkart抗衡。优步(Uber)也面临同样激烈的竞争，它要努力对付当地的叫车应用Ola Cab及其背后的金主日本软银(SoftBank)。软银已承诺，未来10年将向印度互联网企业投资100亿美元。

The Chinese contingent are arriving later, but their intent is no less formidable.

“中国队虽然到得较晚，但其宏图大志一点不逊于对手。