双语美团大众点评文合并案凸显中国风投困境.docx

风险投资日益减少迫使中国初创企业要么选择合伙抱团，要么就得面临前路迷茫的未来。An expected $15 billion tie-up between two of China’s biggest online services firms is the latest evidence that China’s startup market is turning sour and that the smartest companies are preparing for an end to the record venture capital injections.中国两大在线服务公司宣布正式合并，预计合并后新公司市值150亿美元。这是中国初创公司市场由盛转衰的最新迹象。它也表明，那些最明智的企业正在未雨绸缪，因为风投注资规模创纪录的好日子将一去不返。Meituan and Dianping are big in the ‘online-to-offline’ industry, a catch-all term for businesses that consumers access via apps (online) to buy stuff (offline). The merger is generating a lot of press coverage in China and elsewhere because the principle investors in each company are rivals Alibaba Group[Inc BABA 2.14% (Meituan) and Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY 1.25% (Dianping). But the fact that two rivals can come together in the face of turning market is probably the least interesting part of the deal. Earlier this year, they did the same thing: China’s biggest taxi-hailing apps, Tencent-backed Didi Dache and Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Dache, combined in a $6 billion merger in the face of hundreds of millions of dollars in losses each suffered offering discounts to gain market share. The same logic—tie-up or face endless losses—is likely being employed in the Meituan-Dianping deal.美团网与大众点评网是中国颇有规模的O2O（线上线下）模式公司，这种全方位商业模式将线上应用提供的消费渠道和线下的购物活动联系在一起。此次两家公司合并吸引了国内外众多媒体报道，因为交易双方各自的主要投资者——投资美团的阿里巴巴集团和大众点评的投资方腾讯控股是竞争对手。不过，在市场行情骤变的情况下，两位对手选择携手合作，这也许是此次合并最没有话题性的部分。今年稍早，两大中国科技业巨头已经有过类似的合作案例：中国头号出租车打车应用滴滴打车与另一打车应用快的打车合并成立估值60亿美元的公司，前者的一大投资方是腾讯，后者是阿里巴巴参与投资的应用。此前，两家公司为争夺市场份额向顾客提供折扣，各自都蒙受了上亿美元损失。从这样的先例推测，美团与大众点评联姻可能也出于同样的考虑——要么抱团取暖、共度难关，要么面临无止境的亏损。While the two companies are quite different, group-discounts are one of their core similarities. Meituan is an unabashed Groupon clone founded by Wang Xing, who previously copied Twitter and Facebook in China, while Dianping, called the Chinese Yelp, was actually founded before its American counterpart, and often gives members discounts if they buy meals at reviewe