062《经济学家》读译参考之六十二：马首是瞻-阿里巴巴引领电子商务发展潮流.doc

TEXT 62 Chinas pied piper 马首是瞻（陈继龙 编译） （译注：pied piper原意为“吹笛手”，源自一则古老的故事，说的是一个人通过吹笛子将老鼠引入河中淹死，从而清除了德国一座小镇上的所有老鼠。可后来他由于没有得到任何报酬，就再次吹起笛子把镇上所有的小孩都带走了。后来人们用“pied piper”比喻“有很多追随者、受到人们喜爱或崇拜的人”。） Sep 21st 2006 From The Economist print edition ON A rainy weekend this month 10,000 businessmen, hobby traders and “netheads” gathered in Hangzhou, a pretty Chinese city near Shanghai, to talk about e-commerce. Most went to meet and s_______① tips with other online traders. All came to the “Alifest” to sit at the feet of Jack Ma, a pixie[1]-sized, boyish 42-year-old who is the founder of Alibaba, an e-commerce firm, and is regarded as the godfather of the internet in China. In a country where businessmen are viewed with suspicion, his popularity is unusual. （1）When he was invited recently to speak in Beijings Great Hall of the People, Mr Ma needed six bodyguards to escape a mob[2] of online traders waiting outside to give him a hug. 9月的一个周末，天下着雨，一万名商人、业余生意人和“网络老手”聚集在上海附近的美丽的中国城市——杭州，谈起了电子商务。过去他们大多数人都是在网上与其他商人互相交流经验，而这次他们都来参加“阿里巴巴盛宴”，拜会马云。马云身材瘦小，42岁，看上去像一个男孩，他是阿里巴巴电子商务公司的创始人，被认为是中国互联网的“教父”。在一个人们都对商人心存疑虑的国度，他能受到广泛欢迎，非同寻常。最近他应邀赴北京人民大会堂演讲时，为了避开在外等候与他拥抱的众多网络生意人，他不得不找来了6个贴身护卫。 Mr Mas rock-star status reflects how he has enabled thousands of his countrymen to become their own bosses, build businesses and make money. Alibaba has become the worlds largest online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, Asias most popular online auction site and, as a result of it’s a________② of Yahoo! China, the 12th most popular website in the world. That combination makes Alibaba one of the few credible challengers to the global online elite of Google, eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon. 从马云的巨星地位可以看出，他是如何使得数以千计的中国人成为老板，从而能够经营自己的生意并挣到钱的。阿里巴巴已经成为世界最大的B2B交易场所、亚洲访问人次最多的在线拍卖站点，而且在并购雅虎中国之后成为访问人次位居世界第十二位的网站。这一并购也使得阿里巴巴成为Google、eBay以及Amazon等全球网络精锐公司为数不多的几个值得信任的对手之一。 Alibaba is far from being just a Chinese knock-off[3] of these American giants. Indeed, they have borrowed ideas from him. “Jack is not just a Chinese v_______