蚂蚁金服与其大猩猩朋友

 Unicorns beware: ants are on the up. Last week, Ant Financial, the online payments affiliate¹ of Chinese e-retailer Alibaba, became the largest Chinese private company on record, kicking off a funding round that would value the company as highly as $60bn. That puts it in second place worldwide behind Uber of the US, whose most recent fundraising valued that company at more than $60bn.

独角兽们请注意：蚂蚁正爬上来。中国电子零售集团阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下在线支付公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)正在进行新一轮融资，对蚂蚁金服的估值将达到最多600亿美元，使其成为中国有记录以来最大的私人公司。这也意味着蚂蚁金服在世界范围内将仅落后于美国的优步(Uber)，后者最新一轮融资对其估值为逾600亿美元。

蚂蚁金服与其大猩猩朋友

Big numbers for a nominally³ small creature, in Ant Financial’s case, but online payment has big potential in China. Consumers there are well ahead of their US counterparts in online shopping. Credit Suisse estimates that in 2014 the internet accounted for 9 per cent of retail² sales in China, compared with 6 per cent in the US. And online payment is not limited to buying goods for home delivery: Chinese shoppers frequently use mobile payment apps to settle anything from taxi fares to restaurant bills. The broker⁴ reckons that over $3tn in transactions were closed online last year.

对于一家叫做“蚂蚁”的公司而言，蚂蚁金服的估值数字倒挺大，不过这不奇怪——在线支付在中国拥有巨大的潜力。在网购方面，中国消费者比美国消费者超前得多。据瑞信(Credit Suisse)估算，2014年，互联网占中国零售业销售额的9%，而在美国，这一比例为6%。而且，在线支付也不仅限于网购商品：中国消费者经常用各种移动支付应用结算各种费用——从打车费到餐厅账单。瑞信估计，中国去年有逾3万亿美元的交易是在线结算的。

Ant Financial has over half the market. Internet rival Tencent has market share of one-fifth with its system Tenpay; China’s near-monopoly renminbi credit card settlement provider, China UnionPay, has 6 per cent. Meanwhile, in December, Apple and Samsung each announced partnerships⁵ with China UnionPay to bring their payment systems to China.

蚂蚁金服占据逾一半的在线结算市场。阿里巴巴的互联网竞争对手腾讯(Tencent)旗下的财付通(Tenpay)占有五分之一的市场份额；在中国拥有近乎垄断地位的人民币信用卡结算服务提供商——中国银联(China UnionPay)占6%。此外在去年12月，苹果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)分别宣布与中国银联合作，在中国推出自己的支付系统。

Still, Ant Financial will not be stepped on any time soon. Its payments arm, Alipay, has an exclusive arrangement to settle Alibaba’s transactions. And while Alibaba does not have a stake in Ant Financial, exactly, it has an agreement entitling it to 37.5 per cent of all Ant Financial’s pre-tax profit (in turn, it pays a fee for settlement services). In the event of a listing, Alibaba could elect to continue the agreement, or receive a payment equal to 37.5 per cent of the equity⁶ value. This ant has a good friend who happens to be a gorilla⁷.

不过，蚂蚁金服短期内不会被踩在脚下。蚂蚁金服旗下支付平台——支付宝(Alipay)独家代理阿里巴巴的交易结算。虽然准确地说阿里巴巴不持有蚂蚁金服的股份，但一项协议让阿里巴巴有权拿走蚂蚁金服37.5%的税前利润（反过来，阿里巴巴向蚂蚁金服支付结算服务费用）。一旦蚂蚁金服上市，阿里巴巴可以选择继续履行该协议，或收取相当于蚂蚁金服股权价值37.5%的付款。这只“蚂蚁”有一个好朋友，而这个好朋友恰好是一只“大猩猩”。

1 affiliate   

vt.使隶(附)属于；n.附属机构，分公司

参考例句：

• Our New York company has an affiliate in Los Angeles.我们的纽约公司在洛杉矶有一个下属企业。
• What is the difference between affiliate and regular membership?固定会员和附属会员之间的区别是什么？

2 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

3 nominally   

在名义上，表面地； 应名儿

参考例句：

• Dad, nominally a Methodist, entered Churches only for weddings and funerals. 爸名义上是卫理公会教徒，可只去教堂参加婚礼和葬礼。
• The company could not indicate a person even nominally responsible for staff training. 该公司甚至不能指出一个名义上负责职员培训的人。

4 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

5 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

6 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

7 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。