Race for dominance puts Uber and Didi on a collision course
优步与滴滴烧钱大战何时休？
广州科技翻译公司：助长这场大战的信念是叫车行业将“赢者通吃”。两家公司都不愿明说，但这一信念居于他们商业策略的核心。
If you view it as the cost of overlaying a new local transport service on to the existing infrastructure of many of the world’s biggest cities, $25bn doesn’t seem like that much money. But as the amount of money raised by two private start-ups that have less than a dozen years between them, the number is truly extraordinary.
若被视为在世界许多超大城市已有基础设施上重叠一层新的本地运输服务的成本，那么250亿美元看起来并非很大一笔钱。但如果是作为两家成立时间加起来还不到12年的私有初创公司所筹集的资金，这个数字的确极不寻常。广州科技翻译公司。
That is roughly how much money has now been poured into the coffers of Uber and Didi Chuxing, the
根据美中两国的打车应用公司——优步(Uber)和滴滴出行(Didi Chuxing)——近期针锋相对发布的公告，这大致相当于它们已筹到的资金总额。
Their investors are going to need a strong stomach. Both companies have shown a willingness to engage in expensive subsidy battles to win market share. Given the huge potential returns — Uber takes a 20-25 per cent slice of each fare — there is every reason to think that this fight will continue for some time. Much more money will need to be raised before it is over.
他们的投资者将需要极大的定力。为了抢占市场份额，两家公司都表现出愿意打一场烧钱的补贴大战。考虑到巨大的潜在回报——优步抽取每单车费的20%至25%——完全有理由相信，这场补贴大战还将持续一段时间。在结果见分晓前，两家公司还需筹集更多的资金。广州科技翻译公司。
It was Didi’s turn this week, with news that it had completed an equity round totalling $4.5bn, including a $1bn infusion from Apple that had already been disclosed, and issued $2.8bn in debt.
上周，滴滴出行宣布，已完成新一轮总计45亿美元的股权融资——包括早已公布的来自苹果(Apple)的10亿美元注资——同时还发债28亿美元。
Uber had got in first, with a $3.5bn investment from
占得先机的是优步，该公司本月初获得沙特阿拉伯的35亿美元投资。这家美国公司也在准备筹措高达20亿美元的债务。
Bulking up in this way cements the position of both companies as the best-financed private tech start-ups ever. Uber is on track to lift the total it has raised so far, including convertible debt, to more than $15bn. Didi has raised $10.3bn since just the start of last year, when it was formed from the merger of two local rivals.
如此庞大的融资规模巩固了这两家公司作为史上资金最充足的私有科技初创企业的地位。优步有望将迄今筹得的资金总额（包括可转换债券）提升至超过150亿美元。仅从去年初以来，滴滴出行已筹集103亿美元。滴滴出行在去年初由两家中国本土竞争对手合并而成。
Fuelling this epic rivalry is an implicit belief that ride-hailing will be a winner-takes-all business. The main players are wary of declaring that out loud, for fear of antagonising local governments and regulators that are already worried about the disruptive impact of these services. But it lies at the heart of their business approach.
助长这场大战的是一种心照不宣的信念，即叫车行业将出现“赢者通吃”的局面。主要市场参与方都忌讳这样高调宣称，以免得罪早已对网络叫车服务带来的颠覆性影响感到担忧的地方政府和监管机构。但这一信念居于这些公司商业策略的核心。
Like all marketplaces, ride-hailing services rely on liquidity: the more riders and drivers they attract to their apps, the better the chance that market participants will find a match quickly. And if drivers spend less time waiting for customers and more time earning money while driving, they are more likely to accept lower fares per trip, in turn attracting more riders.
像所有类型的市场一样，叫车服务依赖流动性：谁的应用能吸引更多乘客和司机，市场参与者快速找到匹配的几率就更大。如果司机等待客户的时间更短、载客赚钱的时间更长，他们就更有可能接受每单更低的车费，进而吸引更多乘客。广州科技翻译公司。
There are other scale advantages. Didi, for instance, says it has seen a peak of 14m rides a day in
规模大了还有其他优势。例如，滴滴表示，在中国一天最高接1400万单。这种出行量是公司梦寐以求的大数据：越了解乘客的习惯，就越能更好地预测接下来的需求可能出现在哪里，进而以更高效率运营整个网络。
In North America, Uber already looks like the victor over also-ran Lyft and others. It does not appear to have been a particularly expensive battle to win, despite the cost of subsidies to seed the market. The company still has around $11bn of cash on hand, even before its latest debt round, according to one person familiar with its finances.
在北美洲，优步似乎已经甩开Lyft等表现平平的对手，成为了胜利者。赢得这场战争的代价似乎并不是特别昂贵，尽管付出了培养市场所需要的补贴。据熟悉优步财务状况的人表示，即使是在最近一轮发债之前，该公司仍然握有110亿美元的现金。
Pitting two equally well funded companies against each other, however, is a different proposition. The fight between Uber and Didi for market share in China has already proved to be a bloody one, with both companies at one stage last year paying out incentives — much of it in the form of subsidies to drivers — at a rate of $1bn or more a year.
然而，两家财力雄厚的公司一较高下却是另一回事。优步和滴滴在中国争夺市场份额之战已经被证明是一场代价高昂的战争，去年这两家公司支付激励的速度一度达每年10亿美元以上，其中很多激励是付给司机的补贴。
Since then, both sides say that the amount they subsidise each ride has fallen dramatically. But the number of rides has soared over the same period, making it highly likely that the overall scale of the payments is every bit as big as it was a year ago.
自那以来，双方都称，他们为每单出行提供的补贴金额已大幅下降。但是，同期出行订单量迅速上升，很可能使得支付总额与一年前同样巨大。
Piling money on to a bonfire of subsidies is entirely rational while competition is in its infancy and market share in many cities is still up for grabs. It also makes sense to raise cash opportunistically when it is to be had. A flood of money into the credit markets has pushed yields down to a level where it makes sense for these start-ups to add an element of debt to their capital structures. A massive war chest can also intimidate rivals, though the effect is neutralised when companies like Uber and Didi go toe-to-toe in the capital markets as well as on city streets.
在竞争尚处于初级阶段、多座城市的市场份额仍然有待争夺之际，在补贴上烧钱是完全理性的。在遇到机会时筹得融资也是有道理的。随着大量资金涌入信贷市场，压低收益率，使这类初创企业有理由在资本结构中添加一点债务元素。大规模的战争基金也可以吓倒对手，尽管当优步和滴滴在资本市场和城市街头都针锋相对展开较量时，这种影响就失效了。
Battles like this only end when market shares stabilise and losers retreat to lick their wounds. At that point, Uber and Didi are likely to try to consolidate around the countries, regions and cities where they have a clear advantage. There is no telling yet when that moment will come.
只有当市场份额稳定下来、战败者撤走舔舐伤口时，此类战争才会结束。那时，优步和滴滴可能会在他们拥有明显优势的国家、地区和城市尝试巩固。那一刻何时到来，现在还不得而知。
