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China’s two biggest internet companies have called a truce after spending billions of renminbi in the past six months to grab market share in the nascent taxi-hailing app market.
在中国新兴起的打车应用市场，两大互联网企业为了抢占市场份额，在半年时间里耗资几十个亿人民币，如今双方终于宣告停火。
Alibaba and Tencent have treated savvy, smartphone-wielding Chinese to taxi rides, and lavished tips on taxi drivers, to drum up support for their respective taxi apps – Kuadi Dache (Alibaba’s “Swift taxi”) and Didi Dache (Tencent’s “honk honk taxi”).
阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)不仅掏钱请中国使用智能手机的精明消费者乘坐出租车，还慷慨补贴出租车司机，目的就是在用户中间推广各自的打车应用软件——“快的打车”(Kuaidi Dache,部分属于阿里巴巴所有)和“滴滴打车”(Didi Dache，部分属于腾讯所有)。
Wang Jian, an expert on ecommerce from Analysys International, a Beijing consultancy, estimates that about Rmb2bn ($325m) was spent between January and June, but says that since then, both taxi apps have scaled back the massive subsidies they are paying. “The two sides have ceased fire,” she said, after battling to a stalemate with each claiming about half of the Chinese market.
北京咨询公司易观国际(Analysys International)电子商务专家王健估计，1-6月间双方在这场对决中总共投入了大约20亿元人民币（合3.25亿美元）。不过她表示，自那以来两个打车应用都减少了大规模补贴。如今，在打成各占一半市场的平局之后，“双方已经停火”。
What one analyst likened to “the first battle in the world war of the internet” pitted two companies with deep pockets against each other. Shenzhen-based Tencent is Asia’s biggest listed internet company with a market capitalisation of $157bn, while Alibaba, the ecommerce juggernaut that values itself at $130bn, is set to list in the US this autumn.
有位分析师把这场较量称为“世界互联网大战的第一场战役”，对阵的两家企业都拥有雄厚财力。总部在深圳的腾讯是亚洲最大的上市互联网公司，市值1570亿美元。而电子商务巨头阿里巴巴将于今年秋天在美国上市，该公司对自身的估值为1300亿美元。
Both Tencent and Alibaba have been competing on everything from instant messenger apps to restaurant review websites to rolling out virtual credit cards (both thwarted by the central bank) in an effort to dominate the coming era of the mobile internet. Over 500m Chinese say that they use their smartphones, which cost as little as $50, to get online.
为了在即将到来的移动互联网时代占据优势地位，从即时通信应用到餐厅点评网站，再到发布虚拟信用卡（此类举措遭到了中国央行的阻挠），腾讯和阿里巴巴在各个领域展开了全面竞争。目前最便宜的智能手机售价在50美元左右，超过5亿中国人表示他们会使用智能手机上网。
But few price wars have been as expensive for business, and as lucrative for consumers, as the taxi app war.
不过，以企业付出代价之高、消费者获利之丰厚而论，没有哪次价格战能比得上这次打车应用之战。
The first shot was officially fired on January 10, the day Didi Dache first cut taxi fares and introduced the subsidy, after raising $100m that month from Tencent and CiticCapital.
这次价格战的第一枪是在今年1月10日正式打响的，当天滴滴打车率先推出了乘车费用立减活动，实施了补贴政策。在此之前，滴滴打车刚刚在1月初从腾讯和中信资本(Citic Capital)筹集到1亿美元。
The taxi war’s most brutal attrition phase was in Feb and March of this year, when millions of renminbi were filling the pockets of taxi drivers and news websites reported that some drivers were being rewarded Rmb100 to pick up a fare, about five times the going rate for a ride.
最为惨烈的消耗战阶段是在今年2-3月期间，数百万元人民币流入了出租车司机的腰包。据多家新闻网站报道，部分出租车司机载一次客就可获得100元人民币补贴，这差不多是一般车费的5倍。
Getting a taxi in Beijing was nearly impossible without a smartphone, while Shanghai went so far as to ban taxi-hailing apps during rush hour at the end of February.
当时在北京几乎到了没有智能手机就打不到车的地步，而上海则在2月底禁止高峰时段使用打车软件。
Wang Yu, who drives a Beijing taxi for the Jin Jian Taxi company, said “During the peak of the competition between Didi and Kuadi, taxi drivers stopped cruising around, looking for fares. We would all find a place to park and turn on the software. It was like this because the rewards were so high for both drivers and riders.”
北京金建出租车公司的司机王玉（音译）表示：“在滴滴和快的竞争最激烈的时候，出租车司机干脆不在街上转悠拉活了。我们都会找个地方停下来，把打车软件打开。出现这种情况，是因为司机和乘客都能拿到很高的奖励。”
Both apps paid riders a subsidy of Rmb10 per taxi ride, which would often be paid to the driver as a tip, on top of the driver subsidy of Rmb5, according to interviews with drivers. Both also had a tipping function that the customer could use to leave a tip of Rmb5 to Rmb20.
根据对司机的采访，每趟车程这两个应用都会给乘客10块钱的补贴，这些钱往往会交给司机，作为司机所获5块钱补贴之外的小费。此外，这两个应用还都提供了小费功能，顾客可以用该功能留下5到20块钱的小费。
For all the money spent, neither side managed convincingly to win. Each started the price war with about half the market, and each finished with about half, although Kuadi is slightly ahead according to Analysys International data.
虽然投入了巨资，双方却都没有取得压倒性胜利。价格战伊始，双方各占大约一半市场；价格战结束时，双方依然各占大约一半市场。不过根据易观国际的数据，快的打车要略微领先。
By June 30 Didi had a market share of 45.6 per cent and was represented in 178 cities, while Kuadi had 53. 6 per cent and was in 306 cities.
截至6月30日，滴滴打车拥有45.6%的市场份额，覆盖178个城市。而快的打车拥有53.6%的份额，覆盖306个城市。
As of the beginning of August, both apps continue to pay taxi drivers token rates as a reward for using the software.
到8月初的时候，两个应用还在向出租车司机支付象征性的奖励。
Didi pays roughly Rmb6 per three rides, according to a spokesman.
一位发言人表示，出租车司机通过滴滴打车每载客三次可拿到6元奖励。
Mr Wang, the taxi driver, said that the bonus barely paid for the phone bill from a fare – it usually is necessary to call to find where the customer is standing.
上述的王玉师傅说，这个奖励额度还抵不过电话费——司机往往得打电话才能确定乘客的具体位置。
“The amount is really very petty. Maybe the phone bill would be more than the Rmb2 reward for the ride,” he says.
他说：“这个奖励额度太小了。光电话费可能就比两块钱的抢单奖励高。”
“But I still use the software,” he says, adding that it reduces the amount of ‘empty cruising’ looking for fares. “It efficiently connects me with a taxi callers nearby.”
“不过我还是会用这个软件。”他说因为它减少了寻找乘客时的“空驶率”，“它有效地将我和附近想打车的乘客联系到一起。”
He says the app can bring in an extra Rmb30 to Rmb40 a day in fares. He says that he picks up about six or seven rides each day via the software.
他表示，打车应用一天能给他多带来三、四十元的车费收入，自己每天通过打车软件大概接六、七位乘客。
Both Kuadi and Didi have declared victory – Didi’s Zhou Li said that the data, which shows the app war to be a draw, was a “distortion” and that in reality Didi now has 68 per cent of the market.
快的和滴滴都宣布获得了胜利。滴滴的周莉表示，虽然数据显示这场打车应用大战以平局告终，但数据不真实，滴滴现在的市场占有率其实是68%。
For Tencent, the prize is even bigger than just taxi customers – they have been trying to encourage people to use Tenpay, their PayPal-like online payment system, because Alibaba dominates online payments with its Alipay.
对腾讯来说，“战利品”不仅仅是出租车乘客——他们一直努力鼓励人们使用财付通（Tenpay，腾讯类似贝宝(PayPal)的在线支付系统），因为就在线支付领域来说，阿里巴巴的支付宝(Alipay)处于领先地位。
Alibaba, meanwhile, has been at a disadvantage due to its lagging position in mobile chat, which is dominated by Tencent’s WeChat and QQ messengers, which many Chinese use as their first point of contact with the mobile internet.
而阿里巴巴的一个劣势则是在手机聊天方面落后于腾讯，后者的微信(WeChat)和QQ是许多中国人使用移动互联网进行联系的第一选择。
Both are trying to get their customers hooked on online-to-offline payments, reckoned to be one of the most lucrative emerging mobile businesses.
双方都在努力让顾客迷上“线上到线下”（Online to Offline，即O2O）付款模式，据信这是最有利可图的新兴移动业务之一。
“After six months of promotional activities, we have formed a habit among drivers and consumers” said Ms Zhou, with more than 1bn users and 1m drivers working with the Didi software.
周莉说：“在进行了半年的促销活动后，我们已经在司机和消费者中间培养起了一种习惯。”滴滴打车目前用户超过1亿，司机100万以上。
But Ms Wang of Analysys International says that to keep people using the software the companies may have to think of other less expensive ways to drum up interest.
但易观国际的王健表示，为了让人们继续使用打车软件，企业可能必须考虑其他没那么烧钱的方式来提高人们兴趣。
“The subsidies were purely to obtain users. Now without monetary rewards, they will have to come up with other ways to keep the numbers from eroding” said Ms Wang.
王健说：“这些补贴纯粹是为了争取用户。如今没了现金奖励，他们必须想出别的办法来阻止用户数下降。”
Luxury moves
瞄准高端市场
In July, Kuadi Dache announced that it would be buying a fleet of luxury cars – BMW 5 series sedans and Audi A6’s – to complement its cheap and convenient taxi-hailing app, writes Charles Clover.
今年7月，快的打车宣布将购买一批高档车——宝马5系和奥迪A6轿车，以补充其便宜、便捷的叫车应用。
Their target – San Francisco-based taxi app Uber Technologies Inc, which offers a premium service with luxury cars – has just formally launched its service in Beijing in mid-July, after launching in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen earlier in the year.
要效仿的目标是总部位于旧金山的租车应用优步(Uber)。优步提供豪华轿车出租的高级服务，今年早些时候在上海、广州和深圳推出了叫车服务，并于7月中旬正式落户北京。
Kuadi is creating a luxury-car service named “Yi Hao Zhuan che” in Chinese, which is aimed at Uber’s target high-end clientele.
快的打车正在打造一项名为“一号专车”的豪车出租服务，目标对准了优步所针对的高端客户。
Uber is not yet a huge factor in the Chinese online car hailing market, which is sewn up between Kuadi Dache and Didi Dache. Uber fares are multiples of the municipal taxis whose fares are held artificially low by government fiat, and it would be impossible to compete with taxis on price.
中国在线打车市场还是控制在快的打车和滴滴打车手里，优步尚算不上重要力量。城市出租车的车费受到政府法令的人为压价，优步的收费是普通出租车的好几倍，因此不可能与出租车展开价格竞争。所以优步目前在中国还没像在欧美那样遭到强烈抵制，而在西方许多城市，出租车司机工会齐心协力将优步排挤出市场。
That has meant that so far Uber has not seen the same backlash in China that it has in Europe and the US, where taxi-driver unions have made a concerted effort to keep it out of many cities.
但豪车服务——在高档车里还提供WiFi和报纸——或许能在中国租车市场的顶层消费者中间流行起来。而对优步来说，即便是一小块中国市场都是它的一大步。中国是全球最大的智能手机市场。
But the luxury-car service, which offers WiFi and newspapers in the high-end cars, may yet catch on among the top segment of the market.
但优步也有成长的烦恼，优步应用在华运行基于谷歌(Google)地图，而谷歌在中国从6月初就一直被封锁，导致地图有时不能正常加载。
For Uber, even a small chunk of China is a major step – China is the world’s largest smartphone market, with more than 500m Chinese saying that they use smartphones to access the internet.
优步的另一个障碍，是中国各大城市都有的一个特色：交通堵塞。在北京，车子到达顾客所在位置平均需要9分钟，远高于世界其他主要城市。优步希望奔驰E级或奥迪A6的吸引力将弥补等车的不快。
