幾乎無一例外，美國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司在中國市場都失敗。而與此同時，中國的三大公司阿里巴巴、百度和騰訊則從中受益。這三大公司總市值達(dá)到約1500億美元。
許多人將美國公司失敗的原因歸于政府的監(jiān)管和袒護(hù)，盡管這一點是這些公司失敗的原因之一，但更主要的是他們自身原因：
1、過于短視行為。中國是一個龐大的市場，要求更多的耐心。美國公司常常根據(jù)盈利狀況對全球市場進(jìn)行選擇，往往在經(jīng)濟(jì)低迷時撤出地區(qū)市場。但是，這一行為往往被證明是以小失大。他們從短期上講是節(jié)省了部分錢，但卻將市場份額送給了競爭對手。例如，AOL兩次進(jìn)入和退出中國市場，每次退出時都是因為自己的賬務(wù)狀況窘?jīng)r所致，而當(dāng)時的中國市場正處于急速發(fā)展時期。
2、本地化團(tuán)隊未獲授權(quán)。由于擁有激烈的競爭對手，中國是一個艱難而巨大的市場。為了在中國擁有機(jī)會，美國公司必須授權(quán)本地團(tuán)隊以讓他們應(yīng)答、自我管理、本地化和應(yīng)對競爭。但是，由于一些不快的事情或陳規(guī)的擔(dān)心，美國公司總部不僅拒絕給予所述的自我管理權(quán)，還加上了另外的監(jiān)管。例如，谷歌(微博)運作時，對政策、產(chǎn)品、數(shù)據(jù)中心配給、用戶界面，甚至涂鴉，都必須經(jīng)過谷歌總部批準(zhǔn)，更不用說每個員工的聘請了。
3、全球進(jìn)程緩慢。中國市場特殊，需要特殊對待。但美國公司非常看重維持全球性的統(tǒng)一平臺。這樣的決策將維持全球平臺的完整，但可能會放棄本地市場份額。例如，eBay收購了市場本地市場領(lǐng)頭羊易趣（Eachnet），隨后扼殺了該平臺而以主機(jī)在美國的eBay平臺取而代之，這成了一個災(zāi)難。再如，eBay依靠銷售商人的信譽(yù)，而在中國這樣做是不夠的，而支付寶提供了第三方擔(dān)保服務(wù)，從而贏得了競爭。
4、文化差異。美國公司喜歡雇用有著多年工作經(jīng)驗的“常春藤聯(lián)盟”學(xué)校的MBA，或者斯坦福大學(xué)博士，講著純正的英語和美語。但是，這些“海龜”在中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)市場的激烈競爭中可能不是最有效的。例如，雅虎中國（Yahoo China）曾有一位游戲管理員被認(rèn)為在雅虎內(nèi)部不善于與人共事的人，離開后創(chuàng)辦的一家公司在只6年時間價值就超過30億美元。
那么，美國公司在中國還有機(jī)會嗎？不容易，但可能。首先，上面所述提供了一本很好的教科書，為了獲得機(jī)會必須予以研究。第二，盡管中國公司在消費者/移動軟件空間做得很好，我認(rèn)為憑借大數(shù)據(jù)、云計算和企業(yè)軟件，美國公司仍然具有優(yōu)勢，至少是現(xiàn)在。（編譯：圖奇）
作者系創(chuàng)新工場創(chuàng)始人、董事長兼CEO
英文原文（李開復(fù)博士發(fā)表于職業(yè)社交網(wǎng)站LinkedIn）：
Almost without exception, American Internet companies failed in China. The chart below shows the failure of American companies in China, and the three big winners: Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, that emerged as a result (the collective market capitalization of these three companies is about $150 billion).
Many attribute the American company failures to government regulations or favoritism. While these played a part in their failure, there were other more relevant reasons related to the companies themselves:
Too short-term focused -- China is a large market requiring much patience. American companies often prioritize globally based on profitability, or cut-back across all regions during economic downturns. But these moves often prove to be penny-wise, pound-foolish. They save some money in the short-term, but hand over market share to the competitors. Examples: AOL entered and exited China twice -- each exit caused by its own financial woes, while the China market was booming.
Local team not empowered -- China is a tough, large market with fierce competitors. To have a chance in China, the American company must empower the local team to be responsive, autonomous, localized, and ready for combat. However, because of some horror stories or stereotyped concerns, American company headquarters would not only refuse to give autonomy, but also apply additional scrutiny. Example: Google's processes required headquarter approval for policy, product, data center allocation, UI, and even doodle, not to mention hiring of each personnel.
Slow global processes -- Chinese market can be sufficiently different to require exceptions, but American companies care greatly about maintaining a single global platform. These decisions will maintain integrity of the global platform, but may give up the local market share. Example: eBay bought the market leader Eachnet, and then killed its platform in favor of the eBay platform hosted in the US, which was a disaster. Another example was eBay relied on seller reputation, but in China that was not enough, and Alipay came up with an escrow payment which won the battle and the war.
Cultural mismatch -- American companies prefer to hire Ivy League MBAs or Stanford PhDs with years of experience, speaking perfect English and American body language. But these "sea turtles" may not be the most effective in day-to-day battle in the Chinese Internet gladiatorial fight. Example: Yahoo China had a GM who was considered a misfit inside Yahoo, but left to build a company valued over $3 billion in just six years.
So will an American company have a chance? It won't be easy, but possibly. First, all of the above make a great textbook that must be studied to have a chance. Second, while Chinese companies are doing well in the consumer/mobile software space, I believe with big data, cloud computing, and enterprise software, American companies still have an edge... for now. |
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