淘宝是如何在中国战胜eBay的

The story. Taobao.com was founded in 2003 by Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, as a defensive move against its US rival Ebay, which had set up in China the previous year.
故事。2003年，中国电子商务企业阿里巴巴(Alibaba)创建了淘宝网(Taobao.com)，此举旨在防御2002年进入中国市场的美国竞争对手eBay。

The challenge. When Ebay launched in China it had global revenues of more than $2bn. As a young, domestic entity, Taobao was taking on a huge rival while also fending off many similar small competitors in the sector, where barriers to entry were low.
挑战。eBay进入中国之际，其全球收入已经超过了20亿美元。淘宝则是一家年轻的本土企业，在面对来自eBay的强大竞争的同时，还要应对业内众多与自身类似的小型竞争对手。电子商务行业那时的进入门槛很低

The strategic response. Noting that Ebay in China was charging users to list products and services, Taobao allowed them to list for free in order to build a big cohort of sellers and buyers. Critical mass would eventually attract revenue-generating activities, such as online advertisements.
战略对策。淘宝注意到，eBay在中国向在其网站上展示产品和服务的用户收取费用，而淘宝却不收费，以此建立起庞大的卖家和买家用户群。只要用户数量达到一定规模，就会最终带来能够产生收入的业务，如在线广告等。

Taobao also presented itself as very much a Chinese enterprise. For instance, the screen names of online moderators were derived from characters in popular Chinese kung-fu novels.
淘宝还强调自己是一家土生土长的中国企业。例如，淘宝在线客服的“花名”，就取自中国流行武侠小说中的人物。

Next, Taobao aimed to be more innovative than Ebay in customer service. In 2003 Taobao started Aliwangwang, its instant communication tool, to help buyers and sellers interact.
下一步，淘宝的目标是推出比eBay更具创新性的客户服务。2003年，淘宝推出即时通讯工具阿里旺旺(Aliwangwang)，帮助卖家和买家进行互动。

It also introduced the online payment system Alipay a year later. Online credit card or debit card payment was very rare in China and customers usually paid cash on delivery. Alipay formed partnerships with leading Chinese banks and signed a long-term agreement with China Post, which meant customers without a debit or bank card could fund their Alipay accounts at any of its 66,000 offices.
2004年，淘宝推出了在线支付系统支付宝(Alipay)。那时，中国人很少使用信用卡或者借记卡进行在线支付，客户通常在收货时用现金支付。支付宝和中国的大银行达成合作，并且和中国邮政(China Post)签署了长期协议，如此一来，客户即使没有借记卡或者银行卡，也可以通过中国邮政遍布各地的66000家邮局向支付宝账户汇款。

What happened. Taobao developed into a diverse e-commerce platform where businesses sell a very wide range of items to online shop owners who then sell on to consumers.
结果。淘宝发展成为多元化的电子商务平台，在这个平台上，企业向在线商店店主销售各式各样的产品，店主再卖给消费者。

At the end of 2006, Ebay shut its main website in China and formed a joint venture with Hong Kong- headquartered Tom Online.
2006年底，eBay关闭了在中国的主站，与总部位于香港的Tom在线(Tom Online)建立了一家合资企业。

Taobao continued to build a network of ventures around its core operations. In 2007 it set up Alisoft.com, where small Taobao sellers could buy customised software from independent vendors to help with functions such as customer relations or managing inventory.
淘宝则继续围绕核心业务，建立起业务网络。2007年，淘宝软件(Alisoft.com)成立，淘宝上的小卖家可以在此向独立供应商购买定制软件，用于客户关系或库存管理等。

In 2008 Taobao integrated Alimama.com, an online ad company with a network of more than 400,000 specialised websites where Taobao sellers could affordably post ads to reach their target audiences.
2008年，淘宝整合了在线广告公司淘宝联盟(Alimama.com)。淘宝联盟拥有覆盖40多万家专业网站的网络，淘宝卖家可以以不贵的价格向目标受众发布广告。