中国互联网初创企业投资热或将消退

HONG KONG — China’s Internet companies, in recent years, have been the shining stars of growth, with Alibaba and Tencent rivaling in size some of their most formidable global competitors.

香港——近几年来，中国的互联网企业一直是经济增长中的亮点，阿里巴巴和腾讯的规模堪与全球最强大的竞争对手媲美。

Inspired by their success and driven by huge buyouts of smaller companies by China’s Internet giants, investors have poured money into new start-ups.

它们的成功，以及中国互联网巨头斥巨资收购小型公司的潮流，促使投资者纷纷将资金注入了新成立的初创企业。

But new figures from the end of 2015 show that wave of investment may be coming to an end, or at least slowing.

但是从2015年底的最新数据来看，这波投资热潮可能即将结束，至少是在放慢速度。

In China, venture capital investment fueling the growth of new start-ups fell 29 percent in the fourth quarter from the level in the third quarter, according to a new report from CB Insights and KPMG. The report, which calls the drop in funding a “crash,” says it is linked to economic uncertainty in the region.

风险投资推动了新生初创企业的增长，但研究公司CB Insights和毕马威(KPMG)发布的一份新报告显示，中国第四季度的风险投资比第三季度减少了29%。该报告形容这种融资减少是“暴跌”，认为它与地区经济状况的不确定性有关。

Among the contributors may be the Chinese Internet giants that have fueled the boom. Hiring freezes at Alibaba and Baidu have signaled recent caution about spending, according to Mark Natkin, founder of the research firm Marbridge Consulting in Beijing.

之前推动那波繁荣的中国互联网巨头，可能也在暴跌当中发挥了作用。调研企业北京迈博瑞咨询有限公司(Marbridge Consulting)的创始人马克·纳特金(Mark Natkin)认为，阿里巴巴和百度冻结招聘，显示它们最近在支出上变得谨慎。

“A year or two ago, V.C.s felt they didn’t have to drive a company all the way to I.P.O. for an exit because Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba were rolling down the aisles with their shopping carts,” he said, referring to venture capital firms. He pointed out that now those firms are less focused on smaller companies, and instead are preoccupied with consolidating more mature sectors like group buying and ride-hailing apps.

“一两年前，风投觉得不必一直把初创公司推到上市才能退出，因为百度、腾讯和阿里巴巴在大举收购小公司，”他说。他指出，目前巨头们不那么关注于收购小公司了，而是忙着在较为成熟的领域进行整合，比如团购、拼车应用。

A looming question is how much recent market turmoil in China will affect private fund-raising in 2016. A major slowdown could dent Beijing’s ambitions to continue the rapid growth of the Internet industry.

一个迫在眉睫的问题是，中国近期的市场动荡会对2016年的私募融资形势造成多大的影响。经济的严重放缓，可能会打击北京让互联网行业保持快速增长的雄心。

In recent economic plans, the Chinese Communist Party has identified Internet-related businesses as fundamental to the transition of the Chinese economy from one centered on infrastructure investment to one based on consumer spending.

在最近的经济计划中，中国共产党已经表示，与互联网相关的企业，在中国经济从依靠基础设施投资向依靠消费支出转型的过程中，是一个根本性的力量。

The slowdown comes as total Asian venture capital investment hit levels last seen in 2013 in North America, before the most recent boom in investment there. Just last week China announced a $30 billion fund to help bail out struggling electronics makers and other tech firms, a potential indication that the recent slowdown and stock market turmoil could spill over into the strategically important tech sector.

在中国投资放缓之际，亚洲风险投资总体达到了北美2013年的水平，当时北美还没有出现最近的投资热潮。上周，中国宣布提供300亿美元的资金，帮助那些苦苦挣扎的电子产品生产商及其他科技企业摆脱困境，这个潜在的迹象说明，最近经济放缓及股市震荡的情况会影响到具有重要战略意义的科技行业。

The Chinese trend follows a broader pullback in global venture capital investment at the end of 2015. In the United States, deals fell for the second straight quarter to their lowest level since 2011, according to the report. In the last quarter of the year, the total amount of money funding private companies fell by 30 percent from the previous quarter.

中国的这种趋势符合2015年末全球风投广泛回撤的形势。报告显示，在美国，交易连续第二个季度下滑，降至2011年来的最低水平。在去年第四季度，私有公司拿到的投资总额比前一季度下降了30%。

Yet the drop-off in China and Asia comes amid a very different context than the drop-off in the United States. In Asia, the increase in venture capital funding rose much more sharply after 2013. Such investment in Asia jumped from just $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2014 to $14.2 billion in the third quarter of 2015. In the fourth quarter it fell to $9.7 billion.

但与美国风投金额减少的情况相比，中国和亚洲地区风投金额减少的背景完全不同。在亚洲，风投资金在2013年后大幅增加，从2014年第一季度的28亿美元增加到了2015年第三季度的142亿美元。而第四季度，风投金额降至97亿美元。

Still, 2015 was a banner year for Asian venture capital investment, with deals totaling $39.7 billion in 2015, well above the $21.1 billion in 2014 and the meager $6.4 billion in 2013.

但2015年仍是亚洲风投领域的丰收年，这一年的交易总金额达到397亿美元，远高于2014年的211亿美元，以及2013年极少的金额——64亿美元。

The report said venture capital firms may be sitting out the latest investment rounds because they expect valuations to come back down to earth in the next year or two. In Asia, roughly one-third of investment in start-ups comes from large corporations, compared to just a quarter in North America.

报告称，风投公司或许不会参加最新一轮的融资，因为它们预计估值会在未来一两年回归低位。在亚洲，初创公司获得的大约三分之一投资来自大型企业，而在北美，这个比例只有四分之一。

Lyndon Fung, an analyst with KPMG’s U.S. capital markets group, wrote in the report that Chinese investors are also increasingly looking abroad.

毕马威美国资本市场分析师冯瑞麟(Lyndon Fung)在报告中写道，中国投资者也越来越多地将目光投向了国外市场。

“We are seeing Chinese V.C. investors and V.C.-backed companies shifting their focus to invest in the international market, where things are a bit more stable, to acquire complementary technologies to strengthen their ecosystem,” he wrote. 

“我们看到中国的风投，及获得风投支持的公司，将投资重点转移到了状况比较稳定的国际市场，从而取得互补性的技术，增强其生态系统。”