经济学人下载:互联网商业,又一轮的数字淘金热

Venture firms are not the only ones with internet companies in their sights. Some would argue that it was DST, a Russian holding company now renamed Mail.ru, and a related investment fund, DST Global, that set off the boom. In 2009, when most investors in America were sitting on their hands, both poured hundreds of millions of dollars into fast-growing prospects there such as Facebook and Groupon. Those investments seem likely to pay off handsomely.

风险公司并非仅仅将互联网公司放入眼界之内。有些人会辩称说，就是一家如今被更名为Mail.ru，由俄国人控制的公司DST，和一家相联系的投资基金DST环球，开启了这一轮的勃兴。2009年，当美国境内的大多数投资者还缩手不前的时候，这两家公司就将数亿美元注入到像脸书（Facebook）和Groupon这样具有快速成长前景的公司中去。这些投资似乎很可能获得优厚的清偿。

American hedge funds, private-equity firms and even some mutual funds have followed, falling over one another in pursuit of the shares of popular internet companies. Investment banks including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have also set up funds to help rich clients buy stakes.

美国的对冲基金、私人股权公司，甚至是相互基金随后都纷纷而来，一个接一个的落入对流行互联网公司股票的追逐中。包括高盛（Goldman Sachs）和JP摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）这样的投资银行也都为富有的客户设立基金，用以购买股票。

Their task has been made easier by the advent of secondary markets in America, such as SharesPost and SecondMarket, that allow professional investors to trade the equity of private companies more efficiently. They have also made it simpler for employees and angel investors to offload some shares—and have enabled the world at large to observe a remarkable rise in valuations (see chart 1).

他们的任务因为美国二级市场的到来而变得容易。像SharesPost和 SecondMarket，就允许专业投资者更有效的就私人公司股权进行交易。他们同样让雇员和天使投资人对某些股票的减持变得更为简单——这同样能够让世界能大致上观察到其在市值上的这一番显著的增长（见表1）。

American consumer-internet companies have not been the only beneficiaries of this flood of cash. The boom’s third driving force is the rapid globalisation of the industry. Europe, which has at long last developed an entrepreneurial ecosystem worthy of the name, is home to several impressive firms. These include Spotify, an Anglo-Swedish music-streaming service with more than 10m registered users, and Vente Privee, a French clothing discounter with annual revenue of some $1 billion.

美国的消费—互联网公司并非这一波现金流的唯一受益人。这一轮勃兴的第三大驱动力就是快速的工业全球化。长久以来，欧洲名如其实的延续了其已经发展出来的企事业生态系统，是那些服务最让人难忘的公司的老家。这包括盎格鲁—瑞士的一家音乐流媒体服务Spotify公司，其注册用户超过1000万；而法国服装折扣店Vente Privee每年的收入约$1 0亿美元。