IS TENCENT one of the world’s greatest internet firms? There are grounds for scepticism. The Chinese gaming and social-media firm started in the same way many local internet firms have: by copying Western success. QQ, its instant-messaging service, was a clone of ICQ, an Israeli invention acquired by AOL of America. And unlike global internet giants such as Google and Twitter, Tencent still makes its money in its protected home market.

　　騰訊是世界上最 大的互聯網公司之一嗎?有持懷疑態度的理由。這個中國游戲和社交媒體公司跟許多本土互聯網公司一樣以同樣的方式起步：通過抄襲西方的成功模式。騰訊的即時通訊服務QQ是一家被美國AOL收購的以色列發明的ICQ的翻版。而區別于谷歌和twitter等全球互聯網巨頭，騰訊仍然只在受保護的本土市場圈錢。

　　Yet the Chinese firm’s stockmarket valuation briefly crossed the $100 billion mark this week for the first time. Given that the valuation of Facebook, the world’s leading social-media firm, itself crossed that threshold only a few weeks ago, it is reasonable to wonder whether Tencent is worth so much. However, Tencent now has bigger revenues and profits than Facebook. In the first half of this year Tencent enjoyed revenues of $4.5 billion and gross profits of $2.5 billion, whereas Facebook saw revenues of $3.3 billion and gross profits of $935m.

　　然而，這家中國公司的股市估值這周首次超過了1000億美元大關。鑒于全 球領 先的社交媒體公司facebook的估值只在幾周之前才跨過這道門檻，所以換衣騰訊的市值是有 道理的。然而，騰訊現在的收入和利潤都比facebook多。今年前半年騰訊營收達到45億美元，而總利潤達到25億美元，而facebook營收只有33億美元，總利潤只有9.35億美元。

　　The Chinese firm’s market value reflects the phenomenal rise in its share price. A study out this week from the Boston Consulting Group found that Tencent had the highest shareholder total return (share-price appreciation plus dividends) of any large firm globally from 2008 to 2012—topping Amazon and even Apple.

　　這家中國公司的市場價值反映在其股價的驚人崛起上。這周波士頓咨詢集團的一項研究發現，自2008年到2012年，在全球所有大公司中，騰訊擁有最 高的股東總回報(股價升值加上分紅)，超過了亞馬遜甚至蘋果。

　　Tencent has created a better business model than its Western peers. Many internet firms build a customer base by giving things away, be they search results or social-networking tools. They then seek to monetise their users, usually turning to online advertising. Google is a glorious example. Other firms try to make e-commerce work. But as the case of revenue-rich but profit-poor Amazon suggests, this can also be a hard slog.

　　騰訊比起西方同行創造了一個更好的商業模式。許多互聯網公司基于送給人們東西作為搜索結果或者社交工具來讓其成為消費者。他們接著尋求在他們用戶身上套現，通常是提供在線廣告。谷歌就是一個光輝典范。其他公司嘗試電子商務活動。但是收入豐富但是利潤甚微的亞馬遜表明這也是一條艱難的路。

　　Tencent does give its services away: QQ is used by 800m people, and its WeChat social-networking app (which initially resembled America’s WhatsApp) has several hundred million users. What makes it different from Western rivals is the way it uses these to peddle online games and other revenue-raising offerings.

　　騰訊也給用戶提供服務，有8億人使用QQ，其微信社交應用(最初類似于Whatsapp)有幾百萬用戶。其區別于西方對手的招數在于使用這些工具兜售在線游戲以及其他增加收入的服務。

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