In February, Travis Kalanick, Uber chief executive, met Cheng Wei, chairman of the Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Dache, in Mr Cheng’s Beijing office. But that is just about the only detail of the encounter on which the two companies can agree.
本年2月，優步(Uber)首席履行官特拉維斯慍灓尼克(Travis Kalanick)與中國打車運用滴滴打車董事長程維在後者處於北京的辦公室會晤。但這只是兩家公司關於此次會見獨一說法同等的細節。
Mr Cheng says Mr Kalanick and his team were dripping with condescension. “We could tell from the way they looked at us — they thought of us as just another local taxi app from Sichuan,” he told an audience at the Yabuli summit, an internet forum, held last weekend.
程維稱，卡蘭尼克和他的團隊難以掩蓋輕視神色。“他看咱們的眼神就像是咱們看四川本土的一個打車軟件同樣，”程維在比來舉辦的互聯網論壇“2015亞布力中國企業家論壇夏日岑嶺會”上告知聽眾。
He says Mr Kalanick ended with an ultimatum: sell us 40 per cent of your company or else face “embarrassing defeat” in a war with Uber.
他說，卡蘭尼克在發言末端下了一道末了通牒：要末把你的公司的40%賣給我，要末在與優步的戰斗中面對為難的失敗。
“I told him, ‘In 1840 when the first western powers arrived in China, they put forth a similar proposal. Give up Taiwan, open up Guangzhou, or else we will take the war all the way to the gates of the Forbidden City!’,” says Mr Cheng.
程維說：“我跟他講，1840年開端第一股列強來到中國時也是開出了一樣的前提，要否則割讓台灣、開放廣州，要否則就打到紫禁城。”
“Foreign companies see China as a territory to be conquered,” he continued.
“外洋企業把中國企業當成開疆拓土的工具，”他表現。
Uber says its “recollection of the conversation is very different”, adding that the meeting was “super friendly”.
優步表現，其對“那次對話的影象完整不同樣”，並彌補說，那次會見“異常友愛”。
Mr Kalanick has admitted to getting “passionate” in dealings with competitors in the past. Lyft, a US rival, has accused Uber of everything from poaching investors to clogging its system with fake orders.
卡蘭尼克認可，曩昔與競爭敵手來往的時刻本身會變得很“激動慷慨”。優步在美國的競爭敵手Lyft曾控告優步不擇手腕，從挖走投資者，到用假定單梗塞Lyft體系。
“I realise that I can come off as a somewhat fierce advocate for Uber,” he said in a speech in June. “I also realise that some have used a different ‘a’ word to describe me.”
“我意想到，我的言行大概會給人以優步的狂熱支撐者(advocate)的印象，”卡蘭尼克在6月的一次演講中表現，“我還意想到，一些人曾用另外一個‘a’字母開首的詞來形容我。”
The next few months will show whether Uber has bitten off more than it can chew in China. The country is notorious as a market that big US internet companies, from Amazon to eBay to Google, have all failed to crack, either due to being blocked outright or outmanoeuvred by a local competitor.
接下來幾個月將見證優步在中國市場是不是吃不了兜著走。中國有一個欠好的名聲：從亞馬遜(Amazon)、eBay到谷歌(Google)等多家美國大型互聯網企業都未能打開這個市場——大概是由於受到完全屏障，大概是敗給本土競爭敵手。
Like the initial meeting between Mr Cheng and Mr Kalanick, how Uber is doing in China is a matter of perspective. The company says it has about 50 per cent market share in private taxi hailing, while Didi says it controls about 80 per cent of the market.
就像程維和卡蘭尼克的首次會見同樣，評價優步在中國的表示是個視角題目。優步稱其具有私家打車市場50%的市場份額，而滴滴則表現其掌握了約80%的市場。
Both sides are also gunning for each other with massive subsidies — in June Uber said it would spend $1bn in China on subsidies and was logging 1m rides per day. Didi, meanwhile, raised $2bn in a funding round in June and has not yet said how the money will be spent.
兩邊都依附大範圍補助來襲擊對方——6月優步表現將在中國付出10億美元用於補助，其逐日打車定單到達了100萬單。同時，滴滴在6月的一輪融資中召募到20億美元，今朝還未頒布將若何應用這筆資金。
Ding Daoshi, founder of Sootoo Research, a Beijing-based internet research group, says the phase of explosive growth for both companies may have passed. “The height of the cash-burning phase is over for both companies,” he says. “They are now focusing on their core customers — those in the cities whose demand does not disappear when it is more expensive.”
北京互聯網研討團體速途研討院(Sootoo Research)開創生齒道師表現，這兩家公司的爆炸性增加階段大概都已曩昔，“對這兩家公司而言，燒錢階段的岑嶺已停止，”他表現，“它們正專註於焦點客戶——當辦事比擬昂貴時需求仍不用失的都會人群，”
To counter Didi’s local advantage — and raise more money to wage war — Uber has tried to go local, setting up Uber China. It is the only time the business has set up a separate company in a foreign market. It has tried to raise local finance, partly in an effort to build ties to China’s business establishment.
為了反抗滴滴的本土上風——和召募更多資金來動員戰斗——優步試圖走當地化途徑，在中國建立了Uber China。這是優步初次在外洋市場零丁建立一家公司。優步試圖召募本土資金，在必定水平上也是為了和中國商界的體系體例內子士打造幹系。
But Didi’s own funding round makes it clear that China’s establishment is closing ranks around its local champion. Even existing investors in Uber, such as Hillhouse Capital, are backing its competitor Didi in China.
但滴滴的融資行為清晰地註解，中國商界已聯結起來支撐本土冠軍企業。縱然是優步現有的投資者，好比高瓴本錢(Hillhouse Capital)，也支撐個中國競爭敵手滴滴。
Didi’s local advantage is also clear to drivers, who say those at Uber face police discrimination — private taxis are technically illegal in China, but enforcement is selective, according to an Uber driver named Bing Wen. “If the police pull you over, and you say you’re a Didi driver, they let you go. If you’re an Uber driver, you’re fined,” says Mr Bing.
司機們也清晰地懂得滴滴的本土上風，他們表現，優步司機面對警員的輕視——嚴厲說來私家出租車在中國並分歧法，但依據一名名叫邴文(音譯)的優步司機的說法，法律是有選取性的。“假如警員讓你把車停到路邊，你說你是滴滴司機，他們會讓你走。假如你是優步司機，你就會受到罰款，”他表現。
市場價：HK$ 92
