在美國紐約時間2015年6月9日,中國電商巨頭馬云面向近千位商界領袖發(fā)表了一場震撼美國商界的演講,這也是馬云繼朱镕基、董建華之后在紐約經(jīng)濟俱樂部作主題演講的第三名中國人。
馬云不僅橫跨美國接觸小型美國企業(yè),還在《華爾街日報》上刊發(fā)專欄文章解釋阿里巴巴的擴張計劃不包括入侵美國市場。他希望美國企業(yè)通過全球最活躍的阿里巴巴網(wǎng)上交易平臺開辟中國市場。
“在美國,電子商務是商業(yè)。在中國,電子商務是一種生活方式,”馬云說,“在未來五年,將有逾5億中國人步入中產(chǎn)階級行列。他們將需要高品質(zhì)的產(chǎn)品和服務,但現(xiàn)在他們中有很多人無法獲得這一切……中國必須學會如何去購買,而不只是進口?!?/p>
Im so honored. I never expect there are so many people coming here to listen to my talk. And when I sitting there I feel so important. Thank you, thank you very much. Before my talk I would like to ask how many people here have used Alibaba services. Good, not many. And how many of you here have never been to China? Never been, never been to China. Good, thank you very much.
非常榮幸,從來沒想到會有這多人來聽我的演講。我站在這里的時候,感覺自己如此重要,如此責任重大。謝謝你們!正式開始演講之前,我想請問一下在座有多少人在使用阿里巴巴的服務?好的,不是非常多。那么,你們當中有多少人從來沒有去過中國?好的。非常感謝。
Well, 20 years ago I came to America. My first trip to America, to Seattle. Before that I learned so much about America, from my books, from my teachers, from my school, and my parents. And I think I know enough about America. But when I came to America I thought I was totally wrong. America is not what I learned from the books. And in Seattle I found the Internet, and then I came back and tell my friends that Im going to open a company called Internet. I invited 24 of my friends, had a two-hour discussion. And finally we had a vote. 23 of them against me. “Forget about it. Theres no such kind of network called Internet. Dont do it.” Theres only one person who said, “Jack, I trust you. I dont know what that is, but if you want to try it, go ahead, try it. Because youre still young.” At that time I was 30 years old.
20年前,我第一次踏上美國,美國之旅的第一站是西雅圖。來到美國之前,我從書本、老師、學校和父母那里了解美國,我以為自己已經(jīng)非常了解美國。但是,當 我踏上這片土地的時候,我才發(fā)現(xiàn)我完全錯了,美國和我從書本里學到的根本不一樣。在西雅圖,我平生第一次認識了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)?;氐街袊?,我告訴朋友們,我打算開一家名叫互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的公司。我邀請了24位好友,討論了兩個小時。我們進行了投票,23人反對。我的朋友們勸我說:“忘了它吧!根本就不存在這么一個叫做互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的東西,千萬不要去嘗試?!敝挥幸粋€人對我說:“馬云,我相信你,雖然我不知道你想要做什么,如果你想做,就大膽去做吧,因為你還年輕?!蹦悄?,我30歲。
So I started my business, without knowing anything about computer, without knowing anything about business. I started my first company, my wife and I and a school mate. We borrowed US $1,000 and we start the business. It was so difficult. I called myself like a blind man riding on the back of blind tigers. Jumping around for the past 20 years, I survive today. For the first three years life was really bad. I remember I tried to borrow US $3,000 from the banks. It took me three months asking any friend I know to borrow the money, still failed. Everybody said “Jack is telling a lie”, because theres no such network called Internet in 1996.
沒有任何的計算機知識、商業(yè)知識,我開始了創(chuàng)業(yè)之路。我開辦了第一家公司,和我的妻子,還有一位同學。我們東拼西湊了1000美元,創(chuàng)業(yè)之路非常艱難。當時,我覺得自己是騎在虎背上的盲人(成語:盲人摸象,又騎虎難下)。20年風雨過去,我存活了下來。但是創(chuàng)業(yè)前三年,生活真的非常糟糕。我清楚地記得,我想向銀行貸款3000美元,這花去了我整整三個月時間,我動用了所有的關系,還是沒拿到貸款。每個人都認為馬云在撒謊,因為1996年他們不相信有互聯(lián)網(wǎng)這個東西的存在。
So one day, later 1996, China was connected to the Internet. I invited ten media friends to my apartment. I want to tell them Im not telling a lie. There is a network called Internet. We waited three hours and a half to see the first—to download the first picture. And people said “Is that thing going to work?” And I say “Yeah, itll work, but not today. In ten years itll work.” But at least it proved that I was not telling a lie.
有一天,1996年下半年,中國正式接入了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。于是,我邀請了10位媒體朋友到我家里來,想告訴他們我沒有撒謊,確實存在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)這個東西。為了下載一張 照片,我們當時花了三個半小時。大家說,“那東西真的能行得通嗎?”我說,“是的,行得通的,不是現(xiàn)在,是在未來十年之內(nèi)?!辈还茉鯓樱@至少證明了我沒有撒謊。
In 1999 I invited 18 friends of mine to came to my apartment. We decided to do it again. We call the name alibaba.com. And people say why Alibaba? We believe Internet is a treasure island which opens sesame for small business. And we used Alibaba because its easy to spell, easy to remember. And we want to focus on helping small business.
到了1999年,我邀請18個好友到家里,我們決定再一次嘗試,并且把網(wǎng)站命名為alibaba.com。人們問為什么叫阿里巴巴?我們希望互聯(lián)網(wǎng)就如同一個寶庫,可以讓小企業(yè)芝麻開門。另外,這個名字容易拼寫,也朗朗上口。我們想做的事情,是幫助小企業(yè)。
This time Internet, the data, and I think we have a new business called platform. And the third World War is going to happen. And this war is not between nations, this war we work together against the disease, the poverty, the climate change. And I believe this is our future. The human being, the nations shall unite together. Rely on the young people, using not the guns, using computers, using the data to solve the human problem, solve the society problems. And this is what Im passionate about. Its not about the money, its about dreams. Its not only the technology change the world, its the dreams you believe that change the world. And we know the way ?is not easy, as I was told in the past 20 years doing Internet business in China. Today is difficult, and tomorrow is much more difficult. But the day after tomorrow is beautiful. Most people die tomorrow evening, if you dont work hard.
在這個互聯(lián)網(wǎng)時代,DT時代(Data Technology,數(shù)據(jù)時代),我認為誕生了一個新的商業(yè)形式——平臺,“第三次世界大戰(zhàn)”也隨之即將打響——但這不是一場國與國之間的戰(zhàn)爭,這是一場我們攜手對抗疾病、貧窮和氣候變化的戰(zhàn)爭。我認為這是人類的未來。人類,所有的國家,都應該聯(lián)合起來。依靠年輕一代,而不是武器;依靠計算機和大數(shù)據(jù),來解決人類的問題,社會的問題。這是我所熱衷的,和錢無關,這是夢想。改變世界的不僅是技術,更是你相信的夢想。我們知道這條路漫長且不易,正如我過去20年在中國做互聯(lián)網(wǎng)生意被告知的。今天很困難,明天更困難,后天很美好。但是絕大多數(shù)人死在了明天晚上,如果你不努力的話。