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Alibaba is selling its $1bn of preferred shares in Meituan-Dianping, the online booking and discounts platform, at a steep discount — a move that will put a brake on the Groupon-style company’s fundraising efforts, according to investors.
根据投资者的说法，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)正在以极大折扣，抛售在线预订和折扣平台美团-大众点评(Meituan-Dianping)价值10亿美元的优先股，此举将为这家Groupon式企业的筹资努力踩下刹车。
Meituan-Dianping, which is backed by Alibaba’s ecommerce rival Tencent, had been seeking to raise funds from existing and new investors on terms that gave it a $15bn valuation. But some investors are concerned that Alibaba’s discounted share sale is likely to value the group-buying site at nearer $13bn.
美团-大众点评曾获阿里巴巴在电子商务方面的对手腾讯(Tencent)投资。该公司一直试图从现存投资者和新投资者手中筹集资金，这轮筹资令其估值达到150亿美元。不过，部分投资者担心，阿里巴巴将股票打折出售，很可能令这家团购网站的估值更接近130亿美元。
Alibaba was once among the largest shareholders in Meituan but was disappointed by the online group’s October merger with Tencent-backed Dianping, under which with the latter ploughed another $1bn into the merged entity.
阿里巴巴一度是美团(Meituan)的最大股东之一。然而这家互联网企业10月份与腾讯投资的大众点评(Dianping)合并，令阿里巴巴十分失望。通过这次并购，腾讯向合并后的实体再注入了10亿美元。
Now, Alibaba is considering funnelling the proceeds from its stake sale into Ele.me, a food delivery app that partly competes with the Meituan-Dianping — in a further attempt to take on Tencent, Baudu and other rivals in China’s fast-growing internet economy,
目前，阿里巴巴正在考虑将股票抛售所得资金注入饿了么(Ele.me)，试图在中国飞速增长的互联网经济中，与腾讯、百度(Baidu)及其他对手开展进一步竞争。饿了么是一个送餐应用，与美团-大众点评在一定程度上构成竞争关系。
A rapid proliferation of mobile internet buying services has started to give way to consolidation, as the model of offering big discounts has failed to win repeat business. Customers have tended to defect once bargains are withdrawn.
在超低折扣模式无法再赢来回头客之际，移动互联网购物服务的迅速繁荣，已开始让位给相互间的整合。折扣项目一旦取消，客户往往会改弦易辙。
This has exacerbated the turf wars, which are spilling over into adjacent industries. A few vendors have been informally asked by some Meituan sales teams to ditch Alipay, Alibaba’s payments system, in favour of Tencent’s alternative offering.
这种局面加剧了企业间的地盘之争，它们正对邻近的行业产生影响。部分美团销售团队已正式要求几家供应商放弃阿里巴巴的支付系统支付宝(Alipay)，转而采用腾讯的替代系统。
Meituan itself is asking its vendors to sign exclusivity arrangements with Alipay rather than the new Koubei platform that Alibaba launched several months ago.
美团自身正要求其供应商与支付宝而不是口碑网(Koubei)签署排他性协定。口碑网是阿里巴巴在几个月前推出的一个新平台。
Further clashes are being set up by changes to the companies’ business models. For example, Meituan, which accounts for four out of every ten movie tickets sold in China, is now mulling a move into film distribution, where it would compete with Alibaba’s Ali Pictures. That has led Alibaba executives to tell investors that they consider Wang Xing, Meituan’s founder, “ungrateful”.
而各企业对商务模式的改革，正在引发进一步冲突。比如，目前中国每十张电影票里，就有四张是美团网出售的，而美团网目前正考虑进入电影发行产业，这会和阿里巴巴的阿里影业(Ali Pictures)产生竞争。这令阿里巴巴的高管向投资者表示，他们认为美团网创始人王兴“忘恩负义”。
However, the domestic battles may at least yield bargains for new investors in the rival online services. These potentially include Tiger Global, the US investment fund, and Digital Sky Technologies, the venture capital firm run by early Facebook-backer Yuri Milner. They now have an opportunity to play the internet companies off against each other, to secure better terms.
不过，中国国内的竞争，至少会为投资敌对互联网公司的新投资者带来有利的协议。这些新投资者可能会包括美国投资基金老虎环球基金(Tiger Global)，以及由Facebook早期投资者尤里猠尔纳(Yuri Milner)创办的风险投资公司数字天空技术(Digital Sky Technologies)。如今，它们有机会挑拨互联网企业相互竞争，从而获得更有利条款。
But that prospect is less welcome to some existing investors who committed a small amount to Meituan-Dianping’s new fundraising in the expectation of selling on their holdings, and earning a fee in the process.
不过，对于这种前景，部分现有投资者就没那么欢迎了。他们在美团-大众点评的新一轮筹资中投资了小笔金额，希望能够转手卖出，从而获取回报。
