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Piracy is pointless when products are free. Giving away games has enabled China’s Tencent to brush off the threat of illegal downloads and become one of the biggest companies in the world. It will need to increase its overseas reach to keep the spot.
如果产品是免费的，盗版就没有意义。免费游戏让中国的腾讯(Tencent)得以不理会非法下载的威胁，并成为全球最大企业之一。要保持这种地位，腾讯需要扩大其在海外的触角范围。
Smartphone game “Honor of Kings”, tipped as the world’s top earner, shows Tencent’s freemium model at work. The download is gratis but users are encouraged to purchase virtual items inside the game for real money.
智能手机游戏《王者荣耀》(Honor of Kings)被列为全球收入最高的游戏，它显示了腾讯的免费增值模式(freemium)奏效。这款游戏下载免费，但用户被鼓励用真实世界的金钱购买游戏内的虚拟商品。
For a tangible equivalent, non-gamers can think of the razor and blades model, where companies sell the razor cheaply but charge proportionately much more for the blades. Tencent does something similar. Games may be free, but downloadable content — DLC for those in the know — is pricey.
要做一番比喻的话，不玩游戏的人可以想想“剃刀和刀片”模式，公司廉价销售剃刀，但刀片售价较贵。腾讯的做法类似。游戏可能是免费的，但可下载内容（内行称之为DLC）价格不菲。
The shift from one-off games sales to continuous payment via subscriptions or in-game purchases has been felt across the industry, smoothing cash flows and raising valuations. Revenue at Electronic Arts rose nearly a fifth in the most recent quarter thanks to its transition to digital sales while rising margins driven by online sales at French rival Ubisoft have attracted the attention of media group Vivendi.
整个行业都感受到了从一次性游戏销售到通过订阅持续付费或游戏内购买的改变，这让现金流动变得平稳，并提升了估值。由于转向数字销售，电子艺界(Electronic Arts)在最近一个季度的收入增长近五分之一，同时，受在线销售的推动，法国竞争对手育碧(Ubisoft)日益增长的利润率引起了传媒集团维旺迪(Vivendi)的兴趣。
If games are played on mobile phones that users find hard to put down, so much the better. Tencent is pushing hard into mobile, generating Rmb13bn ($2bn) from smartphone games in the first quarter of the year, up more than 50 per cent on the previous year.
如果在让用户觉得很难放下的手机上玩游戏，那就更好了。腾讯正大力进军移动领域，今年第一季度从智能手机游戏中获得了130亿元人民币（合20亿美元）的收入，同比增长逾50%。
Year to date, Tencent’s shares are up by half and now trade at 36 times forecast earnings — higher than Alibaba on 32, though nowhere near Nintendo on 56.
年初至今，腾讯的股价上涨了一半，目前的预期市盈率为36倍——高于阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的32倍，尽管仍远低于任天堂(Nintendo)的56倍。
Tencent has room to grow. Of the total Rmb50bn (about $7bn) first quarter revenue just Rmb7bn came from online advertising. With hundreds of millions of users across its gaming and social media brands, it is in a good place to increase this. Meanwhile it should increase its tentative move to target gamers outside China. The country may generate a quarter of the world’s gaming revenue, but in a $100bn industry that leaves a lot of headroom.
腾讯仍有增长空间。在共计500亿元人民币（约合70亿美元）的第一季度营收中，只有70亿元人民币来自在线广告。拥有数以亿计用户的游戏和社交媒体品牌，使腾讯可以很容易增加这部分收入。与此同时，腾讯应该加大试探性尝试力度，吸引中国以外的游戏玩家。中国或许占到了全球游戏收入的四分之一，但这意味着在这个1000亿美元的产业中还有很大发展空间。
