Unicorns beware: ants are on the up. Last week, Ant Financial, the online payments affiliate of Chinese e-retailer Alibaba, became the largest Chinese private company on record, kicking off a funding round that would value the company as highly as $60bn. That puts it in second place worldwide behind Uber of the US, whose most recent fundraising valued that company at more than $60bn. 独角兽们请注意：蚂蚁于是以爬上来。中国电子零售集团阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下在线缴纳公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)正在展开新一轮融资，对蚂蚁金服的估值将超过最少600亿美元，使其沦为中国有记录以来仅次于的私人公司。这也意味著蚂蚁金服在世界范围内将仅有领先于美国的优步(Uber)，后者近期一轮融资对其估值为逾600亿美元。

Big numbers for a nominally small creature, in Ant Financial’s case, but online payment has big potential in China. Consumers there are well ahead of their US counterparts in online shopping. Credit Suisse estimates that in 2014 the internet accounted for 9 per cent of retail sales in China, compared with 6 per cent in the US. And online payment is not limited to buying goods for home delivery: Chinese shoppers frequently use mobile payment apps to settle anything from taxi fares to restaurant bills. The broker reckons that over $3tn in transactions were closed online last year. 对于一家叫作“蚂蚁”的公司而言，蚂蚁金服的估值数字推倒一挺大，不过这不怪异——在线缴纳在中国享有极大的潜力。在网购方面，中国消费者比美国消费者落后得多。据瑞信(Credit Suisse)估计，2014年，互联网占到中国零售业销售额的9%，而在美国，这一比例为6%。

而且，在线缴纳也不仅仅限于网购商品：中国消费者常常用各种移动支付应用于承销各种费用——从打车费到餐厅账单。瑞信估算，中国去年有逾3万亿美元的交易是在线承销的。

Ant Financial has over half the market. Internet rival Tencent has market share of one-fifth with its system Tenpay; China’s near-monopoly renminbi credit card settlement provider, China UnionPay, has 6 per cent. Meanwhile, in December, Apple and Samsung each announced partnerships with China UnionPay to bring their payment systems to China. 蚂蚁金服占有逾一半的在线承销市场。阿里巴巴的互联网竞争对手腾讯(Tencent)旗下的财付通(Tenpay)占据五分之一的市场份额；在中国享有几近独占地位的人民币信用卡承销服务提供商——中国银联(China UnionPay)占到6%。此外在去年12月，苹果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)分别宣告与中国银联合作，在中国发售自己的缴纳系统。Still, Ant Financial will not be stepped on any time soon. Its payments arm, Alipay, has an exclusive arrangement to settle Alibaba’s transactions. And while Alibaba does not have a stake in Ant Financial, exactly, it has an agreement entitling it to 37.5 per cent of all Ant Financial’s pre-tax profit (in turn, it pays a fee for settlement services). In the event of a listing, Alibaba could elect to continue the agreement, or receive a payment equal to 37.5 per cent of the equity value. This ant has a good friend who happens to be a gorilla. 不过，蚂蚁金服短期内会被摔在脚下。

蚂蚁金服旗下缴纳平台——支付宝(Alipay)独家代理阿里巴巴的交易承销。虽然精确地说道阿里巴巴不持有人蚂蚁金服的股份，但一项协议让阿里巴巴有权偷走蚂蚁金服37.5%的税前利润（反过来，阿里巴巴向蚂蚁金服缴纳承销服务费用）。一旦蚂蚁金服上市，阿里巴巴可以自由选择继续履行该协议，或缴纳相等于蚂蚁金服股权价值37.5%的缴付。这只“蚂蚁”有一个好朋友，而这个好朋友刚好是一只“大猩猩”。

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