International fund managers are examining potential partnership agreements with Chinese internet groups such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu in an attempt to win business from investors in the world’s largest economy.
国际基金公司正考虑与阿里巴巴(Alibaba)、腾讯(Tencent)和百度(Baidu)等中国互联网集团签署合作协议，目的是赢得全球最二大经济体的投资者的业务。
Fund groups are keen to develop partnerships with these companies after witnessing the rapid expansion of the online money market fund industry in the past two years.
在见证过去两年中国在线货币市场基金的快速扩张之后，基金公司迫切希望与中国互联网集团发展合作关系。

Chris Powers, an analyst at Z-Ben Advisors, the Shanghai-based consultancy, said: “We have had several clients ask us about [teaming up with Chinese internet groups]. There is a lot of interest from the foreign manager side.”
上海哲奔咨询(Z-Ben Advisors)的分析师克里斯•鲍尔斯(Chris Powers)表示：“我们有多家客户询问（与中国互联网集团合作的可能性）。外国基金公司对此也有浓厚兴趣。”
Chinese money market funds’ assets increased sixfold to Rmb2.2tn ($350bn) in the 18 months to the end 2014, according to Fitch, the rating agency. It said the big increase was “mainly driven by retail demand for ecommerce [money market funds]”.
评级机构惠誉(Fitch)的数据显示，在截止2014年底的18个月里，中国货币市场基金的资产增长6倍，至2.2万亿元人民币（合3500亿美元）。惠誉表示，资产大幅增加“主要是电子商务平台（货币市场基金）的散户需求所致”。
These funds have been sold predominantly by large internet groups with vast customer bases — the Chinese equivalents of developed market companies such as Amazon, Ebay and PayPal.
这些基金主要由客户基础庞大的大型互联网集团销售；它们就像是中国的亚马逊(Amazon)、Ebay和PayPal。
A spokesperson for Legal & General Investment Management, the £499bn asset manager, said the company “has not spoken with Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, but is aware of this market trend”.
旗下管理着4990亿英镑资产的英国法通投资管理公司(Legal & General Investment Management，简称LGIM)的一位发言人表示，现在该公司“还没有与百度、腾讯和阿里巴巴商谈，但了解这一市场趋势”。
She added: “Thus far, money market funds are distributed via some of these digital distribution channels with much success, and [we] can reasonably expect the product range will broaden.”
她补充称：“迄今为止，通过一些数字渠道经销的货币市场基金取得了巨大成功，（我们）可以合理地预计，产品范围将会扩大。”
Yu’E Bao , Alibaba’s money fund, which is distributed to users of Alipay, the group’s online payment platform, has been the most successful such product to date. Its assets have risen from zero to Rmb578bn in less than two years.
阿里巴巴旗下货币基金余额宝迄今是此类产品中最为成功的。余额宝面向阿里巴巴旗下在线支付平台支付宝(AliPay)的用户，资产在不到两年里从零增长至5780亿元人民币。
David Stevenson, head of business development at Baring Asset Management, said partnerships between international fund houses and Chinese technology companies could be “massive” in years to come.
霸菱资产管理公司(Baring Asset Management)的业务发展主管戴维•史蒂文森(David Stevenson)表示，国际基金公司与中国科技公司可能在今后几年展开“大规模”合作。
He said: “Why would an asset manager not want access to a distribution capability with that depth and breadth? That level of distribution reach cannot be achieved through any bank or sales force, regardless of size.”
他说：“一家资产管理公司为何不想进入有着如此深度和广度的经销渠道？那种水平的经销接触面是任何银行或者销售队伍（无论规模大小）都不可能达到的。”
Mr Stevenson said any asset manager would be looking “quite seriously” at Chinese internet companies as a potential distribution or marketing platform.
史蒂文森表示，任何资产管理公司都将会“非常认真地”将中国互联网公司视为潜在的经销或者营销平台。
Experts agree, however, that foreign fund houses will need to overcome significant challenges before successfully tapping into such companies’ customer networks.
然而，专家们一致认为，在成功进入此类公司的客户网络之前，外国基金公司将需要克服巨大挑战。
Mr Powers said: “Legally speaking, only Alibaba’s Taobao [its online retail marketplace] would be able to sell funds as it is the only one who has a fund payment license. There is also a lot of uncertainty [over] whether foreign products will be allowed to be sold online. And in terms of online distribution success, almost all of this has been for money market funds, so I do not imagine that the foreign products distributed on the mainland would find much success.”
鲍尔斯表示：“从法律的角度来说，只有阿里巴巴旗下的（在线零售市场）淘宝(Taobao)获得了基金支付牌照，因此只有该平台才能够销售基金。外国基金产品能否获准在线销售也存在巨大的不确定性。就在线经销取得的成功而言，相关产品几乎都是货币市场基金，因此我不认为在中国大陆经销的境外基金产品会取得很大成功。”
Charlotte Quiniou, an analyst at Fitch, added: “Developing the relationships and technology to distribute funds through distributing platforms in China is a key challenge for international asset managers.”
惠誉分析师夏洛特•基尼乌(Charlotte Quiniou)补充称：“国际资产管理公司面临的关键挑战是，发展关系和技术，以便通过中国的经销平台销售基金。”