Chinese tech companies, led by the likes of Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, are huge presences in the global tech industry, well known to investors and global tech rivals. But despite their high global profile, China’s tech giants have one thing in common: they like to stay at home.

以阿里巴巴(Alibaba)、腾讯(Tencent)和百度(Baidu)等公司为首的中国科技企业在全球科技行业拥有巨大的业务份额，为投资者和全球科技业竞争对手所熟知。尽管中国的科技巨头们在全球有很高的知名度，但它们有一个共同之处是喜欢呆在国内。

Between 2005 and 2015, Chinese tech companies launched just 291 investments in the software & IT and consumer electronics sectors overseas, according to data from fDi Markets, a cross-border investment tracker owned by the FT.

英国《金融时报》旗下跨境投资追踪机构fDi Markets的数据显示，2005年到2015年，中国科技企业在软件和IT以及消费电子产品领域的海外投资仅有291宗。

This puts China in a lowly 14th place worldwide in terms of outbound tech investment, not only behind powerhouses such as the US, the UK and Germany, but also behind India, Switzerland and Australia that launched 723, 445 and 315 projects in the same period, respectively.

这让中国在对外科技投资的全球排名中名次不高，仅处于第14位，不仅落后于美国、英国和德国等强国，也落后于印度、瑞士和澳大利亚——这三个国家同期的海外科技投资分别是723、445和315宗。

Growing momentum

不断增强的势头

With a huge domestic market and healthy GDP growth in the past 10 years, Chinese companies have had little incentive to look for expansion overseas. But with the Chinese economy slowing and growth opportunities at home nearing exhaustion, attitudes have started to change.

由于国内市场巨大而且过去十年中国国内生产总值(GDP)快速增长，中国公司此前一直没有多少动力去考虑海外扩张。但在中国经济放缓、国内增长机遇接近于枯竭的情况下，中国公司的态度开始改变。

Data from fDi Markets show that outbound investment in the sector has gathered pace in recent years and is on course for a 50 per cent increase in terms of project numbers this year, as the table shows.

fDi Markets的数据显示，中国公司在科技领域的对外投资近年来步伐加快，照现在的势头，今年在这一领域的对外投资项目数量可能增长50%，如图表所示。

Alibaba and the followers

阿里巴巴及其追随者

Among the giants taking a lead is Alibaba, a Hanghzou-based and NYSE-listed ecommerce company with a market capitalisation of about $240bn. Between January 2014 and June 2016, it launched 15 greenfield projects overseas, of which nearly half were in the US, according to fDi Markets.

领头的大型企业包括阿里巴巴——总部位于杭州、在纽交所(NYSE)上市的电子商务公司，拥有大约2400亿美元的市值。fDi Markets的数据显示，2014年1月到2016年6月，阿里巴巴在海外投资了15宗绿地项目，其中近半数位于美国。

Also moving abroad, though at a slower pace, were Avazu, a Shanghai-based digital marketing company, and Kingsoft, a Beijing-based software company.

总部位于上海的数字营销公司艾维邑动(Avazu)和总部位于北京的软件公司金山软件(Kingsoft)也在走向海外——尽管步伐较慢。

Each has launched four overseas projects since 2014, with Avazu concentrating on the US, the UK and Germany, and Kingsoft betting on emerging markets such as Brazil and Indonesia

两家公司自2014年以来各投资了4宗海外项目，艾维邑动聚焦于美国、英国和德国，而金山软件押注于巴西和印尼等新兴市场。

China is slowly climbing the ranks of global tech investors: the number of greenfield tech investments in 2016 to June puts China in seventh place worldwide, ahead of Japan. With the outlook for the domestic economy getting bleaker, expect it to rise further up the ranking in the years to come.

中国在全球科技业投资者排行榜上的名次在缓慢爬升：2016年上半年，中国绿地科技投资数量排名第七，领先于日本。考虑到中国国内经济前景日益黯淡，预计今后几年中国的这一排名将会进一步上升。