Alibaba is in talks to acquire Ele.me in a deal that could value the online food delivery start-up at up to $9.5bn as China’s tech titans battle it out for dominance of the sector.
阿里巴巴(Alibaba)正在洽谈收购“饿了么”(Ele.me)，对这家在线送餐初创企业的估值可能高达95亿美元。目前中国科技巨头正在争夺行业主导地位。
Alibaba and rival Tencent, each with an equity value of more than $500bn, have kicked off the year with aggressive buying sprees as they take each other on in ecommerce, payments, food delivery and other services.
进入2018年以来，阿里巴巴和竞争对手腾讯(Tencent)大张旗鼓地掀起收购热潮。这两家股权价值均超过5000亿美元的巨擘在电子商务、支付、外卖和其他服务方面相互角力。
While they began life with clearly defined turfs — Alibaba in ecommerce and Tencent in social media — both are evolving into tech conglomerates dominating many aspects of life, some of which have been ceded by traditional companies.
尽管它们在起步阶段都有明确定位（阿里巴巴开展电子商务，腾讯经营社交媒体），但两家都在演变为科技综合企业集团，主宰人们生活的众多方面，其中一些方面是传统企业让出的。
Food delivery is a case in point. China’s food delivery market was valued at Rmb204.6bn ($32.5bn) in 2017, according to the China Cuisine Association, an industry group.
外卖就是一个典型的例子。根据中国烹饪协会(China Cuisine Association)的数据，2017年中国在线外卖市场规模为2046亿元人民币（合325亿美元）。
Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial already own 40 per cent of Ele.me but are looking to buy the remaining 60 per cent from existing investors including Baidu, according to people familiar with the matter.
据知情人士透露，阿里巴巴及其支付关联公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)已经拥有饿了么40%股份，但正在寻求从百度(Baidu)等现有投资者手中买下其余的60%股份。
Recent Chinese media reports have suggested a deal could value the food delivery app at up to $9.5bn. Ele.me was valued at $5.5bn at its last funding round in August 2015, according to CBInsights.
中国媒体近日报道提出，该交易对这款送餐应用的估值可能达到95亿美元。CBInsights的数据显示，饿了么在2015年8月进行的上一轮融资中的估值为55亿美元。
Ele.me currently accounts for 48.8 per cent of the online food delivery market in China, closely followed by Meituan with 43.1 per cent, according to Analysys International.
根据易观国际(Analysys International)的数据，饿了么目前占中国在线外卖市场的48.8%，紧随其后的是美团(Meituan)，占43.1%。
Should the deal go through, Alibaba would become one of the country’s largest players in food delivery, rivalled only by online-to-offline services platform Meituan-Dianping, which is backed by Tencent. Meituan-Dianping was valued at $30bn in its latest funding round last year.
如果这笔交易完成，阿里巴巴将成为中国外卖行业最大的提供商之一，只有腾讯支持的线上到线下(O2O)服务平台美团点评(Meituan-Dianping)能与其争锋。美团点评在去年进行的最新一轮融资中估值达到300亿美元。
Alibaba and Baidu declined to comment on the negotiations.
阿里巴巴和百度拒绝对相关谈判置评。
Ele.me, a play on the Chinese phrase for “hungry yet?”, has emerged as one of the biggest food delivery players in China since it was founded in 2008.
自2008年成立以来，饿了么已崛起为中国最大送餐提供商之一。
For Baidu, the third of China’s big internet players, the deal would mean an exit from another services sector as it focuses on developing emerging technologies in artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.
对百度来说，这笔交易意味着从又一个服务行业退出。这家中国第三大互联网公司正专注于开发人工智能和自主驾驶领域的新兴技术。
While Ele.me fits into Alibaba’s strategy of “new retail”, fusing the online and offline worlds in retail and services, it is a step into a more capital-intensive arena.
尽管饿了么契合阿里巴巴的“新零售”战略，打通零售和服务行业的线上和线下世界，但这起收购也意味着向资本密集度更高的舞台迈出一步。
Its ecommerce and logistics businesses are typically “asset-lite” — unlike Amazon or Chinese ecommerce rival JD.com Alibaba does not own big delivery fleets and chains of warehouses
阿里巴巴的电子商务和物流业务一般是“轻资产”的，与亚马逊(Amazon)或另一家中国电商京东(JD.com)不同，阿里巴巴并不拥有大规模送货团队和连锁仓库。
Ele.me, which covers 2,000 cities in China, owns its network and its delivery couriers are on its payroll.
覆盖中国2000个城市的饿了么拥有自己的网络，并雇用自己的送货员。
This stands to complement Alibaba’s latest retail efforts in other areas, such as its Hema supermarkets, which also do fast delivery in small areas — bolstering its “last mile” delivery capability.
这将补充阿里巴巴在其他领域的最新零售策略，比如盒马鲜生(Hema)超市，这些超市也在小范围提供快速送货——增强其“最后一公里”送货能力。

Tencent and Alibaba have dominated the M&A calendar in the past three months, particularly in retail. Tencent has partnered with Chinese supermarket operator Yonghui and Carrefour of France and has invested in online retailer Vipshop, while most recently Alibaba has taken a stake in Easyhome, a furniture retailer, and Shiji, a data service company focusing on the hotel and travel industry.
腾讯和阿里巴巴在过去3个月里主导了并购日程表，特别是在零售业。腾讯与中国超市运营商永辉(Yonghui)和法国家乐福(Carrefour)结成合作伙伴关系，并投资了在线零售商唯品会(Vipshop)，而阿里巴巴最近入股了家具零售商居然之家(Easyhome)以及专注于酒店和旅游行业的数据服务公司石基(Shiji)。
Alibaba also has invested significantly in offline retail, started its Hema chain of grocery stores, and has shored up its holdings in Cainiao, the expansive logistics platform that began as a grocery delivery system in which it has a controlling stake.
阿里巴巴还大举投资于线下零售，推出盒马鲜生连锁超市，还增持了菜鸟(Cainiao)股份；菜鸟是一个从送货系统起步的庞大物流平台，阿里巴巴持有其控股股权。