Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant partially owned by Yahoo and valued at $150 billion, is aiming for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange sometime in the next few months (the exact date has yet to be determined). Expected to raise more than $20 billion, the IPO could be the biggest yet on a U.S. exchange and potentially in world history. A recently released documentary by Alibaba’s former vice president Porter Erisman, an American who has spent the past several years working on the film, depicts the company’s journey since it was founded by Jack Ma 15 years ago. Here are some of the most surprising takeaways from “Crocodile in the Yangtze.”由雅虎（Yahoo）部分股权、估值1,500亿美元的中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴（Alibaba,）将于未来数月在纽交所上市（清楚日期以此类推）。其首次公开发表IPO（IPO）预计将筹措200多亿美元，有可能沦为美国甚至全球交易所史上规模仅次于的IPO。

阿里巴巴前副总裁、美国人波特o埃里斯曼过去几年仍然无暇制作纪录片《扬子江大鳄》（Crocodile in the Yangtze），它记录了阿里巴巴自15年前由马云创办以来的发展历程。这部影片已于最近公布，《财富》挑选了其中最难以置信的一些场景，节录如下。1. Alibaba was born amid grueling working conditions1. 阿里巴巴问世于艰难的工作环境中Similar to tech start-ups like Apple and Facebook, Alibaba started out in a tiny apartment in Hangzhou that belonged to Jack Ma, a former English teacher who quit his job to follow dreams of entrepreneurship. After a few failed business ventures, including a phone book-inspired “China Pages” website, Ma decided to pursue the e-commerce trend that was sweeping America in the late 90s. In 1999, Ma and 17 friends crowded into his apartment and built Alibaba.com, a name they hoped would draw small businesses “to say ‘Open Sesame!’ to global trade,” Erisman narrates in the film. Sitting on chairs and couches around Ma, the 17 co-founders are shown listening to Ma’s motivational speeches. “We need to learn the hardworking spirit of the Silicon Valley,” Ma explains, implying that he expected staff to work longer days than most people. “If we have that kind of 8 am to 5 pm spirit, then we should just go and do something else.” The team plugged away in Ma’s apartment for seven months, trying to stay off competitors’ radar and reduce costs, until new investments from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company, led Alibaba to organize a public launch in 2000.类似于其他科技创业公司[如苹果（Apple）和Facebook]，阿里巴巴最初是在杭州的一个小公寓内创办的，那是马云自己的家。

曾是英语老师的他为了构建创业梦想而辞任了工作。他经历过几次告终的创业，还包括启发源自电话簿的“中国黄页”网站。此后，马云要求跟随90年代末席卷美国的电子商务大潮。

1999年，马云和17位朋友挤迫在他的公寓内创办了阿里巴巴，他们所取这个名字是期望小企业通过“芝麻开门！”这个咒语关上全球贸易之门，埃里斯曼在影片中描述道。17位牵头创始人躺在马云周围的椅子和沙发上聆听他的励志演说。“我们要自学硅谷的刻苦精神”，马云说。这只不过就是在说道期望自己的员工在工作中投放比大多数人更加多的时间。

“如果我们都是抱着朝八晚五的点子，那还是趁早走人去做到别的事吧。”这个团队在马云的公寓内埋头苦干了7个月，以避免竞争对手的留意并降低成本。直到公司获得了高盛（Goldman Sachs）和日本软银（SoftBank）的投资之后，阿里巴巴才于2000年月公开发表亮相。

2. Alibaba has a love-hate relationship with the Chinese government2. 阿里巴巴与中国政府：爱恨交织Ma first ran into problems with the Chinese government with his China Pages effort, when trying to deal with strict regulations on private information. Ma explained to officials, “We are working on promoting China on the information superhighway,” but the internet was such a new concept that it was hard to get government support, and China Pages fizzled. Insistent on giving China a web presence, Ma switched gears and pursued e-commerce. “If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them. We can beat government agencies and big government companies because of our innovative spirit,” Ma says in the film. Eventually, Alibaba received government support as local officials began viewing the company as a job creator, Erisman explains in the film. Still, each time Alibaba wanted to accept a new investment—such as when Yahoo bought a 40% stake in 2005 for $1 billion – it had to be approved by the government.马云在政府那里第一次碰钉子是其“中国黄页”网站，马云对政府官员说明道，“我们致力于在信息高速公路上宣传中国”，但是互联网当时还是一个崭新的概念，因此要获得政府的反对非常容易，所以“中国黄页”项目告终了。一心想要在互联网上留给中国印记的他切换了思维并开始进占电子商务。马云在影片中说道：“如果我们是一个好团队而且确切自己想做到什么，那么我们之后可以以一当十。我们需要击败政府机构和大型国有公司，因为我们有创意精神。

”埃里斯曼在影片中说明说道，最后，阿里巴巴获得了政府反对，而且当地官员也开始认识到该公司能建构大量低收入岗位。然而，每当阿里巴巴期望拒绝接受一笔新的投资时，比如雅虎2005年曾以10亿美元出售其40%的股份，它都必需取得中国政府的批准后。

3. Alibaba’s archenemy is eBay3. 阿里巴巴的大敌：eBayAs eBay pushed further into the Chinese market during Alibaba’s early years, Ma felt threatened. In 2003 eBay acquired EachNet, a China-based auction site with a similar business model to its own. [Ma] told me to be prepared for Alibabas biggest challenge yet, Erisman explains. We were going to war with eBay. To fend off eBay, Alibaba launched a new website called Taobao, a marketplace for consumer-to-consumer selling rather than business-to-business. Ma then upped the ante by waiving Taobao’s transaction fees for the first three years, while eBay kept charging. Ma hoped that by offering customers a better deal on Taobao than on eBay, his competitor would have to match it, cutting into eBay’s margins, or lose business—and back out of China altogether, according to Erisman. With the move, Alibaba “publicly declare[d] war on eBay,” Erisman narrates. For the sake of good sportsmanship, though, Ma made a ground rule that nobody was to launch any personal attacks against Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO at the time. Within a few years, eBay, after belatedly cutting fees on EachNet, ended its business in China.在阿里巴巴早期的时候，随着eBay更进一步了解中国市场，马云感觉到了威胁。2003年，eBay并购了易趣网，后者是一家与eBay具有类似于商业模式的中国拍卖会网站。埃里斯曼说明说道：“【马云】要我作好打算，庆贺阿里巴巴仅次于的挑战。

我们想向eBay宣战。”为了对付eBay，阿里巴巴发售了一个取名为淘宝（Taobao）的新网站，一个消费者对消费者（C2C）而不是企业对企业（B2B）的市场平台。随后，马云增大了赌局，免职当时淘宝前三年内的交易酬劳，但eBay却照收不误将。埃里斯曼称之为，马云期望，如果客户在淘宝上交易比eBay更加昂贵，那么他的竞争对手就被迫第一时间，以此来传输eBay的利润空间，否则，eBay将丧失这块业务或几乎解散中国市场。

埃里斯曼说道：此举意味著阿里巴巴“公开发表向eBay开战”。虽然，本着友谊第一的体育精神，马云订下了一条基本原则，那就是任何人都不得对eBay当时的首席执行官梅格惠特曼发动任何人身攻击。

在短短数年内，由于如期不愿减少在易趣网的交易酬劳，eBay的中国业务以告终收场。4. Alibaba founder Jack Ma is a rock star in China4. 阿里巴巴创始人马云是中国的超级巨星If you think Americans treat Apple founder Steve Jobs as a celebrity, that’s nothing compared to how the Chinese venerate Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who addresses stadiums filled with fans in several scenes in the film. At a party to celebrate Alibaba’s tenth anniversary, instead of taking the stage in a his usual suit-and-tie, Ma emerged singing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” dressed like a rock star in a studded red and black leather jacket, nose earring and long blond wig. Ma is also known for delivering inspirational speeches, several of which are captured in the so-called “docu-memoir.” From pick-me-up speeches in the small apartment to presentations in front of crowds of journalists and investors, Ma continues to trumpet Alibaba’s potential—even as investors initially expressed concern about Alibaba’s low profits in its early days, and questioned its viability. “They called him crazy Jack,” Erisman says. “Yes, he seemed a bit crazy. But at least it seemed he was enjoying the ride.” Next stop on that ride: A huge, and possibly record-breaking, IPO.如果你指出苹果创始人史蒂夫o乔布斯在美国人那里取得了明星般的待遇，那么中国人对于阿里巴巴创始人马云的推崇则堪称超过了无以复加的地步。在影片中的多个镜头中，马云公开发表演说的体育场剩是其拥趸。在庆典阿里巴巴正式成立十周年的聚会上，马云并没像整天一样身穿西装革履踏上舞台，而是装扮得像一位摇滚明星一样，身穿剩是铆钉的红黑相间皮夹克，戴着鼻环和长长的裙子，冲上舞台，演唱了首动画片《狮子王》的英文主题曲《今夜你能感受到爱人吗？》（Can You Feel the Love Tonight?）。

马云也因其励志演说而著称，其中有多场演说都被收益所谓的《记录回忆录》（docu-memoir）（华裔编剧丁碧兰摄制的呈现出华人历史的纪录片）。无论是在小公寓公开发表鼓舞士气的演说，还是在众多记者和投资者面前展开演讲，马云都在一刻不停地鼓吹着阿里巴巴的潜力——即便是投资者一开始担忧阿里巴巴早期利润偏高，并批评其可行性的时候，马云也是如此。埃里斯曼说道：“是的，他看上去有点可怕。但最起码，他或许对这一旅程深感十分无聊。

”而这一旅程的下一站乃是盛大的，而且有可能是创纪录的IPO。

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