阿里巴巴紀錄片揭示的4個要點

????由雅虎（Yahoo）部分持股、估值1,500億美元的中國電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴（Alibaba,）將于未來數月在紐交所上市（確切日期待定）。其首次公開募股（IPO）預計將募集200多億美元，有可能成為美國甚至全球交易所史上規模最大的IPO。阿里巴巴前副總裁、美國人波特?埃里斯曼過去幾年一直忙于制作紀錄片《揚子江大鱷》（Crocodile in the Yangtze），它記錄了阿里巴巴自15年前由馬云創立以來的發展歷程。這部影片已于最近發布，《財富》選取了其中最驚人的一些場景，摘錄如下。

????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.”

????1. 阿里巴巴誕生于艱苦的工作環境中

????類似于其他科技創業公司[如蘋果（Apple）和Facebook]，阿里巴巴最初是在杭州的一個小公寓內創立的，那是馬云自己的家。曾是英語老師的他為了實現創業夢想而辭去了工作。他經歷過幾次失敗的創業，包括靈感源于電話簿的“中國黃頁”網站。此后，馬云決定追隨90年代末席卷美國的電子商務大潮。1999年，馬云和17位朋友擠在他的公寓內創立了阿里巴巴，他們取這個名字是希望小企業通過“芝麻開門！”這個咒語打開全球貿易之門，埃里斯曼在影片中敘述道。17位聯合創始人坐在馬云周圍的椅子和沙發上傾聽他的勵志演講。“我們要學習硅谷的勤奮精神”，馬云說。這其實就是在說希望自己的員工在工作中投入比大多數人更多的時間。“如果我們都是抱著朝八晚五的想法，那還是趁早走人去做別的事吧。”這個團隊在馬云的公寓內埋頭苦干了7個月，以避開競爭對手的注意并降低成本。直到公司得到了高盛（Goldman Sachs）和日本軟銀（SoftBank）的投資之后，阿里巴巴才于2000年正式公開亮相。??

????1. Alibaba was born amid grueling working conditions

????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.