马云唱响离别之歌 正式卸任CEO

There was rain and 40, 000 people in a football stadium. When a man sporting a shiny silver jacket, a black hat and a pair of large glasses appeared on stage and started singing, the audience went ballistic.

足球场内坐着四万人，场外还下着雨。舞台上的男人穿着银光闪闪的外套，头戴黑色帽子，脸上架着一副大眼镜。男人开始唱歌，现场观众群情汹涌。

The scene resembled a rock concert or an Olympic Games opening ceremony, but it wasn’t.

这就像是一场摇滚音乐会或奥运会开幕式，但事实并非如此。

It was Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s massive, somewhat over-the-top celebration of the 10th anniversary of its Taobao online shopping site, the Chinese equivalent of eBay.

这是阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.)为了庆祝其在线购物网站淘宝创立10周年而举行的盛大晚会。在中国，淘宝相当于美国的eBay。

The singer on stage was Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who started what is now China’s biggest e-commerce company from his apartment in 1999 and stepped down as its chief executive as of Friday. Accompanied by a band –the musicians were also Alibaba employees —the 48-year-old entrepreneur belted out two songs that every Chinese speaker in the audience knew: “I love you, China” and “Friends.”

舞台上的歌手是阿里巴巴的创始人马云。1999年马云在自己的公寓里创建了这家公司，该公司现已成为中国最大的电子商务企业。上周五身为阿里巴巴首席执行长(CEO)的马云退位。在乐队的伴奏下（乐队成员也是阿里巴巴员工），现年48岁的企业家马云高唱了两首现场每位会说中文的观众都耳熟能详的歌：《我爱你中国》和《朋友》。

Many of Alibaba’s 24, 000-plus employees around the world were present at the Hangzhou Huanglong stadium, home to local soccer club Hangzhou Greentown F.C. Some were with their parents and young kids. Some had flown from the U.S., Europe or other parts of the world to attend the once-in-a-decade celebration. Also among the audience were many Alibaba customers, mostly small merchants who sell their products on Taobao. Most people were wearing blue or yellow disposable ponchos they received at the entrance as it had started raining earlier in the evening.

阿里巴巴在全球逾2.4万名员工中的大部分都坐在了杭州黄龙体育场的现场。黄龙体育场也是当地球队杭州绿城足球俱乐部的主场。一些员工带着父母子女一起观看。一些人则从美国、欧洲或世界其它地方飞来参加这十年一次的盛典。观众中还有很多是阿里巴巴的客户，其中绝大部分是在淘宝上出售商品的小商贩。大多数人穿着在入口处拿到的蓝色或黄色的一次性雨衣，因为当天晚上早些时候开始下雨。

At the event, Mr. Ma passed the baton to his successor Jonathan Lu, who became the company’s new CEO Friday. “Taking over from Jack Ma is a difficult job, ” said Mr. Ma, who will remain chairman but will step back from the company’s day-to-day operations. “All of you trust and support Jonathan just as you have trusted and supported me.”

在晚会上，马云将接力棒传给他的继任者陆兆禧。上周五陆兆禧成为阿里巴巴新CEO。马云说，从我手中接过担子并不轻松。我恳请每一位员工，支持陆兆禧，就像支持我一样，信任陆兆禧，就像信任我一样。马云将留任公司董事长一职，但不再负责公司的日常运营。

“I feel very fortunate, ” said Mr. Lu in his first speech as an incoming CEO. When Alibaba’s official blog site announced his appointment for the new role in March, the site said Mr. Lu “shuns the spotlight, ” putting him in contrast with Mr. Ma, one of China’s best-known entrepreneurs who has a reputation for making playful, provocative remarks.

陆兆禧作为即将上任的CEO发表首次讲话时说，我感到非常幸运。今年3月阿里巴巴官方博客网站宣布陆兆禧将出任这一新职位。网站称陆兆禧总是避免站在聚光灯下，这与马云形成了鲜明的对比。马云是中国最知名的企业家之一，常说一些俏皮、有鼓动意味的话。

On stage, it was clear that Mr. Lu wasn’t trying to be Mr. Ma. After his predecessor’s songs and speech more than warmed up the audience, Mr. Lu, without jokes or metaphors, shared his views on Alibaba’s future. The key, he said, was how Alibaba can make Taobao, which has over 500 million registered users, and other services “an individualized experience, ” so people can feel that those services are “customized for themselves.”

在舞台上，陆兆禧显然并没有尝试像马云一样表现。在马云的演唱和演讲令全场沸腾之后，陆兆禧既没有讲笑话，也没有打比方，只是分享了他对阿里巴巴未来的看法。他说，关键是，阿里巴巴如何让拥有超过5亿注册用户的淘宝和其他服务成为个性化体验，让用户感觉到这些服务是为他们量身定做的。

Under Mr. Lu’s leadership, Alibaba is expected to go through a crucial transitional period. The new CEO also faces a challenging task of redesigning Alibaba’s operations to make sure that the company can stay competitive at a time when the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices is quickly reshaping the Internet landscape in China. Alibaba has taken major steps recently to strengthen its mobile-based business through location-based services and social media. On Friday AutoNavi Holdings Ltd. said Alibaba would buy a 28% stake in the Chinese Internet mapping company for $294 million.

预计阿里巴巴将在陆兆禧的带领下经历一个关键的转型期。这名新CEO还面临着一个极具挑战性的任务，那就是对阿里巴巴的业务进行重组，确保在智能手机和其他设备的普及迅速重塑互联网行业版图的过程中，公司仍然具有竞争力。阿里巴巴最近采取了一些重大措施，目的是通过基于位置的服务和社交媒体来加强移动业务。高德(AutoNavi Holdings Ltd.)上周五说，阿里巴巴将斥资2.94亿美元收购这家中国数字地图公司28%的股权。

Last month, Alibaba announced a $586 million deal to take an 18% stake in Sina Corp. Twitter-like Weibo microblog business.

上个月，阿里巴巴宣布了以5.86亿美元收购新浪微博业务18%的股权的交易。

The event featured singers, dancers and other performers. Most of them were Alibaba employees or customers who had been selected though auditions that began months in advance.

活动的主要内容是一些歌舞和其他表演。大多数表演者是阿里巴巴的员工或客户，他们是在几个月之前开始的海选中挑选出来的。

“Nobody could ever have thought that Taobao would be successful, and nobody could ever predict the demise of Netscape, ” Mr. Ma said. “A lot of people don’t like changes…but I’m grateful for this era of change.”

马云说，谁都没有想到淘宝会起来，谁都没想到netscape会倒下，很多人不喜欢改变……我感谢这个变化的时代。

When Mr. Ma announced in January that he would step down as CEO, he said that he was “no longer young for the Internet business.” During his speech Friday, he said to many employees in the audience: “I won’t be returning…I will be no use anyway because you will do a better job.”

马云1月份宣布将卸任CEO时说，对于互联网行业来说，我不再年轻。在周五的演讲中，他对台下的许多员工说，我将不会再回到阿里巴巴做CEO……因为我回来也没有用，你们会做得更好。

The three-hour-long event ended with many young Alibaba employees on stage singing and dancing to a song called “Alibaba” by Taiwanese singer Frankie Gao. The chorus part of the song went: “Alibaba is a happy youngster.”

在持续了三个小时的活动的末尾，许多年轻的阿里巴巴员工在台上一边跳舞，一边唱起了台湾歌手高凌风的歌《阿里巴巴》，这首歌的副歌部分是这么唱的：阿里巴巴是个快乐的青年。