China's Internet giants are engaged in a furious land grab. For investors, it is better to own the land than the grabber.

中国几家互联网巨头正在展开激烈的地盘争夺战。但对于投资者来说，最好是投资那些专门领域内的中小型公司，而不是抢地盘的巨头们。

Until recently, the three giants had been mostly content to expand on their own turf: Alibaba Group Holding in e-commerce, Baidu in search and Tencent Holdings in games and messaging. Now, a flurry of deal making--five significant acquisitions this month alone--has the trio stomping all over each other's turf and beyond China. Alibaba's planned $15 billion initial public offering in New York has heightened investor attention.

直到最近，三家巨头都是主要满足于扩充自己原本的地盘：阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group Holding)的电子商务，百度(Baidu)的搜索以及腾讯(Tencent Holdings)的游戏和消息工具。现在，一大批交易（仅仅这个月就有五起大规模收购）让这三大巨头涉入了彼此的势力范围，并扩大到中国以外地区。阿里巴巴计划于纽约进行的规模150亿美元首次公开募股(IPO)极大地吸引了投资者的注意力。

Tencent has taken the fight to Alibaba with an investment in JD.com, a direct rival in online retail. Tencent's investment in second-place search engine Sogou, owned by Sohu.com, is a direct attack on Baidu. Alibaba's stake in Sina's Twitter-like Weibo is aimed at Tencent's messaging prowess.

腾讯通过投资京东商城(JD.com)向阿里巴巴宣战，京东商城是阿里巴巴在网络零售方面的直接竞争对手。腾讯投资于搜狗(Sogou)，则是对百度的直接攻击。搜狗是搜狐(Sohu.com)旗下搜索引擎，在中国排名第二。阿里巴巴持股新浪(Sina)旗下类似推特(Twitter)的微博(Weibo)则是针对腾讯强劲的即时消息服务。

The battle has spilled abroad, with Alibaba and Tencent both investing in U.S.-based chat startups, and Tencent investing in a Korean gaming company. Tencent's WeChat also is working to develop an audience overseas to challenge Facebook's WhatsApp and others.

竞争还蔓延到了国外，阿里巴巴和腾讯双双投资美国的聊天初创公司，腾讯还投资了一家韩国游戏公司。腾讯旗下的微信(WeChat)还致力于在海外发展用户，挑战Facebook旗下的WhatsApp和其他即时消息服务。

Foreign players such as Facebook and Twitter are boxed out by Beijing. And Google withdrew in 2010. This has created a hothouse in which the largest domestic players hold even more sway. The small guys have little choice but to choose sides.

Facebook和推特等外国竞争对手在中国被屏蔽。谷歌(Google)也于2010年退出中国。这样一来就为中国国内几家网络巨头创造了条件，让它们得以占据更大的统治地位。小一些的企业别无选择，只能选择投靠哪边。

Since the start of 2013, Baidu has spent more than $2.4 billion on acquisitions, Alibaba over $1.9 billion and Tencent at least $1.3 billion, not counting the value of two businesses it traded to JD.

自2013年初以来，百度已经斥资逾24亿美元用于并购，阿里巴巴则斥资超过19亿美元，腾讯至少为13亿美元（不包括其并入京东的两项业务的价值）。

The deals aren't huge yet, especially relative to the size of the acquirers. But as the frenzy continues and competition intensifies, heavy spending on marketing and promotions is eroding profitability.

这些交易的规模都还不算大，尤其是相对于进行收购的这些公司本身规模而言。但随着这股狂热持续，以及竞争加剧，在营销和宣传方面的大笔开支将会侵蚀盈利能力。

Operating margin at Tencent fell to 28% in the fourth quarter of 2013 from 39% two years earlier. Baidu's margin fell to 28% from 51% over the same period, and the company warned investors not to expect any profit growth this year despite rapidly rising revenue.

腾讯2013年第四季度运营利润率下降至28%，两年前为39%。百度利润率同期从51%下降为28%，而且还警告投资者说，尽管今年收入迅速增长，但利润预计不会增长。

In this environment, potential acquisition targets may prove better investments. A few publicly listed companies are now conspicuous for their lack of affiliation with any of the major players.

在这种环境下，可能成为被收购对象的企业也许会提供更好的投资机会。目前，一些还没有附属于任何一家互联网巨头的上市企业值得关注。

Following Tencent's investment in Leju, the online unit of Chinese real-estate broker E-House (China) Holdings, it wouldn't be surprising to see a rivals take an interest in much larger Internet real-estate site Soufun Holdings, which has dominant market share in online-property advertising.

在腾讯投资中国房地产中介易居（中国）控股有限公司(E-House (China) Holdings Ltd.)的互联网子公司乐居(Leju)之后，如果它的竞争对手有意入股大得多的房地产网站搜房网(Soufun Holdings)，也不会令人感到惊讶。搜房网在互联网地产广告领域占据主导地位。

Each of the big three now competes in online video, and Alibaba this month acquired a controlling stake in ChinaVision Media Group, a film studio that can help provide content. Stand-alone site Youku Tudou is wrestling with Baidu's video for the top spot by monthly users. Youku is money-losing due to the high cost of content, but its video library could be a valuable resource for one of the big three.

上述三家巨头也在网上视频领域展开了竞争。阿里巴巴本月收购了文化中国传播集团有限公司(ChinaVision Media Group Ltd.)的控股股权，这是一家能帮助提供网络视频的电影工作室。独立视频网站优酷土豆(Youku Tudou)正在和百度旗下视频业务争夺月度用户访问量第一的宝座。由于内容制作成本高昂，优酷土豆目前处在亏损中，但其视频资料对于三大巨头中的某一家来说可能是一种有价值的资源。

Travel is another hot spot. Baidu has a majority interest in bookings site Qunar Cayman Islands, while Tencent holds a minority stake in rival eLong. But Ctrip.com International, the largest travel site by revenue, is independent.

旅行网站是另外一个争夺热点。百度在预定网站去哪儿网(Qunar Cayman Islands)拥有多数权益，而腾讯控股持有艺龙网(eLong)的少数股权。但以收入计最大的旅行网站携程旅行网(Ctrip.com International Ltd.)是一家独立的公司。

These companies range from market values of $4.5 billion for Youku to $6.1 billion for Ctrip, so deals for minority stakes would likely be in the same range as recent ones.

这些公司的市值介于45亿美元（优酷土豆）和61亿美元（携程）之间，因此收购少数股权的交易可能和最近的收购交易规模处于相同的范围。

The biggest stand-alone player, with a market value of $11.4 billion, is Qihoo 360 Technology. It provides security software and operates China's third-largest search engine behind Baidu and Sogou, now part-owned by Tencent. A strategic alliance with a bigger player is possible, perhaps cemented by the sale of a stake in one of its units.

独立于三大巨头的最大的互联网公司是奇虎360科技有限公司(Qihoo 360 Technology Co.)，这家公司的市值为114亿美元。该公司提供安全软件，并拥有位于百度和搜狗之后中国第三大搜索引擎。腾讯持有搜狗部分股权。奇虎360有可能和更大的公司结成战略联盟，也许通过出售子公司部分股权的形式实现。

The big three are well positioned to capture users and traffic on China's Internet. But as they compete to scoop up minnows, investors might want to look beyond the hunters to the prey.

这大三巨头已经为吸引中国互联网用户和流量做好了准备。但在他们竞相大鱼吃小鱼的时候，投资者可以将目光越过捕猎者去关注一下那些猎物。