China is a country with lots of people and a fast-growing economy. In the mid-2000s, after China joined the World Trade Organisation, this argument was usually sufficient to justify buying shares in any company doing business there. In many sectors the market became crowded. For foreign entrants, the reality of challenging logistics in a vast and heterogeneous country bit into margins. Retail businesses, in particular, found that Chinese streets were not paved with gold.

中国是个人口众多、经济飞速发展的国家。在中国加入世贸组织(WTO)之后的2005年前后，这个理由通常足以支持购买任何在中国经营的公司的股票。在许多行业，市场变得很拥挤。在这个幅员辽阔、地区差异巨大的国家里，具有挑战性的物流现实降低了外来者的利润。特别是零售企业发现，中国的街道并非铺满黄金。

But in certain sectors, the hackneyed line may still hold true. China has rapidly adopted mobile telephony. Of the country’s 1.2bn mobile phone subscribers, more than half a billion now have smartphones. By July this year, mobile internet users had surpassed desktop surfers for the first time.

但在某些行业，这个陈词滥调的理由或许仍然成立。中国已快速普及了移动电话。在该国12亿手机用户中，目前逾5亿人拥有了智能电话。到今年7月，移动互联网用户已首次超过桌面上网用户。

These people are not just looking for directions. According to the China Internet Network Information Centre, two-fifths of mobile internet users have become accustomed to making purchases on the hoof. In the first half of 2014, the number of mobile shoppers grew at 40 per cent half on half, more than four times the rate of the overall online shopping community.

这些人并不仅仅在找路。中国互联网络信息中心(CNNIC)数据显示，五分之二的手机互联网用户已习惯于即兴购物。2014年上半年，通过手机上网购物的人数增长40%，为在线购物总人数增速的4倍。

An attractive and increasingly competitive market. On Friday, Dalian Wanda, the property and leisure conglomerate, confirmed the launch of an ecommerce joint venture with internet portal Tencent and search engine Baidu. It will target the offline-to-online market, where shops push products to nearby shoppers through their mobile phones.

这是一个颇具吸引力、竞争日益激烈的市场。上周五，房地产与娱乐企业集团万达集团(Wanda)证实，其将联手互联网门户腾讯(Tencent)和搜索引擎百度(Baidu)成立一家合资电子商务公司。新公司将瞄准线上到线下(O2O)市场。在O2O市场上，商家把商品信息推送至附近购物者的手机上。

It is an area in which the partners may have an edge. Although Alibaba dominates sales over the internet, its mobile monthly active users are only 188m. Tencent claims half a billion on its QQ smart platform, which also enables mobile payments. Its messaging platforms Weixin and WeChat have more than 400m MAU. Since the second quarter this year, Tencent has held a 15 per cent stake in JD.com, number two to Alibaba in the business-to-consumer space.

在O2O领域，上述三家合作公司或许拥有优势。虽然阿里巴巴(Alibaba)主宰着网上购物市场，但其手机端月活跃用户(MAU)目前仅为1.88亿。腾讯声称，其QQ智能平台上的月活跃用户达到5亿，该平台也支持移动支付。腾讯的通迅平台微信国内版(Weixin)和国际板(WeChat)的月活跃用户已超过4亿。自今年第2季度以来，腾讯持有京东(JD.com) 15%的股权。京东是企业对消费者(B2C)领域仅次于阿里巴巴的第二大企业。

Alibaba is formidable all the same. Its second-quarter mobile sales jumped 10-fold year on year and now account for one-third of its total sales. But in a market accustomed to rapid change, and where shoppers know no loyalty, Alibaba’s dominance is far from assured.

尽管如此，阿里巴巴仍然十分强大。今年第2季度，其手机端销售额同比增长了9倍，目前占到总体销售额的三分之一。但在一个习惯快速变化、购物者没有忠诚度的市场，阿里巴巴的主导地位说不上高枕无忧。