1、 外文翻译 原文 E-commence in China: culture and challenge Material Source: Author:Jeffrey Hsu The growth of e-commerce has been a global phenomenon, and the influence of business and commerce being conducted over the Internet has been dramatic and wide-reaching. The ability to conduct business, from consu
2、mer purchases to large scale B2B transactions, globally using the Internet has been far-reaching and significant (Turban et al. 2006). Certainly, China, being a major player in terms the global economy, having a large population and many Internet users, may be assumed to have a well-developed state
3、of e-commerce. However, in reality, the development of e-commerce in China has been different from, and in many ways, has lagged behind, that of the United States, Europe, and Asian countries such as Japan (Wong, Yen, and Fang 2004). What is the state of e-commerce in China? Based on previous resear
4、ch and studies conducted, Chinas e-commerce is in many respects a varied and complex situation which in some ways parallels development in the West and other parts of Asia, but in other aspects is different and unique in terms of its dynamics and usage. Since e-commerce, even if focused solely on Ch
5、ina, is such a large subject, the focus in this chapter will be mainly on B2C (business to consumer) e-commerce. There are studies which have addressed the development of B2B e-commerce in China, but that is an entire topic in itself (Hu, Wu, and Wang 2004; Andersen et al. 2004). There are a number
6、of issues which have impacted upon the acceptance, and usage, of e-commerce in China. They relate to the state of government, business practices and customs, language, culture, and a number of other variables. Business issues such as trust, logistics, payment systems, guanxi, and unique aspects of C
7、hinese culture and society all make e-commerce in China a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Particular attention is given to issues relating to the cultural aspects of Chinese culture and society which can impact not only the usage of e-commerce in general, but also, more specifically, the
8、 design and content of web sites which are directed towards Chinese audiences. Some of these issues include the basic differences between Chinese and American/Western cultures, family and collective orientations, religion and faith, color, symbolism, ordering and risk/uncertainty. This chapter will
9、focus on these issues and discuss the present, and projected future state of e-commerce in China. Based on all indications, there appears to be a bright future for e-commerce in China; however at the present time there still exist a number of issues and considerations which are hindering further gro
10、wth, deployment, and expansion. While China claims the second highest number of Internet users in the world behind the United States, those who use the Internet make up only a small portion (10% or less) of the total Chinese population. Generally, the younger, higher income, and better educated pers
11、ons, and those who reside in the major cities and coastal areas, make up the bulk of Internet users. However, there has been some progress made in terms of improving the telecommunications and communications capabilities in general, and a realization of the need to give more attention to enhancing t
12、echnology in the more remote regions of China. Many of the trends which are present in the U.S. and Europe are being seen in China, including interests in further development of B2B (business to business) e-commerce, the increased interest and availability of online auction sites (Lin and Li 2005),
13、e-tailing, and the use of newer technologies such as RFID (Davison, Vogel, and Harris 2005) and web technologies (Xu, Jiang and Ma 2005). However, the major use for the Internet by most Chinese is not so much to make purchases, but rather communications through e-mail, finding out about news and hap
14、penings, for educational purposes, and for doing research into products and services. Despite the ability for many Chinese to read and speak English, the preference is for sites which are produced in Mandarin Chinese. These sites may include China-focused portals of global brands (Yahoo!, Google), s
15、ites which are focused on China, and also locally developed and hosted sites. Improvements in infrastructure can help bring about greater availability of the Internet to a greater portion of the population in China. There have been additions and improvements made to the Internet infrastructure, to t
16、he creation of fiber-optic lines, and also a $151 billion commitment towards the creation of a national infrastructure for telecommunications. This development is a result of the Ninth National Peoples Congress, which wanted to make China a viable player in tele-communications by the year 2010. One
17、of the broad goals, overall, is to make China the IT center of the world (Quan, Hu, and Wang 2005). The advancements proposed would help to expand coverage, allow for more readily available Internet access, wireless capabilities, and bring service to previously more remote, inaccessible areas. The a
18、vailability of cell phones, even by those who do not have or use a computer, can also contribute to the demand for e-commerce. A large portion of the over 300 million cell phones being used in China have the ability to access the Web, so there is a greater market in terms of potential users, when m-
19、commerce is considered (Martinsons 2004). In fact, while some claim that China does not at this time have true e-commerce as it exists in the United States, there seems to be a strong possibility for growth in m-commerce given that cell phones have achieved greater coverage than computers in many pa
20、rts of China, and the total population, overall. Payment issues are another crucial consideration, since the low incidence and use of credit cards in China severely limit the facilitation of payments for purchases made online. Instead, less convenient means such as payment on delivery, payment at th
21、e post office, and billing through cell phones (for m-commerce transactions) are currently in use. Underlying this is the lack of an infrastructure to support a high volume of electronic credit card and other financial transactions. Shipping, logistics, and related issues also hinder online transact
22、ions, and prompt shipment of goods is not currently that easily accomplished in China. More frequently, the customer must pick up, and pay for, purchases, at local stores, for products ordered online. Only goods such as music and video CDs/DVDs and book, for example, are typically shipped to the cus
23、tomer, and this usually through the post office. A number of issues and considerations with relation to Chinese cultural and web site/e-commerce design were discussed, and clearly, there are a number of important considerations and issues which should be noted when creating a website or e-commerce s
24、ite for Chinese audiences. To start, the Chinese value the use of their own language. In China, using Mandarin Chinese implies respect and understanding of Chinese culture. Cultural traditions, while not quite as strong as in the past, still exist, and web designers need to be sensitive to the many
25、complexities of a civilization which has developed over thousands of years. These include varied considerations such as cultural traits, Confucianism, traditions, and characteristics of Chinese consumers. Business aspects are also to be considered. Chinas business environment is different, and under
26、standing the dynamics would be a useful prerequisite. The social aspects of guanxi (relationship) and its role in business is also important to understand, as is its impact upon e-commerce. In online transactions, the role of these relationships is minimized, and therefore may be considered by some
27、to be contrary to established means of conducting business. Having discussed at length about the past and current states of B2C e-commerce in China, it would be useful to look at the future of electronic commerce in this nation of over 1 billion people. While there are limitations which current exis
28、t, based on the payment, infrastructure, consumer attitudes, and the availability of the Internet to larger numbers of users; further growth and development, especially with government support, is indicating further growth and prospects in this area. As mentioned, there are forecasts for vast increa
29、ses in employment needs for electronic commerce positions over the next decade. In conclusion, marketing and selling over the Internet in China is a complex endeavor, which is gaining in popular and growing, but has been up to this moment limited by a number of factors and limitations. Over time, it
30、 is expected that these limitations can be overcome, and that the B2C e-commerce (and m-commerce) will likely be an important part of the Chinese consumers means for shopping and buying in the future. 译文 电子商务在中国：传统与挑战 资料来源 :万方数据库 作者： 杰弗里徐 电子商务的发展已经成为了一种世界性的事件，而且网络对商业已经形成了巨大的影响 。随着 全球性应用互联网的发展，从传统 贸易
31、 到大批量的 B2B 交易，电子商务对商业影响已经变得非常深远而 明显了 (Turban et al. 2006)。 当然，中国作为一个全球经济界的重要主体之一 ，拥有庞大的人口和众 多的互联网使用者，未来很可能会有非常好的 电子商务发展前景。然而，在现实中中国的电子商务发展远远 落后于美国，欧洲以及一些亚洲国家比如日本(Wong, Yen, and Fang 2004)。 中国的电子商务现状是什么？根据之前的研究和学习，中国电子商务在很多方面是平行于西方国家和一部分亚洲国家的，但是在另一些方面则是完全独特的，比如其动态 发展 过程和功能 设置 。即使仅仅只是分析中国 的电子商务 ，也已经是一
32、个非常大的课题，这个章节将会主要聚焦在 B2C 电子商务。之前已经有关于中国 B2B 电子商务发展的研究，但那个是一个完全独立 的完整的课题(Hu, Wu, and Wang 2004; Andersen et al. 2004)。 有关电子商务在中国的接受度和使用度也存在着许多讨论。这些都关系到政府、商业行为以及消费习惯、语言、文化等诸多因素。例如：诚信 、物流、支付系统、关系以及一些中国文化中独特的商业因素都使得中国的电子商务成为一个独具特色的 ，且具有挑战性和机会的商业模式 。 中国独特的文化以及一些 传统已经不仅仅是影响到电子商务影响力，更 可以极大影响到网页的内容和设计的因素 等 需
33、要被重点关注 的问题 。在这些因素中，包括了基本的中西方文化差异、家庭和集体的价值取向 问题 、 宗教和信仰问题 、色彩、象征性、 分类以及风险性是否确定等问题 。这个章节会聚焦这些因素，并且讨论当前和将来中国电子商务的发展情况。 种种迹 象表明，中国未来的电子商务发展有一个非常光明的前景，但是目前看来 ，仍然有一些关系到成长性、 结构布局 以及 扩展延伸 的一系列问题。 虽然中国拥有仅次于美国的世界第二多的互联网使用者，但这部分使用者仅仅只占中国总人口数的 10%。总体来说，这些 新兴群体的年轻人和受到 过良好教育的群体以及居住在大城市的人们，构成了互联网使用者的布局 。虽然中国已经在总体上
34、推广远程 信息化 交流系统，但是中国仍然 需要加强这些技术在偏僻地区的使用和推广。 目前在美国以及欧洲流行的趋势 也 已经在中国 市场变得 显现，包括 B2B 的长远发展，在线拍卖系统 (Lin and Li 2005)，电子零售和最新技术的应用，比如RFID(Davison, Vogel, and Harris 2005)以及互联网技术 (Xu, Jiang, and Ma 2005)。然而在中国，网络被大量的运用在通过电子邮件、寻找新闻、寻找教学教程以及产品和服务的查询，而不是通过网络购买产品。 虽然很多中国人可以读或者说英文，但是他们更喜欢中国大 陆的网站。这些网站有可能包括了世界品牌
35、(Yahoo!, Google)的入口，这些世界品牌关注中国并且 在中国建设 有本地化的网站。 基础设施的建设可以极大的增加中国使用互联网的人数。目前已经有铺设光纤以及在通讯设备的基础设施中的 1510 亿美元投资在互联网中的建设中。这些发展是第九届中国人大决定的，那一届人大决定在 2010 年之前要让中国成为远程交流的可持续性发展角色。全球性目标的其中之一则是将中国建立成世界IT 中心 (Quan, Hu and Wang 2005)。这种发展可以促进互联网的扩展、覆盖度，从而能够增 加互联网的接口、无线传输能力以及给偏远地区带来更多服务。 手机的普及为那些即使不能使用电脑的人们带来了使用电
36、子商务的机会。在中国的 3 亿手机使用者中的很大一部分可以上网，因此这里有巨大的潜在的电子商务使用者 (Martinsons 2004)。事实上，有些人说中国现在并没有像美国这样的成熟的电子商务，但是因为手机在中国的 普遍使用，使得中国具有强大的电子商务发展潜力。支付方式是另一个 关键的需要考虑的因素 之一 ，因为在中国信用卡的使用不是很普遍，限制了在线购买的便捷性。取而代之的是一些不是很便捷的支付方式比如邮寄、汇 款以及通过手机账单支付是目前正在使用的。这些落后的支付方式表明基础设施建设的缺陷，这些缺陷导致无法使用大通量的电子信用卡以及其他一些方式的资金交易。运送、物流以及相关问题也会拖累在
37、线购买。便捷的物流目前在中国也没有很好的发展。一般情况下，为了在网上下的订单，消费者需要在本地商店挑选、付款和购买。只有那些音乐和视频 CD 或者 DVD 以及一些书籍才比较经常的通过物流递送给消费者。 一些关于中国文化以及网页和电子商务的设计已经在本文被讨论，显然在为中国消费者设计的网页以及电子商务需要有很多重要的因素需要被考虑。 首先 ，中国人比较重视 使用本国 的语言。在中国，使用普通话被视为对中国文化的尊重和 精髓所在 。传统文化虽然已经没有像以前一样强烈了，但是仍然是存在的。所以网页设计者应该注意到那些已经传承了几千年的复杂的传统文化，其中包括一些文化特性、儒家文化、传统以及一些中国
38、消费者的独特性。 当然一些商务因素也需要被考虑。中国的商务环境是不一样的，了解到这其中的不同点是很有用的。一些社会关系和这种关系在商务中扮演的角色也是非常重要的。在在线交易中，这种社会关系已经被最小化了，所以可能在处理方式上会和传统的商务贸易 恰恰 相反。 已经讨论 了很多关于中国 B2C 电子商务的过去和现在的情况，现在应该展望下这个拥有 10 亿人口的国家的电子商务发展的未来。虽然目前有许多比如支付方式、基础设施的建设、消费者的态度以及网络对很多用户的普及度等的限制因素的存在， 但是这个领域未来的成长性将是非常大的，特别是在政府的支持下。 之前提到的，在接下来的 12 年中，电子商务的巨大发展空间已经可以被预见到。 总体来说，在中国通过互联网的市场和营销是非常复杂的，这种市场和营销已经开始变得流行并且开始成长，但是目前 仍有许多制约因素。随着时间的推移 ，这些制约因素是可以被克服的，而 且 B2C 电子商务（ 移动电子商务）将很有可能会成为中国消费者将来购物和消费的一个重要的部分。
