When Dave McClure, a venture capital investor from Silicon Valley, spoke at an internet entrepreneurs’ club in China last week, he had a lot of praise for his hosts.

　　上周，硅谷风险投资家戴夫?麦克卢尔(Dave McClure)在中国的一个互联网创业者俱乐部上发言时，对东道主大加赞誉。

　　“Chinese entrepreneurs are most likely smarter and more aggressive than [those] in the US,” he told the audience. “Beijing is one of the few places in the world where the pace of innovation is faster than in Silicon Valley.”

　　“中国创业者很可能比美国同行更聪明、更大胆，”他对听众表示，“北京是世界上为数不多的、创新速度超过硅谷的地方之一。”

　　But in China, the recent mood has been more sober. The death of Apple founder Steve Jobs this month triggered rounds of soul-searching over why the country lacks technology entrepreneurs as successful as Mr Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, who came up with products that changed the world.

　　但在中国，近期的舆论却比以往更为清醒。苹果(Apple)创始人史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)本月去世，激起了中国人一轮又一轮的自我反省：乔布斯和Facebook的马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)用其产品改变了世界，为什么中国缺少像这两人这么成功的技术型创业者？

　　“Chinese companies can be expected to have market valuations and business models like Apple’s within ten years but it is difficult to expect any type of Apple-like innovation,” says Lee Kaifu, the former head of Google China who, with his incubator Innovation Works, has become a guru for internet start-ups in China.

　　前谷歌中国(Google China)总裁李开复表示：“中国十年内可能会出现市场估值和商业模式与苹果相当的公司，但很难出现像苹果那种类型的创新。”凭借其创立的孵化器——创新工场(Innovation Works)，李开复已成为中国互联网初创企业的导师。

　　Although the number of Chinese internet users – now at 500m – has overtaken the population of the European Union and that growth keeps hatching new internet ventures everyday, most of these copy ideas from the US.

　　尽管中国的网民数量——目前已达5亿——已经超过了欧盟(EU)总人口，而且在这一增长势头的支撑下每天都有新的互联网公司孵化出来，但大多数中国互联网公司都是在抄袭美国同行。

　　To name the best-known examples, Baidu, China’s largest search engine by revenue, is a copy of Google, while RenRen, China’s largest real-name social network, was modelled on Facebook. China is estimated to have as many as 5,000 clones of Groupon, the US daily deals site.

　　下面举几个最著名的例子。中国营收最高的搜索引擎百度(Baidu)，就是山寨版的谷歌；而中国最大的实名社交网站人人网(Renren)，则是抄袭了Facebook。据估算，中国有多达5000家类似于美国团购网站Groupon的网站。

　　That is not because the founders lack creativity, they themselves argue. “The reason you set up a business is that you want to solve a certain problem or need you see around you,” says Gong Yu, a veteran internet entrepreneur and chief executive of Qiyi, the internet video site owned by Baidu.

　　一些中国互联网公司的创始人认为，造成这一局面的原因并不是他们自己缺少创造力。“你创立一家企业，是因为你想解决自己身边的某个问题，或者满足自己身边的某种需求，”资深互联网创业者、奇艺(Qiyi)首席执行官龚宇表示。奇艺是百度旗下一家互联网视频网站。

　　“But China’s internet is just so many years behind that of the US, so internet entrepreneurs in the US will inevitably encounter many problems and needs first.”

　　“但中国互联网比美国落后了许多年，所以美国的互联网创业者必然会领先一步发现很多问题和需求。”

　　Many Chinese web business founders agree. “It’s not about being smart but about being there first, just like gathering mushrooms,” says Wang Xing, founder and chief executive of Meituan, one of China’s first Groupon copies and the country’s most prolific internet business closer.

　　多位中国互联网公司的创始人都同意龚宇的观点。美团网(Meituan)创始人、首席执行官王兴表示，“这件事与谁更聪明无关，而是与谁先发现有关，就像是采蘑菇。”美团网是首批抄袭Groupon的中国网站之一。王兴则是中国最多产的互联网业务克隆者。

　　Mr Wang has been billed “the Mark Zuckerberg of China”, mainly because he followed Facebook, founded in 2004, with what is now RenRen, a similar site launched in 2005 as Xiaonei, or On Campus. Less than a year later, he sold that business for less than $4m to Oak Pacific Interactive, the company which took it public this year. RenRen is now valued at $2.25bn.

　　王兴被宣传为“中国的马克·扎克伯格”，主要原因是他以创立于2004年的Facebook为蓝本，在2005年成立了类似的网站校内网(Xiaonei)。成立还不到一年，王兴就把校内网卖给了千橡互动(Oak Pacific Interactive)。校内网后更名为人人网，并已于今年上市。如今，人人网的市值达到22.5亿美元。

　　“I studied computer networks, therefore I have an understanding for social networks, it’s the same pattern,” he says. But when he made that connection, Friendster and Facebook were already there.

　　王兴表示，“我是学计算机网络的，所以我对社交网络有所认识，二者的模式是相同的。”但当他在二者之间建立起联系时，Friendster和Facebook已然创立了。

　　Mr Wang is not apologetic. He believes that Chinese consumers are not yet mature enough in terms of income and tastes to need revolutionary new internet products.

　　王兴并不是在辩解什么。他认为，中国消费者在收入和品位方面尚不够成熟，暂不需要革命性的互联网新产品。

　　“When consumption develops, there are three phases,” he says. “The first is focused on quantity, providing enough to meet demand, the second on securing product quality, and only during the third will people start developing tastes. On the internet in China, we’re still very much in the second phase.”

　　“消费的发展有三个阶段，”他表示。“第一阶段关注数量，提供足够数量以满足需求；第二阶段关注保障产品质量；只有到了第三阶段，人们才开始追求品位。中国的互联网业，在很大程度上仍处于第二阶段。”

　　Experts observe that, given China’s vast market, it is natural to exploit easy business opportunities first. “In the US, entrepreneurs have to be innovative to find market opportunity,” says Mr McClure. “If you live in a country with a population of 1.3bn and you see an idea that works, it would be foolish not to copy.”

　　专家认为，考虑到中国巨大的市场规模，首先抓住一些简单的商机是理所当然的。“在美国，创业者们必须依靠创新才能发掘市场机遇，”麦克卢尔表示。“如果你身处一个有13亿人口的国家，那么看到一个管用的想法而不去模仿就太愚蠢了。”

　　This extremely pragmatic mindset is a common trait among most Chinese internet entrepreneurs. “Many start-up founders in the US start out with a technological idea they want to realise, and don’t worry about money until much later,” says Chen Tao, a partner for China at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

　　就大多数中国互联网创业者而言，这种极端实用主义的思路是他们的一个共同特征。罗兰贝格管理咨询有限公司(Roland Berger Strategy Consultants)大中华区合伙人陈涛表示：“在美国，许多初创企业的创始人在起步时关注的都是一个希望实现的技术构想，直到很久以后才开始考虑赚钱的问题。”

　　“In China, it’s the other way round. Monetisation comes first, innovation comes later.”

　　“在中国，正好反过来。赚钱第一，创新先靠边儿站。”

　　The biographies of many Chinese internet entrepreneurs reflect this more conservative outlook. Very few are university dropouts like many of their US counterparts. Most have much more industry experience before they start their own business than their American peers.

　　很多中国互联网创业者的履历都反映出这一更为保守的态度。像美国同行那样在大学就辍学的创业者少之又少。大多数人在创业之前，都拥有比美国同行丰富得多的从业经历。

　　Robin Li worked as a software engineer for a division of Dow Jones and for Infoseek, an early US web search engine, before setting up Baidu in 2000. Jack Ma lectured at university on international trade and headed an IT company set up by a unit of the foreign trade ministry before he founded Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company by revenue, users and transaction value in 1999.

　　李彦宏(Robin Li) 2000年创立百度前，曾先后在道琼斯(Dow Jones)的一个部门和Infoseek担任软件工程师。Infoseek是美国一家早期的网络搜索引擎公司。马云(Jack Ma) 1999年创立阿里巴巴(Alibaba)之前，曾在大学里教授国际贸易课，还担任过外经贸部下属一家IT公司的负责人。按营收、用户数和交易额衡量，阿里巴巴是中国最大的电子商务公司。

　　At Qiyi, Mr Gong’s background is similar. “Although I knew already in university that I very much wanted to set up a business, I didn’t feel ready,” he recalls. So he first went to work as a software development and maintenance engineer at Itochu, the Japanese trading company, and later helped set up the China unit for a company founded by a friend in the US before he dared to start his first own venture, the online portal focus.cn.

　　奇艺的龚宇也有着相似的背景。他回忆说：“尽管上大学时我就清楚自己很想创业，但那时我感觉还没准备好。”他先到日本贸易公司伊藤忠商事株式会社(Itochu)作软件开发和维护工程师，又帮助一位朋友在美国创立的公司建立起中国分部，之后他才敢于自己创业，成立了在线门户焦点网(focus.cn)。

　　“On the first day, the office was completely empty – it was just me,” he says, recalling how unfamiliar and slightly fearful he felt.

　　“第一天时，办公室里空荡荡的，只有我一个人，”他在回忆当时的不习惯和略感害怕的心情时表示。

　　There was no long tradition of entrepreneurship in the People’s Republic of China when the country’s first internet companies were set up. Capitalism was new, and the internet even newer. The resulting caution can be seen among the investors who back the sector, as well as its entrepreneurs.

　　中国第一批互联网公司成立时，这个国家并没有很长时间的创业传统。资本主义是新事物，互联网甚至更新。由此造就的谨慎心理，不但在创业者当中可以看到，在支撑互联网行业的投资人当中也可以看到。

　　Lei Jun, China’s most prominent homegrown angel investor, only backs the companies of friends or friends of friends, and prefers serial entrepreneurs because the chances of success increase over time. Mr Lei has invested in less than 20 companies such as Vancl, an online clothing retailer, and Keniu, a security software maker.

　　作为中国最著名的本土天使投资人，雷军只投资朋友的公司或朋友的朋友的公司，而且更青睐连续创业者（指不断想出新点子并创立新公司的创业者）——因为从事创业的时间越长，成功的机率越大。雷军只投资了不到20家公司，其中包括在线服装零售商凡客诚品(Vancl)和安全软件生产商可牛(Keniu).

　　But foreign venture capitalists and stock market investors, a far larger source of funding for Chinese technology start-ups, follow similar principles. The rise of the thousands of Groupon clones in China has been fuelled by a wave of venture capital money from the US.

　　但是，外国风险投资人和股市投资者（他们为中国科技初创企业提供的资本比中国本土投资人多得多）也在遵循同样的原则。中国上千家Groupon克隆网站的兴起，正是在一波美国风险投资资金的助推下实现的。

　　Benjamin Joffe, chief executive of Plus Eight Star, a digital strategy consultancy, says: “Investors love to recognise something they know.”

　　数字行业战略咨询公司Plus Eight Star的首席执行官本杰明·约费(Benjamin Joffe)表示：“投资者喜欢赏识他们了解的项目。”