经济学人206:为股票做广告 股票时间

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　　商业报道

　　Ad space for equity¹

　　为股票做广告

　　Air for shares

　　股票时间

　　Could an unusual venture-capital model be taking off?

　　一项不同寻常的风险投资模式能够起飞吗？

　　IN AMERICA, venture capital is plentiful².

　　美国风险资金十分丰富，

　　Not so elsewhere.

　　但是并非所有地方都是这样。

　　In Europe, a handful of companies are helping³ struggling start-ups with an unusual model:

　　在欧洲，一些公司正以非同寻常的模式帮助那些挣扎的新成立的公司：

　　investing advertising⁴ space in them instead of money.

　　投资广告版面而非直接投钱。

　　Start-ups usually get their initial seed funding—a few tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars—from family or friends.

　　新成立的公司通常从家人或朋友那里获得初始的种子资金，通常是数万或数十万美元。

　　A venture-capital firm won't step in until the firm is ready to raise maybe ten times that amount.

　　只有公司筹集到了数百万的资金时，风险投资才会介入。

　　In America, intermediate sums tend to come from informal angel investors⁵,

　　在美国，过渡的资金通常来自于非正式的天使投资者，

　　typically entrepreneurs who have made a decent bit of money from their own start-ups and want to invest some in projects they like.

　　特别是由新成立的公司发家且希望投资一些中意项目的企业家。

　　But outside America's technology hubs, such people are rare.

　　但是在美国科技中心之外，这样的人少之又少。

　　However, start-ups of that size are often making their first baby steps into the market and need publicity⁶.

　　然而，这样规模的新成立的公司通常会迈着婴儿步进入市场并需要广告宣传。

　　Aggregate⁷ Media Funds, a Swedish firm started in 2002,

　　2002年成立的瑞典媒体公司媒体公基金集合了15家瑞典媒体提供的广告版面，

　　pools excess advertising space provided by 15 Swedish media companies that are shareholders⁸ in the fund,

　　并且以交换股权的形式给予新成立的公司。

　　and gives it to start-ups in return for an equity stake.

　　这15家媒体都是该基金的股东。

　　If the firms do well, they buy back the equity in cash, which goes to the shareholders, with a cut for the fund.

　　如果公司运作良好，他们就会用现金买回股权给予股东，并给基金一份利润。

　　Patrik Rosen, Aggregate's boss, says it has made some 120 investments—in both start-ups and established firms that want to advertise a new product or a stock offering—and completed around 80 exits,

　　公基金的老板帕特里克·罗森表示给公司已经做大约120笔投资，都是投在需要为新产品或发行股票的新成立的公司或已成型的公司，并完成了大概80个公司的退市，

　　though he won't disclose how much money has been made.

　　但是他并不会透露赚了多少钱。

　　Similar models have taken hold in Germany.

　　德国也兴起了同样的模式。

　　ProSiebenSat.1, a television company, has been offering other firms advertising in return for equity or revenue shares since 2009, and reported making more than 40m in the past year.

　　德国卫星电视频道ProSieben卫星一台在2009年就开始以交换股权或股份的形式为公司提供广告，去年盈利超过4千万欧元。

　　A newer fund, German Media Pool, founded a year ago, combines a range of shareholders,

　　成立于一年前的德国媒体基金像媒体公基金一样联合了一批股东。

　　as Aggregate does, so it can offer its start-ups ads anywhere from billboards⁹ to TV.

　　从广告牌到电视的任何地方，它都能够为新成立的公司投放广告。基金创始人尼科·华思车的目标是使投资者的钱翻倍。

　　So why is the model not more widespread?

　　为什么这个模式并没有更广泛的应用呢？

　　It may have a bad reputation.

　　可能是这个模式名声不好。

　　Media firms that negotiate barter¹⁰ deals directly don't always do well:

　　协商直接易货交易的媒体公司通常盈利状况不佳：

　　they tend to lack the expertise¹¹ to invest in start-ups, and the deals may not be transparent¹².

　　他们通常缺乏投资新成立的公司的专业知识，并且协议可能不透明。

　　India's largest media firm, the Times Group, which publishes papers such as the Times of India, also owns a media-for-equity firm called Brand Capital, with stakes in around 400 companies.

　　印度最大媒体公司时代集团在发行诸如印度时报之类的报纸的同时也拥有一家媒体换股权的公司，名叫品牌资金，该公司拥有大概400家公司的股份。

　　In 2009, under the name Times Private Treatie s, it got embroiled¹³ in controversy¹⁴ after India's stockmarket regulator censured¹⁵ a group of people for conspiring¹⁶ to bump up the share price of one of its portfolio¹⁷ companies, and a Times Group journalist for midwifing media coverage¹⁸.

　　2009年，该公司以时代财产转让契约的名义卷入了一场争议。这场争议源于印度股票市场管理机构严厉指责一帮人串通抬高其中一家成员企业的股价和一位时代集团记者为媒体报道推波助澜。

　　Critics say it is still hard to tell when Indian papers have financial links to firms they write about.

　　批评者称目前仍然很难确定事情根底，因为印度报纸和其报道的公司有经济联系。

　　Hence, Mr Rosen argues, the need for independent, diversified¹⁹ media funds to act as middlemen.

　　所以罗森先生主张独立多样的媒体基金作为中间人。

　　Even then, not all start-ups need ads—some are happy with social media—and many others would rather have cash instead.

　　即使是那是也不是所有新成立的公司都需要广告，有些公司乐意使用社交媒体，而许多公司宁愿获得资金。

　　Still, for some it is just what they need.

　　然而对于一些公司来说这正是他们所需要的。

　　And for the media firms, since the ads would otherwise go unfilled, any return is pure profit.

　　对于一些媒体公司来说，若不投给新成立的公司，一些广告版面也会空白，所以一切收益都是纯利润。

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