Business Channel 2007-07-21&07-22, 中国股市膨胀

Script:
am Jim Ledbetter with CNN Money, I am here with Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick. Today, we are gonna talk about the phenomenal rise in Chinese Internet Stocks. David, welcome.

Okay, let’s go.

Just in a matter of a week, ten days' time, some of the big players in China like Sohu and Baidu have seen their stocks go up 9%, 15%. What’s behind these phenomenal rises?

There are just, there is just huge innovation in China, there is unbelievable hunger for success by some very creative entrepreneurs. The government is 100 percent behind it which makes all the difference in China. And the audience is there, I mean, I am not, I am not sure what the exact number in China is, but estimates are 120 to 140 million PCs in China, a very large percentage of the Chinese population doesn’t even use their own PC, they use Internet cafes to go on the Internet. I am sure that you are in the 2 to 3 hundred million minimum population on the Chinese internet, and albeit¹ their reven(ue), their, their, their income is not what, what we would consider high by American Standards. But their purchasing power is growing very rapidly. The advertising² market in China for the internet is exploding. So, it’s, it’s, it's really a kind of like the next bubble in a way or it’s, it’s, the enthusiasm for the Chinese internet is kind of at the place where the American internet was in 1998, 99. I would say.

You mentioned that the government is behind this 100 percent, which is really interesting because for so many years, we’ve heard that the Chinese government perceive the internet as a threat, that they censor³ people who were looking at Falungong, or looking at, (they do) you know issues about Taiwan or issues about the Dalai Lama. Um, well, how can they, how can they square that circle, how can they be in favor of the internet growth as a business but, but still be afraid of it as, as a political device?

I think the way they are managing it is that the companies don’t want to alienate⁴ the government and they are basically telling a line. In fact, there is extensive communication, pretty much at all times, between all the major Chinese internet companies and the government, and they don’t even have to really take orders from the government. They have internalized this sufficiently⁵ that they know where the lines are. And I will tell you something else; the ordinary Chinese person doesn’t really care to read about the Falungong or the Dalai Lama. I am sorry to say that, but I really don’t think they, they do. The average Chinese internet surfer takes the view that their information access is so much greater than it ever was without the internet that even if they can’t see everything, they are way better than they were when all they had were government-sponsored newspapers that were much more censored⁶ frankly⁷ than the internet could ever be.

Right, you used the comparison of America in 98, 99, which suggests that it could be in a situation with a bubble.

Their, their stocks are at huge multiples right now. Um, but that’s also a function of the Chinese stock market in general. The Chinese stock market is in a bubble by many opinions, and you know, had a pickup⁸ a couple of weeks ago, and dropped like 5% in a day as I recall. And the internet companies are leading a lot of the markets there. So in that way, it is kind of like the late 90s. I think though when you have an economy that is growing 11% year over year which I don’t believe any country in the world has ever done before. And it’s an economy of that scale, you know, maybe you can sustain some pretty high PEs for quite a while because there is just so damn much economic activity.

OK, great. Thanks.

Notes:
PE:The P/E ratio (price-to-earnings⁹ ratio) of a stock (also called its "earnings multiple", or simply "multiple", "P/E", or "PE") is a measure of the price paid for a share relative to the income or profit earned by the firm per share. A higher P/E ratio means that investors¹⁰ are paying more for each unit of income.

1 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

2 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

3 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

4 alienate   

vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等)

参考例句：

• His attempts to alienate the two friends failed because they had complete faith.他离间那两个朋友的企图失败了，因为他们彼此完全信任。
• We'd better not alienate ourselves from the colleagues.我们最好还是不要与同事们疏远。

5 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

6 censored   

受审查的，被删剪的

参考例句：

• The news reports had been heavily censored . 这些新闻报道已被大幅删剪。
• The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. 有军方撑腰的政府对新闻进行了严格审查。

7 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

8 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

9 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

10 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会