独辟蹊径的百视通France shops in Shanghai for low-cost internet television technology

Standing in a room full of television screens, Li Huaiyu is proud of finding his niche in the digital world.

站在一间布满电视屏幕的房间里，百视通(BesTV)首席执行官李怀宇对于能够在数字世界中找到自己的利基市场颇感自豪。

BesTV, the company he heads, has developed technology that allows programmes streamed over the internet to be shown on a simple household television set without the need for a personal computer.

他所掌管的这家总部位于上海的公司开发出了一项技术，能够使电视节目通过互联网上的流式传输、在一台普通家用电视机上播放，无需借助个人电脑。

Though the Shanghai-based company’s idea is not unique, industry experts are so impressed with the technology that in 2009 France Telecom paid €1m in royalties for the right to try out BesTV’s set-top boxes in France. If a commercial launch follows, payments to the Chinese company will mushroom.

虽然该公司的这一想法并非独树一帜，但此项技术却给业内专家留下了极为深刻的印象——2009年，法国电信(France Telecom)支付了100万欧元专利使用费，获得了在法国试推百视通机顶盒的权利。如果随后进行商业推广，法国电信还将向百视通支付天价的费用。

“We are pioneers in this technology,” says Mr Li, BesTV’s chief executive. “But this is not complex technology that needs a lot of time to develop like Google’s search engine. This is simple technology which works well.”

李怀宇表示：“在该技术领域，我们是先驱者。不过，它并不是一项多么复杂的技术，不像谷歌(Google)的搜索引擎那样，需要花费大量时间来开发。它是一项简单实用的技术。”

BesTV was formed last year as a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group, the second largest media group in China by revenue. It specialises in internet protocol television transmission – distributing channels through the internet. Its main competitors are fast-growing Chinese internet companies, including Baidu and Tencent, the internet portals, and Youku and Tudou, which specialise in online video.

百视通于去年成立，母公司是中国营收位居次席的传媒集团——上海文广新闻传媒集团（SMG，现改名为上海东方传媒集团）。该公司专注于IP电视(IPTV)播送业务，即通过互联网发送电视节目。它的主要竞争对手是那些增长迅猛的中国互联网公司，包括互联网门户网站百度(Baidu)和腾讯(Tencent)，以及专注于在线视频业务的网站优酷网(Youku)和土豆网(Tudou)。

Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA, a Beijing management consultancy, says competition in internet services is intense: “It’s becoming like [New York]. It’s here before it’s here. The Chinese are always hungry for the next new thing.”

北京管理咨询公司BDA的董事总经理邓肯•克拉克(Duncan Clark)表示，互联网服务领域的竞争非常激烈：“这儿的氛围开始变得像[纽约]一样，你会有种似曾相识的感觉。中国人总是对新事物充满期待。”

BesTV operates through a $30 set-top box, making it more affordable than services offered by internet-based rivals whose customers need a PC.

百视通通过单价30美元的机顶盒发送电视节目，这样，它所提供的服务价格，就比那些基于互联网的竞争对手提供的服务更低廉，因为后者的用户若想收看节目，首先得有台个人电脑。

But as Peter Li, the US-trained finance director (no relation to the chief executive), says, cost is not the only advantage. Watching internet-streamed programmes on a big television screen rather than on a PC makes it a “family or group activity”.

不过，正如百视通首席财务官、美国留学归来的李川（Peter Li，与李怀宇并非亲戚）所言，成本并非该公司唯一的优势。在巨大的电视屏幕上收看流媒体节目，要比在个人电脑上收看节目更像是一种“家庭或团队活动”。

BesTV also offers a range of facilities including recording programmes and playing them later, video on demand, and capacity for up to 10,000 channels.

百视通还提供一系列辅助功能，包括录制和回看节目、视频点播以及多达1万个频道的节目容量。

With sales growing fast, the company has about 4m subscribers in China, 25 per cent of them in Shanghai, each paying about Rmb30 monthly. With the French deal in the bag, BesTV is negotiating possible technology-sharing agreements in Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. Peter Li says: “We co-operate in technology. We also plan to use these arrangements to distribute Chinese content around the world.”

在销售额快速增长的同时，百视通在中国已拥有约400万付费用户，其中25%位于上海，每位用户每月付费约30元人民币。在把与法国电信的交易纳入囊中后，百视通正在越南、马来西亚和新加坡洽谈潜在的技术共享协议。李川表示：“我们不仅在技术领域展开合作，还计划利用这些协议，把中文节目发送到全球各地。”