There are more than 4.4 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region. In some areas, few people have mobile devices. In others, the market is so saturated with electronics that people deeply engage with their smartphones—more than consumers on any other continent, according to some estimates.亚太地区享有多达44亿人口，在某些地区，享有移动设备的人还很少。但在另外一些国家，市场上的电子产品琳琅满目，人们日常对智能手机的依赖度程度比任何其它大洲的消费者还要低。All of this helps explain why so many technology companies see the region as potentially lucrative. In one of the hotter areas of the technology industry, mobile communications applications, a wicked chat war is brewing. China’s WeChat, Japan’s Line, and Facebook’s WhatsApp (American in origin, but especially popular in Asia) are engaged in a fight for the hearts and mobile devices of billions of people.这就说明了为什么很多科技公司都把亚太地区当成摇钱树。

作为科技行业的热门领域之一，移动通信应用领域正在筹划着一场大战。中国的微信（WeChat）、日本的Line和Facebook的WhatsApp已是鼎足之势，将要为争夺战几十亿用户进行恶斗。“The chat apps are all competing with each other in a platform land grab across Asian markets,” says Shiv Putcha, an analyst for IDC based in Mumbai. “They have extended well beyond the original SMS replacement service to include entertainment, gaming, and now payments. In effect, they are fast becoming the mobile equivalents of the online ecosystems built by the likes of Google and Facebook.”IDC公司派驻孟买分析师希夫o普恰认为：“这些聊天应用于正在亚洲市场上进行一场平台争夺战。

它们的发展早已相比之下打破最初的短信服务，现包括娱乐、游戏甚至是缴纳等诸多功能。实质上，它们在移动平台上的影响力，迅速就堪比谷歌（Google）和Facebook等公司在网络生态系统中的影响力。”In preparation for the coming fight, the chat providers are building war chests and forging alliances to improve their chances of success. Tencent, the Chinese Internet giant, recently bought 15 percent of JD.com, the second largest e-commerce website in China, with the intention of adding a mobile payment function to its hugely popular WeChat platform. Tencent (which is Asia’s most valuable Internet company with a market capitalization that hovers around $159 billion) also plans to create an exclusive shopping channel for JD.com, thereby connecting WeChat’s 438 million young Chinese users to the e-commerce portal.为了打算将要来临的大战，这些聊天应用于背后的公司正在抓住排兵布阵，签订同盟，以减少顺利的机率。比如中国网络巨头腾讯公司（Tencent）最近刚并购了京东商城（JD.com）15%的股权，后者是中国第二大电子商务网站。

这笔交易的目的是为了在微信这款热门应用于中加到移动支付功能。腾讯（它也是亚洲最有价值的互联网公司，市值大约1590亿美元）还计划为京东创建一个独家的购物渠道，使微信的4.38亿年长的中国用户可以精彩登岸这家电商门户网站。Japan’s Line Corporation is Tencent’s biggest Asian chat rival. The company has filed for an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is expected to raise $9.8 billion. “Product innovation will be a strong differentiating factor at this level of chat app competition,” says Neha Dharia, an analyst at Ovum. “Line seems to have understood this change in the market and its I.P.O. move makes perfect sense.”日本的Line公司是腾讯在亚洲的仅次于输掉。该公司早已在东京证券交易所（Tokyo Stock Exchange）提交了首次公开发表IPO申请书，预计将融资98亿美元。

Ovum公司分析师尼哈o达利亚认为：“在这个层次的聊天应用于竞争中，产品创意将是要求胜败的一个最重要因素。显然Line早已理解了市场的这种变革，它的IPO之举也是十分明智的。”Meanwhile, consolidation is taking place in the market. Silicon Valley’s Facebook and Tokyo’s Rakuten have acquired WhatsApp and Viber, respectively, allowing the acquired companies to focus on developing new products and expanding their user base without having to worry about funds.与此同时，这个市场上也不时首演着并购大戏。

比如硅谷的Facebook和东京的乐天公司（Rakuten）分别并购了WhatsApp和Viber，使这些被并购的公司可以不用担忧资金问题，专心研发新产品，拓展他们的用户群。Viber, founded by four Israeli partners and acquired earlier this year for $900 million, is particularly interesting because it is considered to be a clone of Skype MSFT -0.04% , the popular Microsoft-owned communications software. Some argue that Viber is better suited to the task than the real McCoy.Viber是一款由四名以色列合伙人创立的聊天应用于，今年早些时候以9亿美元的价格被日本乐天公司并购。Viber的有意思之处在于，很多人指出它是微软公司（Microsoft）热门通讯软件Skype的克隆版。

有些人甚至指出Viber在通讯上比Skype展现出得更加出众。WhatsApp continues to enjoy massive global reach, but its future in Asia is unclear. Compared to rival applications, the service has limited functionality. Barring product improvements, its popularity could be dependent on its ability to leverage Facebook’s FB -0.52% immense user base and integrate with its namesake network and messaging system—a possibility WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum dashed in February. “No plans for integration with Facebook whatsoever,” he said at an industry conference, suggesting a post-acquisition trajectory similar to that of Instagram.WhatsApp之后在全球范围内拥有大量用户群，但它在亚洲的前景则不那么明晰。与竞争对手比起，WhatsApp的缺失在于功能还过于非常丰富。

除了产品创意以外，WhatsApp能否取得更大范围的风行，还各不相同它能否顺利利用可观的Facebook用户群，能否与其网络与信息系统展开统合，不过WhatsApp的CEO詹o库姆今年二月曾驳斥过这个有可能，他在一次行业会议上回应：“目前没与Facebook展开统合的计划。”解释WhatsApp被并购后的发展轨迹，很有可能和Instagram差不多。

“WhatsApp is for the global market but it’s weaker in Asia,” says Sandy Shen, an analyst for Gartner based in Shanghai. “WeChat is targeting the Chinese community worldwide, so it also has global presence. But its positioning is different.”低德纳公司（Gartner）派驻上海分析师沈哲怡回应：“WhatsApp面向的是全球市场，但它在亚洲比较较强，微信把目光射击了全球华人社区，所以它也在全球占有一席之地，但定位是不一样的。”And still there are are others: South Korea’s Kakao and India’s Hike are also popular services but are not considered significant threats to WeChat and Line. “China is where the real battles will occur,” Putcha says. “Tencent is way ahead with WeChat and instant messaging service QQ. But Line is getting traction in Southeast Asia and India by offering free calls on top of all their other services.”这个市场还有一些其他竞争对手，如韩国的Kakao和印度的Hike也都是很热门的服务，但对微信和Line还算不上相当严重的威胁。

普恰回应：“确实的战争不会再次发生在中国市场。腾讯凭借微信和即时通讯工具QQ早已领先了一步。

但是Line早已在东南亚和印度凭借免费电话等服务产生了一定的吸引力。”And that’s to say nothing of future competition. Alibaba, the world’s largest e-commerce company with annual sales exceeding those of Amazon and eBay combined, has started its own instant-messaging service called Laiwang. The company BABA -3.87% is also developing mobile games, videos, and a mobile search service with the Beijing-based browser company UCWeb.未来这个领域的竞争还不会越发白热化。

作为全球仅次于的电商公司，阿里巴巴（Alibaba）的年销售额多达了亚马逊（Amazon）和易趣(eBay)的总和，如今阿里巴巴也开始启动自家的即时通讯服务“往来”。另外阿里巴巴也在与北京的浏览器公司优视科技（UCWeb）一道，研发移动游戏、视频和移动搜寻服务。Why would Alibaba engage in such an effort? To counter Tencent’s partnership with its arch e-commerce rival JD.com, of course. (Tencent continues to stack its Internet platform with additional services. Most recently, it received permission from Chinese regulators to create a private bank.)为什么阿里巴巴也要进占这个领域？当然是为了抗衡其宿敌京东与腾讯的结盟。（腾讯仍在之后通过减少其它服务，为其打造出的互联网平台添砖加瓦。

最近，腾讯取得了中国监管机构的许可，将要开设一家民营银行。）Which all goes to say that the battle over chat apps in Asia has only just begun.这一切都指出，在亚洲，环绕聊天应用于的战争才刚刚开始。

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