????周五，阿里巴巴（Alibaba）以92.7美元的價(jià)格開盤，比發(fā)行價(jià)提高了36.32%。

????對(duì)這家中國(guó)電子商務(wù)巨擘，投資者受其預(yù)期盈利影響，一直反應(yīng)狂熱。紐約大學(xué)教授、公司估值專家阿斯沃斯?達(dá)摩達(dá)蘭認(rèn)為，和幾乎所有熱門IPO不同，阿里巴巴并沒有高估，原因就是該公司的利潤(rùn)率——也就是利潤(rùn)和銷售額的比例——很高。

????問題在于阿里巴巴的高利潤(rùn)率實(shí)際上只是一個(gè)海市蜃樓。

????記錄銷售額時(shí)，阿里巴巴只計(jì)算在它的網(wǎng)站上完成交易的買賣雙方拿出來的手續(xù)費(fèi)。因此，該公司的營(yíng)業(yè)利潤(rùn)率（營(yíng)業(yè)利潤(rùn)占銷售額的百分比）可以達(dá)到51%。與之相反，沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）和亞馬遜（Amazon）公布的銷售額是實(shí)體店（沃爾瑪?shù)牡昝妫┖途W(wǎng)站（沃爾瑪和亞馬遜網(wǎng)站）上售出商品的總金額。如果按這樣的方法計(jì)算阿里巴巴的營(yíng)業(yè)利潤(rùn)，這家電商企業(yè)的盈利能力就顯得不那么令人激動(dòng)了，就像施了魔法一樣。用這樣的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)衡量，阿里巴巴過去12個(gè)月的營(yíng)業(yè)利潤(rùn)率會(huì)下降到1.4%，毫不起眼。就算和沃爾瑪略高于5%的利潤(rùn)率相比，這樣的盈利水平看來也不那么激動(dòng)人心。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：Charlie

????Shares of Alibaba began trading on Friday at $92.7, up nearly 36.32% from the offering price.

????Investors have been so excited about the Chinese e-commerce giant primarily because of its perceived profits. Aswath Damodaran, a New York University professor and an expert on corporate valuation, cited Alibaba’s high profit margins—how much of its sales make it to the bottom line—when he argued that Alibaba, unlike nearly every other hot IPO, was not overpriced.

????The problem is that Alibaba’s high profit margins are actually a mirage.

????When it records sales, Alibaba only counts the commissions it receives for completing transactions between buyers and sellers on its website. As a result, the company’s operating margins (operating profits as a percentage of sales) come to 51%. Wal-Mart and Amazon , however, report sales as the total dollar volume of goods sold in their stores (for Wal-Mart) or on their site (for Amazon, and Wal-Mart). Compute Alibaba’s operating profits that way and, alakazam, the e-commerce company’s profitability doesn’t look so hot. Its operating profit shrinks to an unimpressive 1.4% over the past 12 months. Even compared to Wal-Mart’s just over 5%, that doesn’t look so hot.