张一鸣与TikTok：中国跨境电商的全球化挑战与文化冲突

张一鸣与TikTok：中国跨境电商的全球化挑战与文化冲突

Zhang Yiming and TikTok: The Globalization Challenges and Cultural Conflicts of China's Cross-border E-commerce

张一鸣的公司到底叫什么？ 这个看似简单的问题，对于许多不熟悉互联网公司发展历程的人而言，似乎回答起来很困难。年轻人的回答很可能是"抖音"；国内互联网用户口中，也许"今日头条"是一个更熟悉的答案。稍微关心资本动向的人眼中，"字节跳动"可能是标准答案（尽管这个答案已经过时）。如果要给这个问题一个最确切的回答，这个答案毫无疑问是，"TikTok"。

What is Zhang Yiming's company called? This seemingly simple question is actually difficult to answer for many people unfamiliar with the development history of internet companies. Young people might say "Douyin"; domestic internet users might be more familiar with "Jinri Toutiao". Those who follow capital trends might say "ByteDance" (though this answer is already outdated). The most accurate answer to this question is undoubtedly "TikTok".

今天，TikTok这个取材于2009年一首英文歌曲歌词的App，全球月活峰值破12亿，每天使用的用户在全球范围内超过10亿人。在资本市场，它在社交内容、跨境领域的崛起，让作为"母公司"存在的字节跳动估值翻了36倍；更关键的是，在中国互联网发展的历程中，它的成功意味着内容平台第一次深入全球市场，并不断地向后者输出中国的电商观念，树立了中国企业到全球做生意的新典范。

Today, TikTok, an app named after lyrics from a 2009 English song, has reached a peak of 1.2 billion monthly active users globally, with over 1 billion daily users worldwide. In the capital market, its rise in social content and cross-border fields has increased the valuation of its "parent company" ByteDance by 36 times; more importantly, in the history of China's internet development, its success means that a content platform has deeply penetrated the global market for the first time, continuously exporting China's e-commerce concepts and establishing a new model for Chinese companies doing business globally.

国际化战略与初期成功

Internationalization Strategy and Initial Success

2016年之后，除了当时被定为"抖音海外版"的TikTok，字节系陆续孵化了今日头条海外版News Master（后改名为Top Buzz），以及西瓜视频海外版Buzz Video。关于出海国家，今日头条首选了市场潜力巨大的美国、日本和拉美经济体。

After 2016, in addition to TikTok, which was positioned as the "overseas version of Douyin", ByteDance successively incubated News Master (later renamed Top Buzz), the overseas version of Jinri Toutiao, and Buzz Video, the overseas version of Xigua Video. For international expansion, Jinri Toutiao first targeted the U.S., Japan, and Latin American economies with huge market potential.

2020年初，疫情向全球快速蔓延，给TikTok注射了一针催化剂。"2020年3月到4月，一个双月，TikTok涨了1.1亿日活。"彼时，TikTok的估值曾经一度超过Facebook。

In early 2020, as the pandemic spread rapidly worldwide, it became a catalyst for TikTok. "From March to April 2020, TikTok gained 110 million daily active users in just two months." At that time, TikTok's valuation once surpassed Facebook's.

跨境电商的机遇与挑战

Opportunities and Challenges of Cross-border E-commerce

2020年10月，TikTok宣布和独立站SaaS服务平台Shopify达成合作关系，首先允许Shopify美国商家与TikTok打通，可直接在Shopify平台创建和运营TikTok短视频购物广告。相交于国内的"中心化"电商，TikTok从内容出发，强调营销价值，其跨境服务定位更接近于Google。

In October 2020, TikTok announced a partnership with Shopify, an independent site SaaS service platform, initially allowing U.S. Shopify merchants to integrate with TikTok and directly create and operate TikTok short video shopping ads on the Shopify platform. Compared with China's "centralized" e-commerce, TikTok starts with content, emphasizes marketing value, and its cross-border service positioning is closer to Google.

然而，估值、用户双增长的背景下，TikTok的海外电商业务却没有如想象中迎来碾压式的增长。这其中存在几个问题：海外"社交电商"的土壤和国内难以比拟；海外用户还没养成在TikTok观看内容之后下单购物的习惯；构建一个值得信任的跨境电商生态，去中心化、尚在发展初期的TikTok就显得有点鞭长莫及了。

However, despite the growth in both valuation and users, TikTok's overseas e-commerce business has not achieved the overwhelming growth as imagined. There are several problems: the "social e-commerce" environment overseas is incomparable to that in China; overseas users have not yet developed the habit of shopping after watching content on TikTok; building a trustworthy cross-border e-commerce ecosystem is beyond the reach of decentralized TikTok, which is still in its early development stage.

文化冲突与管理挑战

Cultural Conflicts and Management Challenges

2022年8月，据外媒报道，抖音国际版TikTok的中国管理团队与英国员工之间的文化冲突在短期内引发了离职潮。伦敦员工抱怨这家公司的企业文化与英国整体工作环境背道而驰："人们的关系建立在恐惧而不是合作的基础之上。他们不关心员工是否疲劳，因为公司这么大，你不干的话，很多人可以取代你。"

In August 2022, foreign media reported that cultural conflicts between TikTok's Chinese management team and British employees triggered a wave of resignations in a short period. London employees complained that the company's corporate culture ran counter to the overall working environment in the UK: "Relationships are built on fear rather than cooperation. They don't care if employees are tired because the company is so big that if you don't do it, many people can replace you."

作为一家全球化的公司，字节跳动自2015年就开始了全球化的布局。与字节跳动的产品和服务同步走向全球的是字节跳动的企业文化，也就是字节内部所谓的"字节范儿"。但是，一个尖锐的问题是——字节在打开产品眼界的时候却注定无法将企业文化与发达国家接轨。

As a global company, ByteDance began its globalization layout as early as 2015. Along with ByteDance's products and services going global is ByteDance's corporate culture, the so-called "Byte Style" internally. However, a sharp problem is that while ByteDance is expanding its product vision, it is destined to fail to align its corporate culture with developed countries.

以TikTok为代表，走向世界的字节系，正在面临最严酷的拷问：左边，是跨境电商对接世界多元文化高扬的远望；右手，则是所有中国企业的内在肌理：强烈的攻击性，把员工本身也卷入其中的狼性，是小个子企业家张一鸣留在自己记事本里的"不留空档""全面压制""砸钱扩张"。

Represented by TikTok, ByteDance going global is facing the most severe test: on the left is the lofty vision of cross-border e-commerce connecting with the world's multiculturalism; on the right is the intrinsic nature of all Chinese enterprises: strong aggressiveness, the wolf culture that involves employees themselves, and the "no gaps", "complete suppression", "spend money to expand" left by the petite entrepreneur Zhang Yiming in his notebook.