Companies and Enterprises

[roddy]

Is there any difference between 公司 and 企业？ And what is it? Using enterprise all the time sounds wrong in English, it usually refers to new, perhaps risky, businesses. I think.

Roddy

[39degN]

IMHO 公司=company, or inc. 企业=enterprise 生意=business

and here are some others maybe help

风险投资=venture capital or risk capital

(sometimes venture capital translated as 创业投资)

基金=fund

sure in an informal conversation, you can just translate 我开一(个)小公司 as i m running a small business(help this translation is not chinglish. )

[roddy]

Is there any difference between 公司 and 企业？

[39degN]

as a native speaker, i feel 企业is a little bit old use, meantime, we usually say 企业 when 泛指公司的时候

e.g.

你在哪种企业上班？（国企state-owned，私企private-owned，外企foreign，合资joint venture）

what kind of enterprises

你在哪个公司上班？

which one

i would add another example later...

[39degN]

a little busy, i will be back tonight! if there still something u didnt get it, pls feel free to post

[roddy]

Is there any difference between 公司 and 企业？

[smithsgj]

企業 can be used in a non-count way to represent business or commerce (or even enterprise) generally.

Presumably it also has the other sense of English "enterprise": a company or partnership or sole trader or whatever.

公司 only has the specific usage.

[skylee]

I would say 公司 can be companies of any sizes, whereas 企業 are big ones, corporations, enterprises, conglomerates, etc.

[smithsgj]

But where 企業 has that specific meaning, I'd translate it as company. Or if it's part of the company name -- just leave it out!

[Quest]

IMO

Yes there is a difference, and the difference is subtle and insignificant.

公司 is often (not always) a uni-purpose company.

企業 could be a chain of companies under the same ownership (vertical integration), or as broad as to include the whole industry, or cross industries.

They are often interchangeable. To the average person it's always 公司 公司 公司. Between company CEOs, it would be 企業 企業 企業. Obviously, 企業 is a more sophisticated term, and it "broadens" one's business size.

Rule of thumb: if they say they are a 企業 then you refer to them as a 企業. If they tell you they are a 公司 then they are a 公司.

[Ole]

Is there any difference between 公司 and 企业？ And what is it? Using enterprise all the time sounds wrong in English' date=' it usually refers to new, perhaps risky, businesses. I think.

Roddy[/quote']

There is a nice tool to get the sometimes subtle differences of the

word senses:

Try:

http://bow.sinica.edu.tw/wn/index.html

Niels-Ole Sass

[39degN]

Is there any difference between 公司 and 企业？ And what is it? Using enterprise all the time sounds wrong in English' date=' it usually refers to new, perhaps risky, businesses. I think.

Roddy[/quote']

There is a nice tool to get the sometimes subtle differences of the

word senses:

Try:

http://bow.sinica.edu.tw/wn/index.html

Niels-Ole Sass

yeah, it made a sense i think!

[geek_frappa]

good link! opened my eyes to a whole new web of dictionaries.

unfortunately, i'm spending all night working through my corrupted databases... the good news is that i am drinking a good cup of jasimine tea with rose petals.

thank you for the link.

[xoyopai]

it's very hard to figure them, especially in Law.

Here are some site. I hope them can help you.

合伙企业与公司制企业有哪些异同？

http://www.ceilaw.com.cn/pls/ceilaw/cei.syzw_query?inzh=6&inflm=10003

个体或独资企业, 合伙企业、非公司制企业法人和公司

http://www.91abc.com/ktt4.html

个体企业与公司有什么区别

个体企业通常是个人出资，有限责任公司要求至少有两名以上股东（50名以下），两者最主要的区别在于有限责任公司在办理营业执照之前需要验资，且负有有限的连带责任，如果公司倒闭或破产，股东只负有注册资金部分的连带责任，而个体企业则是负有无限的连带责任。

Sorry, it's pretty hard to translate them into English.

[xoyopai]

More:

有限责任公司和股份有限公司是企业法人。

合伙企业、个人独资企业是非公司企业。

有限责任公司，是指股东以其出资额为限对公司承担责任，公司以其全部资产对公司的债务承担责任。

股份有限公司，其全部资本分为等额股份，股东以其所持股份为限对公司承担责任，公司以其全部资产对公司的债务承担责任。

合伙企业，是指依照本法在中国境内设立的由各合伙人订立合伙协议，共同出资、合伙经营、共享收益、共担风险，并对合伙企业债务承担无限连带责任的营利性组织。

个人独资企业，是指依照本法在中国境内设立，由一个自然人投资，财产为投资人个人所有，投资人以其个人财产对企业债务承担无限责任的经营实体。

私营企业是营利性的经济组织，包括个人独资企业、合伙企业和有限责任公司。

个体工商户是指生产资料为个人或者家庭所有、以个人或者家庭劳动为主要形式、经营所得由个人或者家庭支配的经营者。

一般而言,企业的范围要比公司大,有时公司通俗地也称为企业。在我国公司指有限责任公司和股份有限公司。企业具备法人条件的为企业法人，有限责任公司和股份有限公司都是企业法人，还有具备法人条件的非公司企业法人，如一些乡镇、集体等未采用公司形式的企业。在我国不具备法人资格的企业为合伙企业、个人独资企业。

在三种企业形式中，私营企业以有限责任公司的形式出现，只承担有限责任，风险相对较小；个人独资企业和合伙企业由于要承担无限责任，风险较大。特别是个人独资企业还存在增值税一般纳税人认定等相关法规不健全不易操作的现象，加剧了这类企业的风险。而合伙企业由于由多方共同兴办企业，在资金的筹集等方面存在优势，承担的风险也相对较少。相对于有限责任公司而言，较低的税负有利于个人独资企业、合伙企业的发展。个人投资者在制定投资计划时，应充分考虑各方面的因素，选择最优投资方案。

[geek_frappa]

my translator is confused. i need a dictionary, maybe.

but i have never read this type of mandarin before. it is so interesting.