Alibaba and other Chinese e-commerce companies held the world’s biggest one-day shopping spree Wednesday. Analysts estimated this year’s Singles Day could reach as high as $11 billion in sales.
阿里巴巴和其他中国电商于周三引发了世界最大的购物狂欢,分析员预测本年双十一销售额可达110亿美元。
In the first 90 minutes of the 24-hour sale, which kicked off at midnight Wednesday in Beijing, Alibaba said total sales exceeded $5 billion. About 72% of sales were from mobile phones.
在双十一的前九十分钟,截止到北京时间星期三凌晨1:30,阿里巴巴总销售额超过50亿美元,其中72%的订单是通过手机完成。
Alibaba shares closed flat at $81.43 in New York on Tuesday.
周二阿里巴巴股份纽约闭市价格为81.43美元。
Singles Day is a creation of Chinese online retailer Alibaba, which six years ago took an obscure Valentine’s Day-like holiday and turned it into an excuse to go shopping for oneself. In its English materials, the company is branding it as a Global Shopping Festival.
双十一由中国网络经营商阿里巴巴创建,六年前,阿里巴巴想要开始一个类似于情人节的节日,并将其变成一个为自己买东西的契机。在英文报道中,阿里巴巴将双十一定义为一种全球购物节日。
Singles Day started out as Alibaba-specific, but now it’s spreading to other e-commerce platforms, such as JD.com, which has about 25% of the Chinese e-commerce market.
双十一最初只在阿里巴巴进行,现在已扩散到其他电商平台,比如京东,占据了中国25%的电商市场。
Whatever Singles Day sales might say about Alibaba as a company, the broader message is the growing importance of China and its rising middle class as a critical global market.
不管双十一销售额对于阿里巴巴作为一个公司有何影响,它反映了中国日益增长的重要性,和不断扩大的中产阶级,他们代表了一个重要的全球市场。
Last year, Alibaba did $9.3 billion in revenue, shipping 278 million orders in 24 hours. Singles Day contributed 2.5% to Alibaba’s overall sales for the year in 2014.
去年双十一,阿里巴巴 收入额达到93亿美元,24小时内达到两亿七千八百,这一天的销售额占2014年阿里巴巴总销售额的2.5%。
Unlike Black Friday in the U.S., which is very much about door-buster sales and getting up early to get to the mall, Singles Day started as an e-commerce event and still occurs mostly online, so there’s not much to see as it’s happening.
美国的黑色星期五更多的是商场减价,起大早跑到商场抢货。双十一起源于电商活动,如今更多的还是发生在网络上,所以并不能真正看到它的发生。
“You’ve literally got hundreds of millions of Chinese who are in their homes, in their offices and on their mobile phones buying. You’re standing next to somebody on the subway, but you don’t realize they’re dropping about $500 on Singles Day sales on their phone,” said Zakkour, author of China’s Super Consumers.
《中国超级消费者》的作者称:“上亿的中国人在家和办公室通过手机买东西。地铁上站在你旁边的人,你可能并没有意识到他正在手机上下一个500美元的订单。”
As the celebration becomes ingrained in the culture, retailers have to work harder and offer better prices to get consumers to buy.
随着双十一越来越成为一种文化,经销商需要更加努力,为消费者提供更诱人的价格。
Some consumers are getting more realistic and only buy when it is a good deal. Quite a number of merchants will inflate the price before giving discounts, and the actual price isn’t that much cheaper.
很多消费者更加理性,只会买值的东西。有很多商家会在打折开始前涨价,所以折后价格其实并没有便宜。