Katy Perry was a late no-show but Alibaba’s Singles Day was no damp squib, chalking up $1bn of sales in less than five minutes and hitting $9.2bn in the first eight hours as Chinese shoppers snapped up online bargains.
凱蒂•佩里(Katy Perry)沒(méi)有現(xiàn)身,不過(guò)阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的“光棍節(jié)”(Singles Day)卻沒(méi)有失敗。在中國(guó)購(gòu)物者在網(wǎng)上大舉下單之際,阿里巴巴的銷售額在不到5分鐘時(shí)間內(nèi)就達(dá)到10億美元,并在頭8個(gè)小時(shí)里達(dá)到92億美元。
The event, the biggest in the global retail calendar, was preceded by a musical extravaganza in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen that combined local and international celebrities — including basketball star Kobe Bryant, actress Scarlett Johansson and footballer David Beckham — with adverts and buying opportunities.
在這一全球零售業(yè)年歷中規(guī)模最大的活動(dòng)揭幕前,阿里巴巴在中國(guó)南方城市深圳召開了一場(chǎng)將既有本土和國(guó)際名流登場(chǎng),又包括各種廣告和購(gòu)物機(jī)會(huì)的歌舞晚會(huì)。前來(lái)捧場(chǎng)的國(guó)際名人包括了籃球明星科比•布萊恩特(Kobe Bryant)、女影星斯嘉麗•約翰森(Scarlett Johansson)和足球運(yùn)動(dòng)員大衛(wèi)•貝克漢姆(David Beckham)。
During the live-streamed show audiences participated in games by shaking, scanning and tapping their phones more than 6.8bn times, Alibaba said.
阿里巴巴表示,直播期間觀眾通過(guò)搖動(dòng)、掃碼及點(diǎn)按手機(jī)等方式參與各種游戲互動(dòng)達(dá)68億次。
Described as Silicon Valley meets Hollywood, the show also supports Alibaba’s belief that shopping among the under-35s, who comprised much of the crowd, must be entertaining as well as efficient.
該演出被形容為硅谷遇上好萊塢。它還證明了阿里巴巴的一個(gè)理念:對(duì)于組成購(gòu)物者主體的35歲以下的人們而言,購(gòu)物不僅要高效,還要有娛樂(lè)性。
“In the US if you log on to Amazon, it’s a chore,” said Joe Tsai, Alibaba vice-chairman. “But here in China shopping is entertainment.” Trainers, masks, diapers and lipstick were among the top-selling products when the sale opened at midnight on Thursday, ushering in the graphically symbolic 11/11 Singles Day. Some 12,000 international brands were on sale.
阿里巴巴副董事長(zhǎng)蔡崇信(Joe Tsai)表示:“在美國(guó)登錄亞馬遜(Amazon)是件煩人的事,在中國(guó)購(gòu)物則是一種娛樂(lè)。”周四午夜,促銷活動(dòng)啟動(dòng),迎來(lái)了因字形而被冠名的“光棍節(jié)”。在這輪促銷活動(dòng)中,銷量最高的商品包括運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋、面膜、尿布及唇膏。大約1.2萬(wàn)種國(guó)際品牌參加了這次促銷活動(dòng)。
About 85 per cent of transactions in the first hour were made on mobile devices.
活動(dòng)開始的頭一個(gè)小時(shí)里,大約85%的交易是在移動(dòng)設(shè)備上下單的。
The company said its Singles Day sale would feature 6m products from 30,000 brands sold by 40,000 merchants.
阿里巴巴表示,參加“光棍節(jié)”促銷活動(dòng)的,包括由4萬(wàn)商家銷售的共3萬(wàn)個(gè)品牌的600萬(wàn)商品。
The festival, which began life as a kind of anti-Valentine’s Day until it was corralled by Alibaba as a totem to consumerism, is much bigger than the US’s Cyber Monday — last year, it was three times as big.
“光棍節(jié)”最初是一種反情人節(jié),后來(lái)卻被阿里巴巴炒作成消費(fèi)的象征?;顒?dòng)的規(guī)模大大超出了美國(guó)的超級(jí)星期一(Cyber Monday)——去年前者的規(guī)模是后者的三倍。
For the first time, Taiwan and Hong Kong — where trams and metro stations were plastered with adverts ahead of “double 11” Singles Day — joined in, marking Alibaba’s first steps to expand the event abroad.
本屆“光棍節(jié)”臺(tái)灣和香港也首次參加了這一活動(dòng)。“雙十一”之前,當(dāng)?shù)仉娷嚭偷罔F站都張貼了相應(yīng)廣告。阿里巴巴此舉,是要將該活動(dòng)向境外推廣的初步動(dòng)作。
However, Alibaba’s numbers — its preferred metric for sales is gross merchandising, which is real time and unaudited — have come under the regulatory spotlight, as have the preponderance of fake goods on its websites.
阿里巴巴喜歡用商品銷售總額作為其衡量指標(biāo)。不過(guò),該公司的數(shù)據(jù)已引起監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)的注意,同樣被注意到的還有其網(wǎng)站上盛行的假貨。
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has queried the numbers, as well as probed how Alibaba accounts for its Cainiao Network logistics unit and its reporting of transactions among its many businesses.
美國(guó)證券交易委員會(huì)(Securities and Exchange Commission)對(duì)這些數(shù)據(jù)表示懷疑,并調(diào)查了其物流部門菜鳥網(wǎng)絡(luò)(Cainiao Network)的賬目及其對(duì)旗下眾多業(yè)務(wù)部門間交易的申報(bào)。
Chinese regulators have also vowed to tackle any merchant abuses on the day, including “fake discounts” based on ramped-up prices in previous weeks.
中國(guó)監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)也已承諾要處理商家在當(dāng)天的任何不當(dāng)行為,包括在之前幾周上調(diào)價(jià)格、再基于上調(diào)后的價(jià)格打出“虛假折扣”。
Alibaba said it was working with the SEC and stressed that it did not tolerate merchant malpractice on its marketplaces.
阿里巴巴表示正在配合美國(guó)證券交易委員會(huì)開展調(diào)查,并強(qiáng)調(diào)不會(huì)容忍商家在其網(wǎng)絡(luò)市場(chǎng)中的不當(dāng)行為。