中國消費者在雙十一上演大血拚

China』s economy may be slowing but shoppers were out in droves for Singles Day, racking up $5bn of sales in the first 90 minutes on Alibaba, roughly double last year』s haul in the same period.

中國經濟或許正在放緩，但在雙十一「光棍節」這天，大批購物者卻集體出手，開場90分鐘就使阿里巴巴(Alibaba)平台上的交易額達到50億美元，幾乎是去年同期的兩倍。

Singles Day is the biggest shopping frenzy in the global calender; the first 90 minutes at Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba netted nearly twice the entire take of last year』s Cyber Monday, itself a record.

雙十一是全球日曆上最大的購物狂歡節；開場90分鐘，中國電商集團阿里巴巴平台上的交易額就已接近去年美國「網購星期一」(Cyber Monday)全天交易額的兩倍。去年「網購星期一」的交易額在當時也創下了紀錄。

The day will be critical for the Chinese ecommerce group, which went public in September 2014 in a $25bn initial public offering — the largest on record — but has since disappointed investors.

雙十一這天對阿里巴巴而言將非常關鍵。2014年9月，阿里巴巴舉行首次公開發行(IPO)，募資250億美元，為史上規模最大的IPO。但自那以來，阿里巴巴的表現一直令投資者失望。

Its stock fell 40 per cent from November 2014 to September 2015 and slipped below its IPO price of $68, although the shares have rallied since September to $81 on Tuesday.

2015年9月，阿里巴巴股價較2014年11月下跌了40%，跌破每股68美元的發行價。不過，自9月以來，阿里巴巴股價有所反彈，周二收於每股81美元。

Slowing growth in revenues and gross merchandise value — which has slipped from more than 50 per cent year-on-year in 2014 to roughly 30 per cent in recent quarters — has fed the perception that the company』s best days are behind it. Alibaba has worked to find a new growth strategy as they hit the limits to pure ecommerce, moving into 「omnichannel」 marketing that mixes online and offline sales.

阿里巴巴的營收和商品交易總額(GMV)的增長出現放緩。2014年，該公司GMV的同比增幅超過50%，近幾個季度已下滑至約30%。這种放緩加深了人們的一種看法：阿里巴巴的黃金時代已經過去了。該公司已致力於找到一種新的增長戰略，在純電商模式觸到天花板後，轉向融合線上和線下銷售的「全渠道」營銷模式。

In last year』s Singles Day, Alibaba』s gross merchandise value came in at $9.3bn, and analysts will be anxious to see a healthy increase this year — an event that seemed likely in the early hours of Wednesday as consumers clicked 「buy」 in droves.

去年的雙十一，阿里巴巴的GMV達到93億美元。分析師們將急切地期盼看到今年有可觀的增長——從周三凌晨的情況看，這個目標是有望達成的，因為大批消費者都點擊了「購買」按鈕。

Alibaba said it would feature 6m products from 30,000 brands sold by 40,000 merchants. It said that in the hours leading up to Singles Day, 130m users had logged onto its shopping sites, more than in the same period last year.

阿里巴巴稱，此次活動將涵蓋4萬個商家銷售的3萬個品牌的600萬件商品。它表示，在雙十一到來前的幾小時里，有1.3億用戶登錄了其購物網站，多於去年同期的數字。

Singles Day, named for the numerologically auspicious double 11 date, traces its history from a casual holiday started in the early 1990s as China』s 「anti-Valentines Day」 — a holiday to celebrate singledom, where people are encouraged to treat themselves. In 2009, Alibaba launched the Singles Day online sales as a festival of conspicuous consumption.

雙十一的歷史可追溯到1990年代初一個不經意間形成的節日，它當時被稱為中國的「反情人節」，用於慶祝單身狀態，鼓勵光棍們在這一天犒勞自己。2009年，阿里巴巴發起了雙十一網購活動，把這一天變成了一個人們大肆消費的節日。

Retailers offer significant discounts on the day, often under pressure from ecommerce sellers such as Alibaba, in exchange for promotion on their shopping websites.

零售商在這一天會大幅打折——往往是迫於阿里巴巴等電商平台的壓力而這麼做——以換取電商平台上的促銷機會。

Alibaba』s Singles Day celebration was held for the first time in Beijing this year rather than in its hometown of Hangzhou, and featured cameo appearances by celebrities such as James Bond actor Daniel Craig, and a video from actor Kevin Spacey doing a turn as Frank Underwood, the antihero US president in the Netflix TV series House of Cards.

今年，阿里巴巴首次在北京而不是總部所在地杭州舉行了雙十一晚會，請到詹姆斯邦德(James Bond)的扮演者丹尼爾克雷格(Daniel Craig)等明星前來友情客串，還播放了凱文史派西(Kevin Spacey)扮成弗蘭克褠德伍德(Frank Underwood)表演的一段視頻。弗蘭克褠德伍德是Netflix出品的電視劇《紙牌屋》(House of Cards)中的美國總統，一個梟雄式的角色。

Chinese household names such as starlet Zhao Wei, boy band TFBoys and swimmer Ning Zetao also joined the event.

中國家喻戶曉的人物——比如女明星趙薇、男孩樂隊TFBoys和游泳健將寧澤濤——也出席了晚會。

Against the backdrop of a digital billboard of shopping totals spiralling upwards at a dizzying rate, Alibaba executives reeled off statistics about the day — each more mind-boggling than the previous.

舞台背景是一塊數字廣告牌，上面顯示交易額以令人目眩的速度向上攀升。阿里巴巴的高管們不斷報出當天的統計數字——這些數字一個比一個令人難以想像。

One key statistic for Alibaba is the use of smartphones by customers to make purchases. Mobile purchases accounted for 72 per cent of the gross merchandise value in the first 90 minutes, compared with 45 per cent last year during the same period according to the company.

對阿里巴巴而言，一項重要的統計是顧客們使用智能手機購物的情況。該公司表示，在開場90分鐘內，移動端交易額佔GMV的72%，而去年同期只有45%。

Mobile use a key indicator of success for Alibaba, as China already has more smartphone internet users than desktop internet users.

移動端購物數字是衡量阿里巴巴成就的一項關鍵指標。在中國，用智能手機上網的人數已超過用台式機上網的。

Daniel Zhang, Alibaba』s chief executive said: 「This year, Alibaba has transformed 11.11 into an unprecedented mobile shopping experience.」

阿里巴巴首席執行官張勇(Daniel Zhang)說：「阿里巴巴把今年的雙十一變成了一次前所未有的移動端購物體驗。」