中国经济或许正在放缓，但在双十一“光棍节”这天，大批购物者却集体出手，开场90分钟就使阿里巴巴(Alibaba)平台上的交易额达到50亿美元，几乎是去年同期的两倍。
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.
双十一是全球日历上最大的购物狂欢节；开场90分钟，中国电商集团阿里巴巴平台上的交易额就已接近去年美国“网购星期一”(Cyber Monday)全天交易额的两倍。去年“网购星期一”的交易额在当时也创下了纪录。
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.
双十一这天对阿里巴巴而言将非常关键。2014年9月，阿里巴巴举行首次公开发行(IPO)，募资250亿美元，为史上规模最大的IPO。但自那以来，阿里巴巴的表现一直令投资者失望。
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.
2015年9月，阿里巴巴股价较2014年11月下跌了40%，跌破每股68美元的发行价。不过，自9月以来，阿里巴巴股价有所反弹，周二收于每股81美元。
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.
阿里巴巴的营收和商品交易总额(GMV)的增长出现放缓。2014年，该公司GMV的同比增幅超过50%，近几个季度已下滑至约30%。这种放缓加深了人们的一种看法：阿里巴巴的黄金时代已经过去了。该公司已致力于找到一种新的增长战略，在纯电商模式触到天花板后，转向融合线上和线下销售的“全渠道”营销模式。
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.
去年的双十一，阿里巴巴的GMV达到93亿美元。分析师们将急切地期盼看到今年有可观的增长——从周三凌晨的情况看，这个目标是有望达成的，因为大批消费者都点击了“购买”按钮。
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.
阿里巴巴称，此次活动将涵盖4万个商家销售的3万个品牌的600万件商品。它表示，在双十一到来前的几小时里，有1.3亿用户登录了其购物网站，多于去年同期的数字。
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.
双十一的历史可追溯到1990年代初一个不经意间形成的节日，它当时被称为中国的“反情人节”，用于庆祝单身状态，鼓励光棍们在这一天犒劳自己。2009年，阿里巴巴发起了双十一网购活动，把这一天变成了一个人们大肆消费的节日。
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.
零售商在这一天会大幅打折——往往是迫于阿里巴巴等电商平台的压力而这么做——以换取电商平台上的促销机会。
Retailers offer significant discounts on the day, often under pressure from ecommerce sellers such as Alibaba, in exchange for promotion on their shopping websites.
今年，阿里巴巴首次在北京而不是总部所在地杭州举行了双十一晚会，请到詹姆斯邦德(James Bond)的扮演者丹尼尔克雷格(Daniel Craig)等明星前来友情客串，还播放了凯文史派西(Kevin Spacey)扮成弗兰克褠德伍德(Frank Underwood)表演的一段视频。弗兰克褠德伍德是Netflix出品的电视剧《纸牌屋》(House of Cards)中的美国总统，一个枭雄式的角色。
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.
中国家喻户晓的人物——比如女明星赵薇、男孩乐队TFBoys和游泳健将宁泽涛——也出席了晚会。
Chinese household names such as starlet Zhao Wei, boy band TFBoys and swimmer Ning Zetao also joined the event.
舞台背景是一块数字广告牌，上面显示交易额以令人目眩的速度向上攀升。阿里巴巴的高管们不断报出当天的统计数字——这些数字一个比一个令人难以想象。
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.
对阿里巴巴而言，一项重要的统计是顾客们使用智能手机购物的情况。该公司表示，在开场90分钟内，移动端交易额占GMV的72%，而去年同期只有45%。
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.
移动端购物数字是衡量阿里巴巴成就的一项关键指标。在中国，用智能手机上网的人数已超过用台式机上网的。
Mobile use a key indicator of success for Alibaba, as China already has more smartphone internet users than desktop internet users.
阿里巴巴首席执行官张勇(Daniel Zhang)说：“阿里巴巴把今年的双十一变成了一次前所未有的移动端购物体验。”
Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chief executive said: “This year, Alibaba has transformed 11.11 into an unprecedented mobile shopping experience.”