瘋狂的雙十一 阿里巴巴1小時交易20億美元

Online retailer Alibaba says it sold $2bn of goods in the first hour of China's annual "Singles' Day".
電商巨頭阿里巴巴今日宣佈，在今年雙十一的頭1個小時裏，其交易額就達到了20億美元。
也有分析師認爲這一數字水份很大：《縮水的雙十一 阿里巴巴銷售數據虛高1/4》。

That compares to $3.1bn in sales seen in the first half of last year's event - considered the world's biggest online retail sales day.
而去年雙十一半天的銷售額爲31億美元（約189億人民幣），當時被稱爲史上網購交易額最大的一天。

It compares with "Cyber Monday" in the US - the day after Thanksgiving marketed as a big online shopping day.
如今的雙十一堪比美國的“網購星期一”。在美國，感恩節之後的那個星期一被認爲是在線購物最瘋狂的日子。

Alibaba said it expected to break sales records during the annual event, offering big discounts to boost sales.
此前，阿里巴巴曾預計，今年的打折促銷會使銷售總額破去年的記錄。

"I bet the number [of goods bought] is going to be scary," said Alibaba's executive chairman Jack Ma last week. He estimated that 200 million packages would be shipped from orders made during the day.
“我打賭今年的商品成交量會相當驚人。”阿里巴巴的執行總裁馬雲上週表示。他還預計雙十一當天的訂單中會有約2億的包裹發出。

Last year, Alibaba shipped more than 150 million packages or about $5.75bn in gross merchandise volume.
去年，阿里巴巴運送包裹數量達到1.5億，總商品量達57.5億美元（約351億人民幣）。

Singles' Day in China was adopted by Alibaba in 2009 to boost sales, but dates back to at least 1993, when students at Nanjing University are believed to have chosen the date as an anti-Valentine's Day where single people could buy things for themselves.
雙十一是在2009年阿里巴巴參與打折促銷後開始成爲網購狂歡節的，但是該節日最早起源於1993年南京大學學生們的光棍節。最開始光棍節被認爲是一個與情人節相對的日子，那天很多單身的人會買東西犒勞自己。

Since then, it has gone on to become a massive day of sales for China's fast growing e-commerce market.
不過從阿里巴巴加入的那天起，雙十一就成了中國日益擴大的電商市場中最重要的一天。

The market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 25% over the next few years, from $390bn in 2014 to $718bn in 2017, according to a recent study released by management consulting firm AT Kearney.
根據科爾尼管理諮詢公司最近發佈的一項研究可以預計，在接下來的幾年裏，中國電商市場將以每年25%的速度持續擴大，從2014年的3900億美元（約23864億人民幣）上漲到2017年的7180億美元（約43934億人民幣）。