Alibaba, which turned a day - also known as Double Eleven - for Chinese youngsters to celebrate singleness into an annual shopping extravaganza, raked in its first 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) in sales after 96 seconds - faster than the 125 seconds last year - after discounts on everything from toilet paper to furniture to cosmetics took effect.
阿里巴巴把一年一度中国年轻人庆祝单身的节日变成了购物盛会，也被称为双11，销售额在前96秒就达到了第一个100亿元（14.3亿美元）——比去年的125秒还快。从卫生纸到家具再到化妆品给予消费者的折扣起了作用。
▲Singles’ Day sales break records despite trade war(via Global Times)
对于双十一连年破纪录，外媒都在标题中体现了那些惊人的数字。
图 via New York Times
图 via Reuters
图 via The Straits Times
据彭博社报道，全球范围参与到这场线上购物节的人数预计在5亿。消费者不仅来自中国，还有来自俄罗斯和阿根廷的国外消费者。商品大到苹果手机和冰箱，小到腰果零食。（An estimated half-billion shoppers from China to Russia and Argentina are expected to swarm the e-commerce giant’s sites to scoop up everything from iPhones and refrigerators to cashew nuts. - Bloomberg）
除了内地买家，来自香港、美国、英国、澳大利亚和日本的海外买家最多。（Hong Kong, the US, the UK, Australia and Japan were among the top overseas buyers in early business. - South China Morning Post）
Among China’s largest corporations, Alibaba is expected to better ride out the storm, thanks to booming online consumption in the world’s No. 2 economy.
“Alibaba will probably be the one that will be able to circumvent and come out from the trade war in better shape” versus Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., Richard Wong, head of ICT for the Asia Pacific at Frost & Sullivan, told Bloomberg Television. “The current sentiment and confidence in terms of spending is still relatively high.”
弗若斯特沙利文咨询公司亚太区信息通信技术主管Richard Wong对彭博电视台表示，相较于百度和腾讯，“阿里巴巴将可能绕过这场贸易战，并以更好的状态从贸易战脱身。目前消费者在支出方面的情绪和信心仍相对较高。”
▲Alibaba Singles’ Day Set to Challenge $31 Billion Record (via Bloomberg)
而这中间还有美国公司出的一份力。据CBS报道，近四分之一的美国零售商计划在光棍节进行促销活动。
American companies are also getting in on the act. Nearly a quarter of U.S. retailers plan to run promotions for Singles Day, according to Adobe, which surveyed more than 400 U.S. retailers with annual sales in excess of $500,000.
▲A shopping day bigger than Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined (via CBS News)
你怎么看今年双十一又破纪录？欢迎留言并分享观点！
文：Du Qiongfang
资料：Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, CBS News, Global TimesBlo
图/题图：Twitter, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Straits Times