双语新闻：中国电商“光棍节” 创下百亿销量

英语自学网

Singular Success: China’s Billion-DollarHallmark Holiday
        　　Government officials, economists and retailers have long workedto get thrifty Chinese consumers to spend. China’s onlineretailers this weekend tried appealing to their loneliness.
        　　政府官员、经济学家和零售商一直以来都在努力使节俭的中国消费者花钱支出。上周末，中国电商试图吸引单身男女们。
        　　Chinese media on Monday was filled with articles about a surge in online shopping on Sunday, Nov. 11, for Singles Day 1,1,1,1, the loneliest number, as some say a day in which single people aresupposed to buy stuff for each other and for themselves in a culture with a obsessive fixation onmarriage. The apparent rush wasn’t the byproduct of some inexplicable phenomenon, such as theinstantaneous global preoccupation with the Korean pop-video Gangnam Style.
        　　周一，中国媒体铺天盖地地报道了11月11日周日网购的火爆。11月11日是“光棍节”，就像一些人说的，四个一放在一起组成了最孤单的数字。在一个对婚姻极度痴迷的文化中，光棍节这一天单身人士应该为人为己买东西。周日网购的明显激增并非是一些令人费解的现象的副产品，比如全球对韩国流行乐视频《江南Style》的迅速追捧。
        　　Instead, it appears to be been pushed by China’s online retailers in an effort to nurture an annualconsumer event.
        　　相反，网购激增似乎是受了中国电商的推动，它们这样做是为了打造一场年度消费活动。
        　　Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which runs e-commerce sites Taobao.com and Tmall.com, launched amarketing blitz aiming to create the “single” largest online shopping day of the year in China. Manyof the merchants who sold their goods on Alibaba’s sites offered 50% discounts. Some promotedsingles steamers to help the unwed iron out their wrinkled clothes and freshen up theirappearances. Others offered deals on “singles” closets.
        　　阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.)运营着电子商务网站淘宝网(Taobao.com)和天猫网(Tmall.com)。该公司推出了一场营销闪电战，旨在借助光棍节在中国打造今年最大网购日。很多在阿里巴巴旗下网站销售产品的商家提供了五折优惠。一些商家打折促销单身熨衣机，以帮助未婚人士将自己皱皱巴巴的衣服熨烫得平平整整，令自己的形像焕然一新。其他商家则提供“单身”衣柜打折。
        　　Full numbers for the event won’t be available from third parties for several days. But Alibaba said 213 million loners in China flooded the Internet yesterday to buy $3.1 billion worth of stuff.
        　　由第三方提供的有关光棍节网购活动的完整数据要到几天后才能拿到。但阿里巴巴说，中国2.13亿单身者周日涌入互联网，购买了价值31亿美元（约合人民币191亿元）的商品。
            
            

enfour

       
       

1497146_100217_1.jpg

        　　Alibaba said it wasn’t trying to focus on China’s dateless and desperate. “The reason why it falls on 11/11 is because it is an easy date to remember, and the association was quite accidental,” said anAlibaba spokeswoman.
        　　阿里巴巴说，它并不是要瞄准中国的单身人士们。该公司发言人说，选择11月11日是因为这个日子好记，正赶上光棍节纯属巧合。
        　　The push as Chinese companies discover the potential sales to be made in corporatecommemorations, otherwise known to Western greeting-card buyers as “Hallmark holidays” afterthe card maker.
        　　此举正值中国企业发现商业目的较重的纪念日存在的销售潜力，这类节日即西方贺卡购买者所熟悉的、以贺卡生产商贺曼卡片公司(Hallmark)命名的“贺曼节日”。
        　　Qunar.com, a Beijing-based travel site, launched a Valentines’ Day promotion earlier this year, giving 10% to 50% discounts on low-end rooms and the chance to spend merely 100 yuan (about $16.50) to stay in a five-star hotel room for one night. Suning Appliance Co., China’slargest retailer by outlets, rolled out a “zero-yuan purchase” campaign for Singles’ Day, doling outgift vouchers equaling the amount each customer spent on its site.
        　　北京旅游网去哪儿(Qunar.com)今年早些时候推出了情人节优惠活动，对低端酒店房间提供五折至九折优惠，客户还有机会仅花人民币100元（合16.50美元）入住五星酒店一晚。苏宁(SuningAppliance Co.)推出了光棍节“0元购”活动，向在其网站上购买指定商品的用户全额返券。按门店数量计算，该公司是中国最大的零售商。
        　　In countries such as the U.S., holidays such as Valentine’s Day or Father’s Day have often beenpromoted as key occasions to splurge on a gift for a loved one. And holidays like these havehelped propel consumer spending beyond Christmas, the biggest shopping season of the year inthe U.S.
        　　在包括美国在内的一些国家，商家通常会在情人节或父亲节举行促销活动，提醒人们这是为挚爱的人花钱购买礼物的重要日子。这样的节日和圣诞节一同拉动了消费。圣诞节是美国一年中最盛大的购物季。
        　　In China, where the government is keen to create willful spenders out of scrimping savers, holidayshave been welcomed with open arms. Even the adoption of the shopping mall Santa andchocolate Easter-bunnies have been easy sells to the agnostic country looking to rev up cashregister rings.
        　　中国政府正急于让精打细算的储蓄者变成拥有购物意愿的消费者，各种节假日在中国受到了极大的欢迎。在这个希望通过节日来让收款机加速运转的不可知论国家，即使是购物中心的圣诞老人和巧克力复活节兔子都非常畅销。
        　　The more holidays the better, said Tom Doctoroff, North Asia area director and Greater China CEOof ad agency JWT, adding, “China is a country fixated on transactions: social, financial andcommercial.”
        　　广告公司智威汤逊(JWT)的北亚地区总监、大中华区CEO唐锐涛(Tom Doctoroff)说，节日越多越好，他补充说，中国是一个执迷于互动的国家，这包括社交、金钱，以及商业上的互动。