疯狂的双十一 阿里巴巴1小时交易20亿美元

Online retailer Alibaba says it sold $2bn of goods in the first hour of China's annual "Singles' Day".
电商巨头阿里巴巴今日宣布，在今年双十一的头1个小时里，其交易额就达到了20亿美元。
也有分析师认为这一数字水份很大：《缩水的双十一 阿里巴巴销售数据虚高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.
而去年双十一半天的销售额为31亿美元（约189亿人民币），当时被称为史上网购交易额最大的一天。

It compares with "Cyber Monday" in the US - the day after Thanksgiving marketed as a big online shopping day.
如今的双十一堪比美国的“网购星期一”。在美国，感恩节之后的那个星期一被认为是在线购物最疯狂的日子。

Alibaba said it expected to break sales records during the annual event, offering big discounts to boost sales.
此前，阿里巴巴曾预计，今年的打折促销会使销售总额破去年的记录。

"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.
“我打赌今年的商品成交量会相当惊人。”阿里巴巴的执行总裁马云上周表示。他还预计双十一当天的订单中会有约2亿的包裹发出。

Last year, Alibaba shipped more than 150 million packages or about $5.75bn in gross merchandise volume.
去年，阿里巴巴运送包裹数量达到1.5亿，总商品量达57.5亿美元（约351亿人民币）。

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.
双十一是在2009年阿里巴巴参与打折促销后开始成为网购狂欢节的，但是该节日最早起源于1993年南京大学学生们的光棍节。最开始光棍节被认为是一个与情人节相对的日子，那天很多单身的人会买东西犒劳自己。

Since then, it has gone on to become a massive day of sales for China's fast growing e-commerce market.
不过从阿里巴巴加入的那天起，双十一就成了中国日益扩大的电商市场中最重要的一天。

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.
根据科尔尼管理咨询公司最近发布的一项研究可以预计，在接下来的几年里，中国电商市场将以每年25%的速度持续扩大，从2014年的3900亿美元（约23864亿人民币）上涨到2017年的7180亿美元（约43934亿人民币）。