世．界．之•窗－8分鐘10億美元的光棍奇蹟

工商時報【Nikki Lu】 閱讀暖身11月11日「光棍節」，已成為全世界最大的線上購物節日，今年的光棍節創造了哪些奇蹟數字？。進入本文前，先想想以下單字怎麼說：A.獨身主義者 B.商場 C.蓬勃發展 Chinese students invented Singles' Day in 1990s, according to People's Daily. It is a twist on Valentine's Day. Nowadays, it no longer is just a day for bachelors but a worldwide shopathon. 有情人節就該有光棍節，九零年代的中國學生因此發明了這個節日，不過到了今天，這個日子已不再屬於單身漢，它成為一場全世界的購物馬拉松。 "When written numerically, the date (1)is reminiscent of 'bare branches,' the Chinese expression for bachelors and (A)spinsters."Bloomberg explains the linkage of bachelors and this date. Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce (B)emporium, held a huge celebration event at the former Olympic aquatics center in Beijing for the annual shopping day. 「這個日期的阿拉伯數字寫法，讓人聯想到光棍，這是中文對單身、獨身主義者的稱呼。」彭博商業週刊這樣說明這個日子與單身漢之間的關聯。報導中也指出，中國最大電商阿里巴巴為了這個年度購物日，舉辦了一場盛大的慶祝晚會，地點就在前北京奧運場館水立方。 This year, the sales on Alibaba reached 1 billion USD in 8 minutes, while it took 17 minutes and last year. There are nearly 85,900 transactions per second at peak, 2.23 times of the figure last year. 今年阿里巴巴在僅僅8分鐘內，銷售額就達到10億美元，同樣成績在去年花了17分 。而今年銷售額更加驚人，最高峰時每秒有85,900筆交易，是去年的2.23倍。 40,000 retailers were selling 30000 brands in this global shopping carnival. There are 6 million products in total. Alibaba estimates that it takes 1,700,000 deliveryman, 400,000 trucks and 200 air craft to take care of the delivery needs this year. To solve the fakes issues, Alibaba also hired 2,000 people to monitor the whole situation, and 5,400 "undercover consumers" to search for suspicious products online. 在這個全球購物的嘉年華會有超過4萬個零售商，銷售3萬個品牌，總共有6百萬個商品，阿里巴巴估計約有170萬名送貨員，40萬輛汽車和200架飛機來處理這次的快遞運送。為了解決假貨疑慮，阿里巴巴聘僱2,000名監督人員，另外有5,400名「臥底消費者」瀏覽網站尋找可疑商品。 The most popular products are from Japan, the United States, Korea, Australia, and Germany, and the top five brands are Uniqlo, Huawei, Meizu, Xiaomi, and home decor brand jzez100. 哪些國家的產品最受歡迎？依序為日本、美國、韓國、澳洲、德國。銷售排行榜前5名的商家則分別是優衣庫、華為、魅族、小米、居家裝潢品牌家裝e站。 Globalization is the theme of Alibaba's sales promotion this year. Ｍore global brands and retailers' products are joining the market, including Costco and Sainsbury's, cosmetics brands Estee Lauder and Clarins, clothing brands Coach and Levi's, and others. Besides Chinese firms, on this day, Global e-commerce firms such as ASOS are also trying to (2)make a slice on the country's (C)burgeoning middle class. 全球化是今年阿里巴巴的促銷主題，連鎖超市Costco、Sainsbury's，化妝品牌雅詩蘭黛、克蘭詩，服飾品牌Coach、Levi's都加入此行列。不只中國電商，全球電商如英國知名購物網站ASOS也想在這天分一杯羹，瞄準中國蓬勃發展的中產階級。 「做完簡報，送美國客戶走到門口的那30秒，是一條最艱難的英語路」。 這句話出自於一個外商軟體公司的副總。 開會等人到齊之前，等電梯那一刻，點完餐等上菜.......他說，那樣用得到英文的場合，聊天不難，讓聊天變成生意才難。 把艱難的英語路，變成一條希望之路，其實只需要你的決心，加上一年一對一。 好英文帶來更好的世界，副總到總經理，請上世界公民，(新竹）03-5782199、（台北）02-27215033。網站www.core-corner.com。