科技諮詢:淘寶經濟催生"淘女郎"

Tian Yuan Yuan is China's top Internet model, a title she earned by promoting products from skin-tight leggings to rabbit fur bags through online shopping site Taobao Marketplace.

田媛媛是中國第一網絡名模。她在淘寶上爲商家推廣從緊身打底褲到兔毛手袋等商品，從而獲得了這一稱呼。

Tian is one of 35,000 models who pose for virtual storefronts on Alibaba Group's Taobao.

田媛媛是3.5萬名爲阿里巴巴集團旗下的淘寶網店工作的模特之一。

With little to differentiate between more than 6 million electronic storefronts, models like Tian have become the main attraction. Taobao ranks the girls based on sales of the products they pitch, as well as their popularity among vendors and fans who can vote on the website. Sellers can then make an online booking to hire a girl to pose with their product.

淘寶逾600萬家網店幾乎大同小異，所以像田媛媛這樣的模特自然成爲主要賣點。淘寶依據她們所推廣商品的銷量，以及她們在商鋪和粉絲中的人氣對她們進行排名。隨後商家便可以在線預約聘請一位“淘女郎”來推銷自家產品。

"A good model is important for sales," said 22-year-old Tian. "Both your facial expression and body language should match the style of clothing. For example, I will move and pose gently with office dresses, while I act cool in American style clothes."

22歲的田媛媛表示：“好模特對於提高銷量很重要。你的面部表情和肢體語言都應該與衣服款式搭配。比如，如果穿的是職業裝，我的動作和造型都會十分優雅，而如果換做是一身美式服裝，我就要表現得酷勁十足。”

The leggings she modelled sold some 14,000 units in a single month. She also helped shift more than 6,000 rabbit fur bags.

經她推廣的打底褲月銷量達到約1.4萬條。她還幫助商家賣出了6,000多個兔毛手袋。

The models can make as much as 10,000 yuan a day, a far cry from the five-figure payouts top supermodels bank for a photo shoot, but a healthy sum considering average per capita full-year income for urban Chinese was just 21,810 yuan in 2011.

這些網模一天的收入可高達一萬，雖然跟日進斗金的超級名模沒法兒比，但相比普通民衆的人均年收入，這一數字已經非常可觀了。2011年，中國城鎮居民人均年收入僅爲2.18萬元。

Alibaba is not alone in offering logistical support to small online businesses. EBay Inc, for example, owns online payment service PayPal that helps small vendors accept credit card payments. But Alibaba's models-for-hire service is unusual in that it does back-end jobs such as photography as well as being a platform that supplies the models themselves.

阿里巴巴並非是唯一一家向電子商家提供後勤支持的平臺。比如，易趣擁有在線支付服務貝寶（PayPal），這項服務使得小商戶可以接受信用卡支付。但像阿里巴巴這種提供待聘模特的服務不太常見，因爲它不僅提供拍照之類的後臺工作，也是一個提供模特的平臺。

A Taobao store owner can use the free platform to search for models by price or look, or even by specific body part such as hands or legs. Models classified as "Japanese" or "Korean" tend to look younger while "European" and "American" models have more Caucasian features.

淘寶店主可利用這個免費平臺，根據模特的價格或外形，甚至是手或腿等身體的特定部分，尋找相應的模特。“日韓系”模特往往比較年輕，而“歐美系”模特則具備更多的白人特徵。

"I used to rely on models provided by modelling agencies but because each agency has only a limited number of models, it couldn't meet my business needs," said Huang Shanlei, who sells lingerie on Taobao Mall.

出售女式內衣的淘寶店店主黃珊蕾(音)說：“我過去靠的是模特經紀公司介紹模特，但由於每家公司的模特數量有限，無法滿足我的業務需求。”

Working the "office lady" look

“職業女性”範兒

Working with Taobao models was easier because most of them were free agents with fewer restrictions on the types of assignments they could accept or on how the photographs from a shoot could be used, Huang said.

黃珊蕾表示，與淘寶模特們的合作相對更容易，因爲她們中的大多數都是自由從業者，有關她們接拍任務的類型以及所拍攝照片用途的限制較少。

Model Li Qiqi poses for different stores back to back on most days, sometimes in more than 200 outfits a day. With big doll eyes, she describes her look as "Korean office lady".

模特李琦琦（音譯）大多數日子都會連續爲不同店鋪拍照，有時一天需要試穿200多套衣服。長着一雙洋娃娃般大眼睛的她稱自己的外形像“韓國職業女性”。

"If you model on Taobao, you focus on the specialties of the outfit and the features of the outfit. You make sure you don't block it when posing," said 24-year-old Li, a Shanghai native.

作爲土生土長的上海人，24歲的李琦琦說：“做淘寶網模，你需要注意服裝的特色。要確保你在拍攝時不會喧賓奪主。”