光棍節=購物狂歡?向網上購物大聲示愛

THERE was excitement but a little heartache too for millions of bargain hunters yesterday as China's Singles Day evolved into what is probably the world's biggest online shopping event.

興奮之餘也有點心痛，數百萬淘便宜貨的活動昨天在中國的光棍節演變爲可能是世界最大的在線購物活動。

The 50,000-plus merchants on Alibaba's consumer-oriented took in 13.2 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion), the company said, after discounts of at least 50 percent were promised on a massive range of goods.

5萬以上的商人在阿里巴巴面向消費者的天貓網賺了132億元人民幣(合21億美元)，在承諾大量商品至少50%的折扣後該公司表示。

Sales on Alibaba's Taobao marketplace took the 24-hour total to 19.1 billion yuan.

阿里巴巴24小時在淘寶網上的銷售額達到191億元。

The Tmall total was more than three times the amount raised on the same day last year and more than double the amount Shanghai retailers took during last month's week-long National Day holiday.

淘寶商城的總額比去年同一天的三倍還多，以及比上海零售商上個月國慶長假銷售額逾一倍。

It also surpassed the US$1.26 billion online retailers in the US earned on last year's Cyber Monday, a marketing term dreamed up in 2005 to encourage online shopping for Christmas.

它還超過了美國在線零售商在去年網購星期一掙得的12.6億美元的銷售額，一個在2005年想出的營銷戰術來鼓勵聖誕節的在線購物。

Singles Day was started by college students in the 1990s as an alternative to Valentine's Day for people without partners, and the timing was based on the date November 11, or "11.11," representing four singles.

光棍節最初由大學生在20世紀90年代作爲單身人士的情人節替換而興起，日子基於11月11日或“11.11”，代表着四個光棍。

Unattached young Chinese would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to woo that special someone and end their single status.

未婚的中國年輕人將會請對方吃飯或贈送禮物來討好那個特別的人來結束單身狀態。

This year was the third year of a Singles Day "shopping festival" initiated by Tmall and followed by other online retailers, including and Amazon.

今年是淘寶商城發起的第三個光棍節“購物狂歡”，其他在線零售商尾隨，包括和亞馬遜。

"This is very, very big for us," Steve Wang, vice president of and head of website operations, told the Associated Press. The company said on its website that yesterday might be the "biggest e-shopping orgy ever."

“這是對我們非常，非常重大”史蒂夫•王，天貓副總裁和網站運營總監告訴美聯社。該公司說其網站昨天可能是“有史以來最大的網購狂歡。”

However, many people failed to secure a bargain yesterday because of technical glitches and exaggerated price cuts.

然而，昨天由於技術故障以及誇張的降價許多人並未交易成功。

"I waited for the moment to come but what I found were nothing but constant error alerts," said Cathy Lu, a Shanghai office worker who had been carefully putting a dozen or so items on her wish list over the past a few days. "I was either stuck in the shopping cart or the payment page. I gave up and went to bed with huge disappointment."

“我等待那一刻到來，但是我發現只有持續的錯誤警報，”陸凱茜說，一個上海辦公室職員，仔細地把過去幾天一打左右要買的列在願望列表上。“我不是滯留在購物車頁面就是支付頁面。我放棄了，帶着極大的失望上牀睡覺。”

Others said there were few genuine discounts as retailers had merely raised price tags so they could boast of huge price cuts.

其他人說很少有真正的折扣，因爲零售商只是提高價格標籤這樣他們就可以誇耀着巨大的降價。

"Some goods can be sold out in a few minutes, before you get to the payment page," said another online shopper in Shanghai. "But really things are not much cheaper if you get them. They are just making the ads look good."

“一些商品可以在你到達支付頁面的幾分鐘之內賣完，”另一個在上海的在線購物者說。“但是如果你得到他們會發現真正的東西並不便宜很多。他們只是讓廣告看起來不錯。”

Shanghai designer Lei Shujie had put off buying clothes, a pillow, and a cabinet to give a friend when she heard of discounts of up to 70 percent.

上海設計師Lei Shujie推遲了給一個朋友購買衣服、枕頭和櫥櫃當她聽說折扣高達70%後。

But she wound up buying just the pillow for 118 yuan because other discounts weren't as big as she hoped, AP said.

但她最終只購買了118元的枕頭，因爲其他的折扣並不像她所希望的那樣大，美聯社說。

Tmall yesterday apologized for the "inconvenience" the technical glitches caused.

昨天淘寶商城爲技術故障造成的“不便”而道歉。

"The website did lag during the peak, but things improved," said Danial Zhang, Tmall's president.

“該網站高峯期確實滯後，但情況改善，”淘寶商城總裁Danial張說。

Sellers of everything from jewelry to TVs to cars saw a marketing opportunity and launched Singles Day sales.

從珠寶首飾到電視到汽車的銷售商都看到了一個營銷機會，推出了光棍節促銷。

At its headquarters in the eastern Hangzhou City, Alibaba set up 200 lounge chairs for its 800-strong staff to rest during the day. The company rented 180 rooms at nearby hotels for longer breaks.

總部在東部城市杭州的阿里巴巴爲其800多名員工安排了200張躺椅在那天休息。爲保證長時間的休息該公司在附近酒店租了180間客房。

China's delivery companies had 800,000 employees working yesterday, including 65,000 temporary workers hired for the singles' holiday.

中國快遞公司昨天有80萬名員工在工作，包括光棍節僱用的6.5萬名臨時工。

YTO Express Co Ltd in Shanghai, planned to have 30,000 vehicles on the road yesterday, and had expanded its daily handling capacity by 50 percent to 6 million packages for the day.

上海圓通快遞有限公司昨天安排了3萬輛汽車在路上，並已擴大了50%的日常處理量至600萬包一天。