????阿里巴巴公司(Alibaba)在中國電商領(lǐng)域占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位。它成功的方法很簡單，那就是在中國大型制造商與世界各地的大買家之間建立起聯(lián)系的橋梁。該公司旗下B2B網(wǎng)站Alibaba.com于2007年在香港高調(diào)上市（但5年之后完成私有化退市）。從本土輕便摩托車到藍(lán)色牛仔褲，企業(yè)可以在這家網(wǎng)站批量購買任何商品。

????阿里巴巴的優(yōu)勢很明顯，即規(guī)模巨大。正因如此，在過去一周內(nèi)，這家中國電商巨頭IPO的消息充斥著各大新聞網(wǎng)站和電視廣播。

????即使按中國的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)而言，阿里巴巴也是巨大無比。它的網(wǎng)絡(luò)市場吸引了2.31億活躍買家和800萬賣家，每年有113億訂單成交，而阿里巴巴只扮演中間商的角色。與亞馬遜（Amazon）不同，阿里巴巴沒有大量庫存。阿里巴巴采用激勵措施鼓勵人們使用其電商平臺并成為回頭客，其中一項措施就是對小型賣家不收費。

????要想了解阿里巴巴如何影響中國人的日常生活，可以看看我的經(jīng)歷。一年前我來到北京，我的太太總叫我去買一些電子產(chǎn)品、衛(wèi)浴家具等物品。在這座特別擁擠（北京擁有2000萬人口），空氣污染嚴(yán)重的城市中穿行，只為到五花八門的小商店里搜羅這些玩意，我很快就疲憊不堪了。有一天，我的中文老師問我：“你到底要買什么東西？”從此，我便開啟了精彩的阿里巴巴之旅。

????阿里巴巴原來的B2B模式現(xiàn)在居于其網(wǎng)購零售平臺之后。網(wǎng)上零售占阿里巴巴營收的80％，而淘寶網(wǎng)正是該領(lǐng)域的領(lǐng)頭羊。淘寶網(wǎng)相當(dāng)于進(jìn)化版的eBay，出售的商品多達(dá)8億種，品類繁多，應(yīng)有盡有，只有想不到，沒有找不到。[消費者可以花390美元買到美國哈佛大學(xué)(Harvard University)的電子郵箱地址列表，花130美元租男友一天，30美分就可以買到3M工業(yè)防噪音耳塞，那玩意的確是確保安心學(xué)習(xí)的絕佳用品。]天貓商城(TMall.com)是阿里巴巴公司旗下的另一大網(wǎng)站，與Amazon.com類似，在這里可以低價買到品牌產(chǎn)品，如耐克（Nike）和聯(lián)合利華（Unilever）等。

????我很難向美國的朋友和家人解釋，中國的淘寶和其他購物網(wǎng)站是如何超越傳統(tǒng)商店（尤其是大型零售商）的。在那些比北京小，大型零售商還未踏足的城鎮(zhèn)，人們買東西多用網(wǎng)購，而網(wǎng)購就是上淘寶。

????亞馬遜操作簡易，可能會促進(jìn)瘋狂購物，但與淘寶相比，這不算什么，淘寶也很容易操作（只要你懂中文，或者有懂中文的朋友），而且通常免費送貨，網(wǎng)站上還有關(guān)于產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量的中肯評論。

????下面是我最近在淘寶的購物清單，從中可見淘寶市場覆蓋面之廣。一般下了訂單之后一兩天內(nèi)免費送貨上門。我還不算是頻繁的買家，因為我在瀏覽中文網(wǎng)站時還不太熟練，需要朋友的幫助。當(dāng)我在中文老師（她幫我網(wǎng)購）的iPad上搜尋我的購買記錄時，通常每10個購買記錄里只有1個是我的。

????Alibaba started dominating in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese manufacturers with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com, went public in 2007 (before going private again seven years later) to great fanfare. The site allowed business to buy everything from Chinese-made mopeds to blue jeans in bulk.

????Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to discern, and it remains the reason the Chinese tech giant’s IPO has been mentioned on every news site and TV broadcast for the past week: size.

????Alibaba is just plain big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year—and Alibaba is just the middleman. Unlike Amazon, it doesn’t host big inventories. It uses incentives for people to use its markets—not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale, for one— and keeps them coming back.

????If you want a glimpse into how pervasive Alibaba is in daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly?” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.

????Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail buying generates 80% of Alibaba’s revenue, and leading that group is Taobao, a sort of advanced eBay, with 800 million items for sale and the most bizarre selection of things you’ll ever find. (You could buy Harvard email addresses for $390, a boyfriend for $130 a day, and industrial 3M ear plugs for quiet studying for 30 cents.) TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices, similar to Amazon.com.

????What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has leapfrogged traditional shopping—big-box retailers especially–in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.

????Amazon’s ease of use might promote binge-buying, but it’s got nothing on Taobao, which is just as easy to use (granted you read Mandarin, or have friends who do), usually includes free shipping, and includes candid reviews of a product’s quality.

????Here’s a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me navigate the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, who helps me buy stuff, I waded through about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.