金融时报:阿里掀起网购狂欢

阿里掀起网购狂欢

今年双11，阿里巴巴成交额远超去年纪录。由于它对每笔交易最高抽成5%，因此大幅折扣意味着收入会被压缩。这场狂欢究竟会怎样影响阿里的盈利，股东们还要等待下一季度的财报。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

capitalism ['kæpɪt(ə)lɪz(ə)m] 资本主义

notoriously[nəu'tɔ:riəsli] 众所周知地

capitalization[,kæpɪt(ə)laɪ'zeɪʃ(ə)n] 投资（利用）

expenditure [ɪk'spendɪtʃə; ek-] 开支；消耗

Black Friday 美国感恩节的第二天，各品牌厂商通常会以超低价优惠促销。

Alibaba:swinging singles（335 words）

By Lex, November 12,2014

American capitalism could not bear a holiday devoted only to gratitude – a notoriously hard concept to monetise.

So after Thanksgiving comes Black Friday – and the country shops.

China's Singles' Day (named for all the ones in the date, 11/11) was for romance. That did not set registers ringing, either.

Alibaba charged into the breach a few years ago with a Singles' Day sale. The results make the Americans cramming into Walmart look like timid socialists.

This Singles' Day, the total volume of merchandise bought through Alibaba was Rmb57.1bn ($9.3bn), blowing past last year's $5.9bn. Total US retail sales for the entire four-day Thanksgiving weekend of 2013, online and in stores, were roughly $57bn.

Alibaba, a marketplace operator rather than a retailer, takes up to 5 per cent of each transaction – no discount on Alibaba's merchant fees for Singles' Day, thank you. So the day's discounts of at least 50 per cent compresses revenues, especially considering that before the big day some sales are put off (one merchant has said that in the two weeks before Singles' Day its online sales drop 80 per cent). Alibaba has not disclosed the revenues it makes from Singles' Day. The big winners, other than consumers,might be the delivery companies.

Given all this, and that Alibaba's $300bn market capitalisation is about 50 times net income, profitability matters. Alibaba's shareholders will have to wait for the next earnings report for clues to whether Singles' Day 2014 was an economic success as well as a promotional one.

Cash flow, in particular, bears watching. Capital expenditures tripled in Alibaba's latest reported quarter, to $550m, as the company spent money on data centres, land rights and construction. Cash flow after capital spending therefore grew much more slowly than profit (even putting aside the $775m Alibaba lent to its merchants in the quarter).

Chinese consumers are proving their buying power and Alibaba is proving its selling power. Earnings power will determine whether investors keep clicking buy, buy, buy.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How do we define Alibaba?

A.Alibaba is a retailer.

B.Alibaba is a marketplace operator.

答案(1)

2.According to the writer, who might be the big winner of the Singles' Day?

A.Retailers

B.Consumers

C.Delivery companies

D.Both consumers and delivery companies

答案(2)

3.Why dose the cash flow of Alibaba grow much more slowly than their profit?

A.Because they spent money on data centres.

B.Because they spent money on land rights.

C.Because they spent money on construction.

D.All the above.

答案(3)

* * *

(1)答案：B.Alibaba is a marketplace operator.

解释：阿里巴巴是在线集市运营商，而不是零售商，它对每笔交易最高抽成达5%。

(2)答案：D.Both consumers and delivery companies

解释：消费者在单身节购买物品时会获得至少五折的优惠，物流公司也将收获大量订单，而阿里巴巴对商户的抽成则不会打折，压缩了商户的收入。

(3)答案：D.All the above.

解释：文章提到，根据阿里巴巴最新报出的三季度财报，由与投资于数据中心、土地使用权和各项建设，其资本支出同比增加了两倍，导致现金流增长比利润增长慢得多。