Taobao-ing

If you read recent entries on Singles' Day, you know that most of the online shopping frenzy took place  on Alibaba's websites, namely Taobao, a C2C platform. Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't until living in China; come to find it out, the term is just as commonplace as "Googleing," and it's a likely bookmark or "page most visited" on a majority of computers here.

It's eBay and Amazon and Etsy combined but bigger, offering a marketplace for small businesses and entrepreneurs to sell new and used goods at a fixed priced (auctions do exist, but they're few and far between). And believe me when I tell you that you can find anything on there -- or believe City Weekend (giant penis costume, anyone?).  I've also heard you can get loans through Taobao, or hire someone to redesign to your signature in case you don't like what you've done with yours.

It's a bit of challenge for non-Chinese readers to navigate the site, but don't worry, this too has turned into a profit. Tao-how acts as a middleman, but Mike and I prefer a combination of Google Translate, guessing, and help from his mom.

It's the day after Singles' Day

While back home we honored the men and women who so bravely serve and have served, here in China, November 11 marks Singles' Day (cue Sasha Fierce). Yes, it's in response to Valentine's Day, but more importantly, it's the biggest online shopping day of the year IN THE WORLD.

Cyber Monday has nothing on Singles' Day. According to Bloomberg, last year's sales on Singles' Day for the Alibaba Group, China's biggest e-retailer, totaled more than $3 billion, which more than doubled the amount spent by U.S. consumers on Cyber Monday in 2012. This year, the average person will spend almost $300, and sales are expected to surge to $5 billion. Insane, right?

Within the first hour of Alibaba's 2013 shopping event, Chinese consumers had spent nearly $1 billion. Four more to go...