Alibaba started taking the lead in China by connecting big Chinese manufacturers (制造商) with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything, Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to judge: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its market attracts 231 million active buyers. 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year-and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets-not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you warn a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, lake my experience. I moved to Beijing u 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? Why not cry it?” 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 second to consumer buying. Chinese retail (零售) buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond 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.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how wide 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 search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases tor every one of mine.
28. Alibaba’s advantage mainly lies in .
A. its low price B. its big size
C. its not charging small sellers D. its business-to-business service
29. We know from the passage that Alibaba .
A. will continue to develop.
B. charges all the sellers on its site a percentage of the sale.
C. acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers
D. is of middle size among all the online sites.
30. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Alibaba’s business-to-business service earns more money than retail.
B. TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao.
C. Taobao has no envious advantage over other similar online sites.
D. The author’s Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover.
31. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Shopping online in China is TaoBao
B. How the author purchases online in China.
C. Shopping online goes beyond traditional shopping.
D. Alibaba influences people’s daily purchase in China.