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Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

nytimes.com

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Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#151

Post by kogepathic »

Scoundreller wrote: post #140
geomark wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among the items I ordered today: HC-06: Dealextreme $5.50, Banggood $5.99, Gearbest $6.57, Aliexpress $2.58 Arduino Nano v3.0: Dealextreme $3.46, Banggood $2.77, Gearbest $4.27, Aliexpress $1.66

HC-06 is US$3.46 on Ebay. Arduino Nano v3 is US$3.29 Ebay has a pretty good return/refund policy. And then you can fall-back on Paypal too.

> Ebay has a pretty good return/refund policy. And then you can fall-back on Paypal too.

Anecdotal evidence, but I have had far more success with AliExpress' dispute/buyer protection system than eBay's.

eBay is laughably bad at disputes. I have received several items from eBay which were DOA, and my options were to take a very reduced refund, or ship the item back to the seller at my expense.

Same issue with AliExpress, upload evidence (pictures/video) of the DOA item, full refund no further questions.

PayPal is another nightmare in of itself.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#152

Post by curun1r »

geomark wrote: post #44
taobility wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More reasonable reason, the online shopping experience in China is much much better than in US. In China, if you are living some metropolis, the logistic is really faster than in US without any prime membership (normally within two days). And also the price is much cheaper compared with physical retail store. So, most people would prefer online shopping if possible.

I live in Thailand and buying from US online merchants is usually a nonstarter because of shipping costs which are often much more than the price of the item itself. When I buy something from Aliexpress it is usually free shipping, or something reasonable for heavier items. There is no Amazon here but there are a couple local versions, Lazada being one. They usually have shorter delivery times but cost more than Alie…

I ordered from Amazon while I was in Thailand and it actually worked pretty well. The shipping wasn't cheap, but it wasn't prohibitive. The most expensive part was the import duties charged by Thai customs. It still ended up being cheaper than if I'd bought the items locally. Though I was on an island in the south, so that might not have been the case in Bangkok.

Still...it's definitely not a non-starter. And with the exception of shipping updates which were non-existent once Thai post got their hands on the package, everything worked surprisingly well. All told, it took 7 days to arrive, shipping was ~$50 and customs was ~$65 on a ~$300 order that would have cost over $500 locally where the selection would've meant getting something that wasn't exactly what I wanted.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#153

Post by craftyguy »

crdoconnor wrote: post #146
lamontcg wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been reading this argument since at least 2003.

And? In 2003 they weren't even close to technological and industrial parity but even then it was fairly evident that they would be within Now they're not far off parity - maybe 5-7 years before they can manufacture anything the US can. Trends that continue for a long time do not continue forever. That goes double for things that look like a free lunch.

Exactly. People seem to forget that the fastest (publicly known) supercomputer in the world is made of components that are 100% chinese made (including the CPUs). They are catching up fast, and yet folks continue to bury their heads in the sand.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#154

Post by Drdrdrq »

SCAQTony wrote: post #149
anamexis wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not running transactions against a massively distributed blockchain using a proof of work system?

Hmm, So ultimately centralization is demonstrably better for transaction per section?

Being able to trust all the machines in the network allows you to perform better, yes. What is your point?

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#155

Post by baybal2 »

justrobert wrote: post #135
crdoconnor wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once China reverses its mercantilist policy that % will plummet and the US will suffer very high levels of inflation. That will probably happen once corruption in China becomes manageable, the Chinese stop moving their assets offshore and the US has no industrial technological advantage any more (i.e. once China can make equivalently good airplanes and microprocessors).

You mean the Chinese government will stop protecting their currency and hurt their export? That isn't likely to happen soon even though other governments want them to float freely rather than in a price band. China doesn't hold enough USD to hurt the US economy without hurting themselves even more seeing as the bonds are non-callable by the buyer.

>You mean the Chinese government will stop protecting their currency and hurt their export?

For the last two years, their problem was the opposite. They went quite draconian on people selling RMB to keep currency strong.

The main motivation is to allow CCP keep throwing money around the globe, buying allies

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#156

Post by joshuamorton »

nullnilvoid wrote: post #18
joshuamorton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound right, unless microsoft has been shrinking: https://siliconangle.com/blog/2017/09/27/report-aws-leads-ia...

The data in your link is for 2016. It's the end of 2017 now. Alibaba Cloud is growing definitely much faster than Microsoft (126% vs 61%) and Google and bigger than Google. It is very close to Microsoft in terms of revenue if not bigger right now.

Right, but MS was more than 2x the size at the end of last year, so Alibaba would need to continue that >100% growth, and MS would need to not grow at all. I doubt that's the case.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#157

Post by remus »

disiplus wrote: post #133
dmoy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but then by that measure neither does Amazon. I bought a metal plant off of Amazon stand that literally had half the nuts and bolts with no threading. There's no way that passes any kind of QC.

that not true, i ordered a tv box that is clearly not as described ( i provided a prof ) , the only thing that is saving me is paypal from geekbuying. they are offering only part of the refund and shipping it back is to expensive for them. on amazon if something is not described ( i ordered anker dongle for my macbook that did not work on the 2016 model) i get a refund right away and the shipping covered.

Thats not QC, thats customer service.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#158

Post by geomark »

curun1r wrote: post #152
geomark wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Thailand and buying from US online merchants is usually a nonstarter because of shipping costs which are often much more than the price of the item itself. When I buy something from Aliexpress it is usually free shipping, or something reasonable for heavier items. There is no Amazon here but there are a couple local versions, Lazada being one. They usually have shorter delivery times but cost more than Alie…

I ordered from Amazon while I was in Thailand and it actually worked pretty well. The shipping wasn't cheap, but it wasn't prohibitive. The most expensive part was the import duties charged by Thai customs. It still ended up being cheaper than if I'd bought the items locally. Though I was on an island in the south, so that might not have been the case in Bangkok. Still...it's definitely not a non-starter. And with th…

That's not too bad.

Not Amazon, but a recent experience I had. I wanted to order a kit from Vex Robotics. Cost of the kit was $80. Shipping from the US was $150. Supposedly it's available from a Vex reseller in Thailand so I contacted them and they quoted $190 for the $80 kit with a one month delivery time. So they are just ordering it from the US and having it shipped at a somewhat lower cost. I am not desperate for the kit so its a nonstarter for me. I can almost certainly find a serviceable substitute from a Chinese supplier who will ship to Thailand at a fraction of the cost.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#159

Post by sgs1370 »

sokoloff wrote: post #107
sokoloff wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I order 3D printer parts, physical hardware (fasteners, typically), electronics components (Arduino work-a-likes and shields), small tchotchkes for kids [birthday party giveaways], cheap computer accessories and cables (USB chargers, USB cables, USB-C adapters, audio adapters and cables, etc). That's all aliexpress. Alibaba is more industrial, negotiate for pricing; Aliexpress is a pure marketplace. With the subsidiz…

As I re-read my comment above, it seems hyperbolic, so I went to check the actual data on the last time I tried to buy something at Staples. I needed a 1/8" stereo mini to 2 RCA male cable. Staples: $15.59 - https://www.staples.com/Staples-7-3-5mm-to-Dual-RCA-Y-Adapte... BestBuy: $9.99 - https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-6-3-5mm-mini-to-rca-st... Amazon: $4.76 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IE7Z628 Aliexpress: $0…

Monoprice: $1.76 - https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id...

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#160

Post by geomark »

duckwheat wrote: post #94
geomark wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among the items I ordered today: HC-06: Dealextreme $5.50, Banggood $5.99, Gearbest $6.57, Aliexpress $2.58 Arduino Nano v3.0: Dealextreme $3.46, Banggood $2.77, Gearbest $4.27, Aliexpress $1.66

Man, can you share some more of your shopping list for those of us with similar interests?

Other items from my 11.11 shopping list:

KY-008 laser transmitter module $0.32

5V stepper motor with driver board $1.82

LCD1602 I2C board $1.68

4X3 membrane switch keypad $0.52

STM32F103C8T6 dev board $1.58

K975 Micro 130 Vibration Motor (2 pcs) $1.48

Tilt sensor module $0.37

KY-013 temp sensor module $0.29

GY-521 gyro/accel module $0.99

WS2812 RGB LED 12 bit ring $1.40

RF receiver & transmitter module pair $0.82

IR obstacle avoidance sensor module $0.69

HC-SR502 PIR motion sensor module $0.72

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