Live data from Hacker News

Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

westiseast.co.uk

101–110 of 132 posts

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#101
post #19

"1hr after the promotion opened, the first package was received." I think that is the most interesting part. It's pretty incredibile how efficient taobao is in such an inefficient country.

That's amazing but doubtful. Anyone received his/her package at 01:00 a.m.? BTW, Taobao is a third-party e-commerce platform, it doesn't handle the delivery.

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#102
post #98
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, you're right. I think it's a bit ridiculous that people are more offended by incivility than racism, though.

To be fair, that's a reasonable position for a person who's "not really racist, but holds opinions that they concede certainly sound racist when said out loud".

Interesting, I thought I was being restrained. While certainly angry, I didn't mean to shut off conversation.

Re: reasonable position

If you have an epiphany that you've been operating on stereotypes (which in this case are racist, IMO), and you want to share the wonder of having your eyes opened to something you couldn't see before, the first thing to do is not to stream those now-understood-to-seem-racist misconceptions -- especially with no discussion of them. You could, instead, talk about what you learned, or why you believed those bad ideas.

And I don't mean why, as in, "because some friends had a bad outsourcing experience." I mean, why are you operating on stereotypes and unfair reductions, especially when you already admit they are wrong.

What would you think if someone said,

"Amazing job. I know it's racist, but I always thought blacks were too busy sitting on their porches drinking 40s that they bought with welfare money. I know too many friends who've had bad experiences with black people. It must be really hard to run for President."

Would you think such a person is having a genuine epiphany and sharing true insight into their own misguided worldview? I would think that the author of the comment is doing a bad job of it, at best. At worst, I would think that person learned nothing, but would like to say something anyway.

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#103

Incredibly impressive. This may sound horrible and racist but when I think of China and tech I think cheap, hacky, non-reliable, lawless, and poorly done. That's obviously unfair but based on my experiences with outsourcing and the countless stories of friends it's what comes to mind. Given the advanced manufacturing that goes on in China I should know better. I can't fathom the amount of work necessary to make thing…

One thing I learned from China while being in there: You can get goods of any quality there. The cheap stuff is what most westeners buy, and it is mostly not so good quality. But if you are willing to pay proper prices, you can get quality products.

And there are exceptions on the cheap stuff too, for example I just bought an Aoson M11 Android tablet for 125€ from there and the overall quality seems very good.

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#104
I find this story to be complete BS. I find it hard to believe this much volume in one day from one site and everything worked like a charm. The payments gateways worked flawlessly? I think this is just a publicity stunt to drive traffic.

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#105
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that's a reasonable position for a person who's "not really racist, but holds opinions that they concede certainly sound racist when said out loud".

Interesting, I thought I was being restrained. While certainly angry, I didn't mean to shut off conversation. Re: reasonable position If you have an epiphany that you've been operating on stereotypes (which in this case are racist, IMO), and you want to share the wonder of having your eyes opened to something you couldn't see before, the first thing to do is not to stream those now-understood-to-seem-racist misconcep…

I agree with you entirely and unreservedly. The scare quotes in my comment were to poke fun at the idea that a person who holds a set of racist opinions is somehow not a racist.

I do maintain that it is, in some sense, a "reasonable" position for a racist to be more offended by incivility than by racism. Not ideal, or even good, but certainly understandable.

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#107

Incredibly impressive. This may sound horrible and racist but when I think of China and tech I think cheap, hacky, non-reliable, lawless, and poorly done. That's obviously unfair but based on my experiences with outsourcing and the countless stories of friends it's what comes to mind. Given the advanced manufacturing that goes on in China I should know better. I can't fathom the amount of work necessary to make thing…

Two words of praise followed by a stream of acknowledged personal biases and admitted stereotypes, which are forwarded anyway. For what reason? To prove the author's own point that he/she doesn't understand the scale of a company which serves one billion people? My humble suggestion is this: next time, if you don't have a good reason to recite publicly a litany of unfounded assumptions about an entire country and peo…

but you're glossing over (conveniently) that the vast majority of crap is made in china. Not to mention the fact that China has no regard to intellectual property, is always the first to produce cheap knock-off products that blatantly ignore the inventor's IP.

And, this doesn't even mention human rights.

If you take off your politically correct hat for a moment you'll see that the comment "cheap, hacky, non-reliable, lawless, and poorly done" is warranted and quite generous in its phrasing.

It's not racist (since China isn't a race), and it's perfectly ok to make statements about a countries exports. Just as its ok to say that Swiss trains run on time, Swedish cars are built like tanks and french wine is good stuff. Not every french wine is great, and not every export from china is crap, but most french wines are good, and most chinese cheap plastic goods are crap too.

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#108
post #87
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, for every new Chinese startup, are there hordes of people crying about why they haven't rolled out to America? (I'm sorry, this comment isn't like me, but I couldn't resist.)

You can't really complain that Chinese companies exploit a market left untouched by culturally-ignorant Western companies. I bet if more US companies spent more time targeting the Chinese market in the right way (i.e. perfect i18n support, interfaces built with Chinese languages in mind etc), these knockoffs would get less traction. (Of course there's always the political problem, the knockoffs are often State-sponso…

Look what happens when western companies try? Google, for example...

Re: Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD

#109
post #90

Incredibly impressive. This may sound horrible and racist but when I think of China and tech I think cheap, hacky, non-reliable, lawless, and poorly done. That's obviously unfair but based on my experiences with outsourcing and the countless stories of friends it's what comes to mind. Given the advanced manufacturing that goes on in China I should know better. I can't fathom the amount of work necessary to make thing…

Last year I joined a big Chinese startup and, after eight years in China, I discovered something: the best hackers in China are not those you would find in places haunted by foreigners, they would not be working for foreign companies, they don't necessarily like to speak English, even if they follow closely what happens outside. Under these circumstances, many people naturally mistake the cheap and shallow folks they…

I agree entirely. I worked in Shanghai for 4 years and hired a lot of Chinese developers. There is some very good talent out there. You need to work at finding it, but that's true everywhere. I think the main difference is that community groups and networking events are really not done out there. And if you're going out to bars looking for developers, well, you're doing it wrong.
Post reply on HN