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From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
The world's largest online retailer company, Amazon has launched its first shopping website in India. The company hopes to make use of India's economic growth to expand its online business.
全球最大的网络零售商亚马逊公司在印度推出了其首个购物网站。该公司希望利用印度的经济增长扩大其网上业务。
The amazon website in India offers seven million books and 12,000 movies and television programs. It plans to add more products in the coming weeks. The American company will not sell its own products in India, Indian laws ban companies that carry goods from more than one manufacture from selling directly to people on the Internet. Instead the amazon website serves as a marketplace for local businesses.
亚马逊印度网站提供700万册图书和12000份电影电视节目,并计划在未来数周内加入更多产品。这家美国公司不会在印度销售自己的产品。印度法律禁止从多家工厂进货的公司在互联网上直接向客户销售。相反,亚马逊网站将作为本地企业的市场。
Shabori Das is with the market research company Euromonitor. She predicts the online shopping in India will experience a yearly growth of nearly 17 percent in the next five years.
Shabori Das就职于欧睿(Euromonitor)市场研究公司。她预测在未来五年,印度网上购物将实现近17%的年增长。
"This makes India among the top 20 fastest growing Internet retailing markets in the world."
她说,“这将使得印度进入全球网上零售市场增长最快的前20名之列。”
Online businesses are looking at India's huge young population, many of home live in cities. Only about 12 percent of Indians have connection to the Internet -- much less than in countries like China.
网上企业都着眼于印度居住在城市的庞大年轻人口。只有12%的印度人接入互联网,远远低于中国等国家。
But with 150 million Internet users in India, its market is still the third largest in the world. And it is expected to grow greatly as more people get connected. These growing numbers have made business leaders hope for that online shopping in India will become a bigger part of total sells. Among them is Kunal Bahl of snapdeal.com.
但印度有1.5亿互联网用户,它仍然是全球第三大市场。随着更多人接入互联网,印度的互联网市场有望显著增长。不断增长的数字使得商业领袖寄希望于印度的网上购物在销售总额中占有更大的份额。其中就包括snapdeal网站的Kunal Bahl。
"Right now, in India about point two to point five percent of total deal is basically happening digitally. However in developed markets like the U.S. that number is 10 percent. So we have head room to grow from point two to going up to at least 10 percent and even further because India does not have the kind of offline retail penetration that a country like America would have."
他说,“目前在印度,只有大约0.2%到0.5%的交易总额是数字化销售。然而在美国等发达国家,这一数字是10%。所以我们有望从0.2%发展到至少10%甚至更多。因为印度不像美国等国家有各类线下销售渗透。”
He notes that infrastructure issues like transportation can make it hard for retail businesses to succeed in large cities, and many products are just not available in smaller towns.
他指出,交通等基础设施问题会使得零售企业在大城市很难成功。而许多产品在小城镇买不着。
"Indian cities don't have like one downtown, which is the case in most Western cities. We have maybe 25 downtowns in New Delhi. These cities are large and cumbersome to traverse for shoppers. In Tier one cities hence people see online shopping as being convenient, whereas in Tier 2 cities and beyond it is just giving them access to their aspiration.. to own good things in life but do not have access through offline retail."
他说,“印度城市不像多数西方城市一样只有一个商业区。印度新德里可能就有25个商业区。这些城市对遍历购物者来说又大又笨重。在一线城市人们因此看到网上购物的便利,而在二线城市及其之外,网上购物为他们的愿望提供了渠道,去拥有生活中没法通过线下零售获得的好东西。”
However the path to big profits may not be easy for online retail businesses. Online retail adds up to to $10 billion at present, but a large amount is for air travel.
然而,对网上零售企业来说,获得巨额利润并不容易。目前网上零售总计100亿美元,但其中大部分来自航空业。
Shabori Das at Euromonitor says most online stores are struggling to earn money. She says the competition to increase sells is only going to get tougher with the entry of companies like Amazon.
欧睿公司的Shabori Das表示,大多数网店都在艰难求生存。她说,随着亚马逊这样的公司进入,增加销售的竞争将愈发严峻。