雙11，不懂中文的老外怎麼買買買？三個美國小夥兒建了個“英文版淘寶”
雙11就要到了，在中國的外國羊毛黨們也禁不住要買買買。但是，看不懂中文怎麼辦？三個美國小夥兒抓住這一商機，創建了一個幫老外“淘貨”的英文購物網站。搞促銷，幫退貨，發佈“剁手指南”……讓更多的外國朋友愛上了中國貨。
When Jay Thornhill graduated from the University of Southern California in 2007, he had a plan. He'd spend one year in three different continents teaching English before returning to California to start his career.
傑伊-桑希爾2007年從南加州大學畢業時，他計劃用一年的時間到世界三個不同的洲教英語，然後返回加州工作。
More than 10 years later, he's still living in China.
可是，10多年過去了，他還在中國。
In 2016, he started a company in Shanghai with two other American expats living in his building. The company, Baopals, is an e-commerce platform that allows foreigners in China to buy products in English from Chinese e-commerce sites Taobao and Tmall.
2016年，他和住在同樓的另外兩位美國人在上海一起創辦了一家公司。這家名爲Baopals（保派網）的公司是一個英文電商平臺，居住在中國的老外可以通過這個平臺購買淘寶和天貓商城的產品。
Baopals翻譯過來是“淘寶的朋友”，不過Baopals並不是阿里巴巴旗下的公司。
The site works by pulling data from the two Alibaba-backed platforms and translating the info into English. Baopals also offers a customer service center to help facilitate transactions and logistics. It adds a service fee starting at 5 percent for each product.
該網站從阿里巴巴旗下的兩個電商平臺獲取數據，並將信息翻譯成英語。Baopals還有客服中心協助交易和物流，每件商品收取最低爲售價5%的服務費。
Thornhill and his co-founders, Charlie Erickson and Tyler McNew, felt shopping online was a hassle for foreigners in China. Before they launched the site, they'd often ask Chinese friends to buy products for them and then pay them.
桑希爾和其他兩位創辦者查理-埃裏克森和泰勒-麥克紐認爲，對在中國的外國人來說，網購是個麻煩事。在創辦這家網站之前，他們經常要求助於中國的朋友幫他們網購，再付款給朋友。
“我發現只有我們在不停去便利店、去超市，我們身邊所有的中國朋友只需要一分鐘就能解決的事情，我們要花上將近一個小時。”就這樣，三個人創辦了Baopals，爲了方便像他們一樣熱愛淘寶的外國朋友們“剁手”。
桑希爾覺得中國在世界上有最好的價格優勢，跟之前在美國用的東西相比，這裏的商品都很便宜。而且人們還能在網上找到一些神奇的東西。
除了翻譯信息外，Baopals還會根據算法對每個產品給出綜合評分。來自店齡三年以上的天貓商鋪，並滿足物流和退款較快等條件產品，會在Baopals產品詳情頁獲得一個“Trusted Seller”的標籤。Baopals上還會定期推出好物推薦文章，其中，用戶最喜歡的版塊就是“最酷最便宜最神奇”的產品推薦。比如下面這個下巴放鬆器。
網站還蒐羅了Baopals員工在淘寶上買過的物美價廉又有趣的東西推薦給用戶，有時候可能是個熱銷款拖鞋，有時候可能是個印着Chinglish的T恤，還有可能是毛雞蛋，圖片下面認認真真地寫着商品描述：“毛雞蛋應該起源於中國，其實就是沒孵出來的小雞，但是很美味！”
They now have an office space with 40 employees — 15 of which are foreigners and 25 are Chinese citizens. The company said it has sold more than two million products through its site and has passed $14 million in revenue since launching.
公司現在有40名員工，其中15人是外國人，25人是中國人。公司稱網站已售出了超過200萬件商品，自成立以來營業額已達到1400萬美元（約合9750萬元人民幣）。
After the platform gained traction, Baopals was written up by local media. The team also became the first foreign-led group to win the Shanghai-government backed honor "Top 10 up-and-coming entrepreneurs in Shanghai."
在平臺越來越受歡迎之後，當地媒體報道了Baopals網站。創業團隊還成爲首個獲得上海市政府評選的“十大創業新秀”的外資企業。
Thornhill even appeared on a "Shark Tank"-like show in China, which translates to "Maker China," in which Thornhill said he was offered, but declined investor funding.
桑希爾還在中國參加了“創客中國”創新創業大賽。這是一檔類似於“鯊魚坦克”（又稱創智贏家，是美國ABC電視臺的一系列發明真人秀節目）的比賽。桑希爾說，他在比賽中獲得了投資基金，但他沒有接受。
Alibaba is supportive of his company, Thornhill said, even inviting the start-up to its headquarters in Hangzhou for a tour.
桑希爾說，阿里巴巴集團對他的公司表示支持，還邀請創業團隊去杭州總部參觀。
Since Baopals' success is entirely reliant on one company, however, its business model could potentially be upended if Alibaba launched its own English version of Taobao or Tmall.
但由於Baopals的成功完全有賴於阿里巴巴，如果阿里巴巴今後推出自己的英文版淘寶或天貓商城，Baopals的商業模式就會遇到問題。
"We don't see any sign that that's in the works," Thornhill said. "It's such a small niche market, their platform is completely built for a Chinese audience and to do all of that for such a small market — it's hard to see them prioritizing it," he said.
桑希爾說：“我們沒發現阿里巴巴有此計劃。這是個非常小衆的市場，阿里巴巴的平臺完全是爲中國顧客打造的，爲這麼小的市場費這麼大力氣，這不太可能是他們優先考慮的項目。”
Currently, Alibaba has AliExpress, which is aimed at international buyers.
目前，阿里巴巴旗下的全球速賣通目標客戶也是國際買家。
Baopals團隊認爲，這個平臺未來也能幫助中國店主把產品賣向全世界，而不僅僅是賣給在中國的外國人。
爲了提高用戶體驗，Baopals甚至會把用戶退的貨買下來。
有一次一個客人定製了一個沙發，但沙發寄到後無法放進電梯。由於沙發是定製的，商家不允許退貨，於是Baopals把這個沙發買下放到了辦公室裏。
Alternatively, Thornhill sees other potential future plans for the company.
另外，桑希爾還着眼於公司未來有望實現的其他計劃。
"Our goal is just building a better and better company and a better shopping platform and if that one day gets us a seat at the table where Alibaba is talking about an acquisition, that'd be amazing," he said. "We'd welcome those talks and see what it means for the company."
他說：“我們的目標就是把公司打造得越來越好，成爲一個更好的網購平臺。如果今後阿里巴巴要收購我們，那就太好了。我們歡迎這種商談，看看會對公司未來的發展有什麼影響。”
“在全球化之前，我覺得我們要做的就是讓外國人相信，他們可以信任中國的賣家，中國的品牌，中國的產品。就像我們一樣，我們已經在中國生活了很長時間，所以我們知道這裏的購物體驗非常棒。”
