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Tian Yuan Yuan is China’s top Internet model, a title she earned by promoting products from skin-tight leggings to rabbit fur bags through online shopping site Taobao Marketplace.
田媛媛（音）是中国的顶级网络模特，她在网络购物网站淘宝网上展示从紧身裤到兔皮手袋等一系列产品，从而获得此称号。
Tian is one of 35,000 models who pose for virtual storefronts on Alibaba Group’s Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer website similar to eBay where people can sell American board games, antique jade, and just about everything else imaginable.
阿里巴巴集团的淘宝网上共有3.5万名为虚拟店面做宣传的模特，田媛媛是其中之一。淘宝网是一个客户对客户网站，类似于 eBay，在这里人们可以卖美国的棋牌，可以卖古董，以及任何你能想到的东西。
With little to differentiate between more than 6 million electronic storefronts, models like Tian have become the main attraction. Taobao ranks the girls based on sales of the products they pitch, as well as their popularity among vendors and fans who can vote on the website. Sellers can then make an online booking to hire a girl to pose with their product.
600多万个商家们之前的区别很小，于是像田这样的模特就变成了主要的吸引点。淘宝根据他们展示的产品的销量以及供应商和粉丝们的投票来评判这些模特。然后，商家们可以通过在线预约来雇用一位模特为他们展示产品。
“A good model is important for sales,” said 22-year-old Tian. “Both your facial expression and body language should match the style of clothing. For example, I will move and pose gently with office dresses, while I act cool in American style clothes.”
“一个好的模特对于销售来说很重要，”22岁的田媛媛说。“你的面部表情和肢体语言都应该与衣服的类型相符。如果穿上办公室女装，我的举止会优雅一些，如果是美式服装我则会扮酷。”
The leggings she modelled sold some 14,000 units in a single month. She also helped shift more than 6,000 rabbit fur bags.
经她推广的紧身裤月销量达到约1.4万条。她还帮助商家卖出了6,000多个兔毛手袋。
The models can make as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,600) a day, a far cry from the five-figure payouts top supermodels bank for a photo shoot, but a healthy sum considering average per capita full-year income for urban Chinese was just 21,810 yuan in 2011.
这些模特一天最多可赚1万元钱，虽然和顶级的超级名模一天数万元的收入差距还很大，但是考虑到中国城市人均收入在2011年只有21810元，她们的收入还是很不错的。
Alibaba is not alone in offering logistical support to small online businesses. EBay Inc, for example, owns online payment service PayPal that helps small vendors accept credit card payments. But Alibaba’s models-for-hire service is unusual in that it does back-end jobs such as photography as well as being a platform that supplies the models themselves.
阿里巴巴并非是唯一一家向电子商家提供后勤支持的平台。比如，易趣拥有在线支付服务贝宝（PayPal），这项服务使得小商户可以接受信用卡支付。但像阿里巴巴这种提供待聘模特的服务不太常见，因为它不仅提供拍照之类的后台工作，也是一个提供模特的平台。
A Taobao store owner can use the free platform to search for models by price or look, or even by specific body part such as hands or legs. Models classified as “Japanese” or “Korean” tend to look younger while “European” and “American” models have more Caucasian features.
淘宝店主可以使用这个免费平台，根据价钱和长相（或者甚至是某个特殊的身体部位，如手或者腿）来搜索模特，被归类为“日本”或者“韩国”的模特往往看上去更年轻，而“欧洲”和“美国”的模特则拥有更多的白人特征。
“I used to rely on models provided by modelling agencies but because each agency has only a limited number of models, it couldn’t meet my business needs,” said Huang Shanlei, who sells lingerie on Taobao Mall.
“我们以前常常使用模特中介提供的模特，但是由于每家中介拥有的模特数量都有限，所以它们难以满足我的商业需求，”在淘宝商城出售女性内衣的黄珊磊（音）说。
Working with Taobao models was easier because most of them were free agents with fewer restrictions on the types of assignments they could accept or on how the photographs from a shoot could be used, Huang said.
黄说，与淘宝模特一起工作会更加容易，因为她们中大多数都是自由人员，她们可以接受什么样的任务，或者她们拍摄的照片应该怎么使用，这些都很少有限制性的规定。
Model Li Qiqi poses for different stores back to back on most days, sometimes in more than 200 outfits a day. With big doll eyes, she describes her look as “Korean office lady”.
模特李琪琪（音）在大多数日子里都会连续为不同商店工作，有时候一天要传200多套服装。因为有着娃娃般的大眼睛，她描述自己的面貌像是“韩国白领丽人”。
“If you model on Taobao, you focus on the specialties of the outfit and the features of the outfit. You make sure you don’t block it when posing,” said 24-year-old Li, a Shanghai native.
“如果你在淘宝上当模特，你要注意服装的特点和特征，确保自己不能喧宾夺主，”这位上海本地人，24岁的李琪琪说。
Another appeal for vendors is that they can find plenty of Asian models. Asian women are underrepresented among the world’s supermodels, in part because few have the height to compete in an industry where 170 centimetres (67 inches) is considered short.
对于经销商来说，另一个吸引他们的是他们可以找到大量的亚洲模特。亚洲女性在世界超级名模的舞台上表现不多，部分原因是她们身高较矮，而在这个行业中170cm的身高都被认为是偏矮的。
Earlier this year an Alibaba Group executive mused on Chinese microblogging site Weibo that the pretty models advertising items for sale might also be hired to deliver the goods in person to a buyer’s home. An Alibaba spokeswoman said there were no immediate plans for such a service, but the firm might later revisit the idea.
今年早些时候，一位阿里巴巴的高管在微博上说，为某个商品做广告的模特也有可能被要求亲自送货上门。一位阿里巴巴的发言人说目前还没有立即提供这种服务的计划，但是他们公司以后可能会重新讨论这个主意。
Some traditional modelling agencies see Taobao’s system as the way forward.
一些传统的模特中介机构认为淘宝的系统是未来的走向。
“We are searching online from this year and in fact we believe this trend will be the future,” said David Lim, deputy chief executive of model agency Elite Greater China.
“我们从今年起开始了网上搜索，事实上我们相信未来的发展正是这种趋势，”一家名为“大中华精英”的模特机构的副总裁 David Lim 说。
“China is the most important consumer market for many brands and definitely using Chinese models for their product promotion is natural.”
“中国是很多品牌最重要的消费者市场，而在产品推广上使用中国模特显然是一个非常自然的事情。”
China’s e-commerce industry is set to become the world’s largest by 2015, according to Boston Consulting Group.
根据波士顿咨询集团，中国的电子商务行业将于2015年变为世界最大。
Alibaba does not disclose transaction figures for Taobao Marketplace but its sister platform, Taobao Mall, which caters to larger businesses, is expected to see more than 200 billion yuan ($31.45 billion) worth of products traded this year, with clothes making up around 30 percent.
阿里巴巴没有透露淘宝网的交易数据，但是它的姐妹平台淘宝商城（针对规模更大的商家）今年的产品交易额预计将超过2000亿元，其中衣服占到了30%左右。
