秒杀 Miaosha, the Chinese e-tail phenomenon

Posted by Joel

What is miaosha?
Miaosha is a Chinese online consumer phenomenon quickly becoming widespread. Translated literally as “second kill,” the term originated from online multiplayer videogames like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. In its original context, the term refers to a situation in which a player without any other option is killed or kills his opponent in an instantaneous attack. Use of the term has expanded to take on another meaning in China’s booming online consumer market estimated at 65.8 billion RMB in Q3 2009 (iResearch).

Here’s how miaosha works: a company’s website or an online store on Taobao (Alibaba’s version of eBay) will announce that at a given time they will sell an expensive product at an exorbitantly low price far below market value. For example, they might sell a laptop computer or even a car for 1 Chinese renminbi. Millions of Chinese netizens will flock to the website at the designated time incessantly refreshing their screen view until the miaosha moment arrives. For one second the price plummets, and the observer whose index finger clicks the fastest will walk away with an incredible bargain…

This is an excerpt from an article I recently wrote for Canvas8 to view the complete article click on this link.

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