Taobao merchants' internet cables were cut at midnight on "Double 11"

The sales from 0:00 to 1:00 in the morning of "Double 11" account for 30% of the sales for the whole night. The sales on "Double 11" account for about one-third of the annual sales, which is equivalent to being disconnected from the Internet in the hour with the highest sales in the whole year.

At 0:06 am on November 11, Mr. Fu, a Taobao merchant who was working hard on the "Double 11" shopping event, suddenly found that the network was interrupted. After investigation, he found that the network cable of the entire building where his office was located had been cut manually. Although he later used other means to get online, the golden hour from 0 to 1 o'clock had already passed, and he suffered heavy losses.

One month of preparation, ruined by Internet outage

"It's like a taxi driver whose car has been smashed. How can you do business?" Mr. Fu, who is engaged in the women's clothing business on Taobao, and his friend Mr. Wu set up their office in a residential building at No. 19, Nanbian South Road, Nanbian Village, Huangzhuang, Taihe Town, Baiyun District. In order to grab sales on "Double 11", they have been working hard for a month. Unexpectedly, just after 0:00 on the 11th, the office network was down!

Mr. Wu suspected that the network cable was cut by rats, so he followed the line outside the office wall to a tree downstairs. It turned out that the network cables of the entire building were all cut. Nandu reporters arrived at the scene and found that all the network cables in Building 19 were neatly cut, which was obviously caused by human damage.

"Everyone around here does Taobao business. There are many shops in our building, but only ours has been cut off." The anxious Taobao merchants quickly called the police, who told them that they had to ask the telecommunications department to come and repair it.

"There was no other way, we had to find other ways to get online," Mr. Wu and Mr. Fu could only tell their employees to go to the warehouse office to get online, or to seek help from businesses in other buildings around. It was not until 9 a.m. yesterday that they notified the telecommunications department to come and connect the Internet cable, and the office in Building 19 was able to resume normal operation.

But it's too late now. We have been preparing hard for a month just to grab orders and boost sales within an hour after the "Double 11" event started.

Suspected vicious competition in express delivery

Unfortunately, there were no witnesses that night, and the surveillance cameras in the building could not see where the incident occurred.

Mr. Wu believes that it was definitely not done by other Taobao merchants nearby. "Everyone around here is our fellow villagers, and there is actually no competition or conflict with those doing Taobao." Mr. Wu pointed out that the most likely person who did it was someone in the express delivery industry.

According to Mr. Wu, Nanbian Village is a "Taobao Village" with four express delivery companies competing for business nearby. In order to expand their business, there are often frictions and even fights between the express delivery companies. Some express delivery companies are naturally jealous when they see their competitors monopolizing an area.

Mr. Wu said that it was meaningless to pursue the matter further and the key issue was to deal with the backlog of goods.

The highest sales hour of the whole year is ruined

Mr. Wu explained that in fact, Taobao merchants cannot make much money on "Double 11". The key is to increase their credibility by relying on large numbers of orders and to boost their Taobao rankings. Therefore, they prepare a large amount of goods a month in advance.

"It is said on the Internet that Taobao's sales exceeded 10 billion in the first 38 minutes of 'Double 11'. We who work on Taobao look forward to this hour all year long," said Mr. Wu. In order to win this tough battle, they ordered more than 5,000 pieces of goods from the factory. They originally expected to sell 800-1,000 pieces in the hour from 0:00 to 1:00, but only sold more than 1,000 pieces last night. The direct loss was more than 100,000. According to him, the sales during the period from 0:00 to 1:00 in the morning of 'Double 11' will account for 30% of the entire night's sales. And the sales on 'Double 11' account for about one-third of the sales of the whole year. It is equivalent to being disconnected from the Internet in the hour with the highest sales in the whole year."

Now, what lies before them is not only piles of goods, but they are also far behind in the Taobao store ranking competition. "This is the biggest loss. We are so far behind others that it will be difficult to catch up no matter how we make up for it later." When talking about this, Mr. Wu and Mr. Fu shook their heads helplessly.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.