九jiǔ牛niú一yì毛máo

A drop in the bucket

A breakdown of the characters in 九牛一毛(jiǔ niú yì máo):
九 (jiǔ): nine

牛 (niú): cow

一 (yì): one

毛 (máo): hair

The Chinese also have an idiom for “just a drop in the bucket.”
Except it involves cows. And hair.
九牛一毛 (jiǔ niú yì máo) literally means “9 cows and 1 strand of cow hair” and it indicates something that’s so small, it’s like one strand of cow hair among 9 cows. How’s that for rich, intuitive imagery?

“对拥有20多辆私藏跑车的郭富城来 说，自然是九牛一毛 “
“duì yōngyǒu 20 duō liàng sīcánɡ pǎochē de guōfùchéng láishuō, zìrán shì jiǔniúyìmáo “
“For a city of wealthy people that has more than 20 privately housed race cars, this is really just a drop in the bucket”

“由于YouTube在专业内容频道的建立 上只投资了1亿美元，这笔费用对于谷 歌来说只是九牛一毛 “
“yóuyú YouTube zài zhuānyè nèiróng píndào de jiànlì shàng zhī tóuzī le 1 yì měiyuán, zhè bǐ fèiyòng duìyú gǔgē láishuō zhǐshì jiǔniúyìmáo “
“Because Youtube only invested 100 million USD on building professional content channels, for Google this expense is just a drop in the bucket”

“大牌球星损失巨大，但这点钱对他们 来说可谓九牛一毛，即便失去了也不会 感到肉痛”
“dàpái qiúxīng sǔnshī jùdà, dàn zhèdiǎn qián duì tāmen láishuō kěwèi jiǔniúyìmáo, jíbiàn shīqù le yě búhuì gǎndào ròu tòng “
“For major ball players the loss is major, but to them this money is just a drop in the bucket - even if they lose it, it won’t be too painful”

“电子商务的盈利在中国整体商业环境 中简直是九牛一毛”
“diànzǐ shāngwù de yínglì zài zhōngguó zhěngtǐ shāngyè huánjìng zhōng jiǎnzhí shì jiǔniúyìmáo “
“In the entire Chinese commercial environment, the profits from E-commerce are simply just a drop in the bucket”