China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba saw record breaking sales of more than 90 billion yuan, or 14 billion U.S. dollars, on the just concluded Singles Day on Wednesday.
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Concerns the Chinese economy is slowing looked misplaced today as e-commerce giant Alibaba’s takings for Singles Day raced past last year’s record haul reaching $10 billion (£6.6 billion). The company said Thursday the event brought in more than $14 billion in sales, easily toppling last year’s record of $9.3 billion.
Boosting its Beijing presence could help Alibaba compete with JD.com, a rival online retailer based in the city. Although it didn’t disclose its revenue from the day, the firm processed 32m orders, up 130 per cent from previous year.
Analysts say whatever sales the Singles Day event may have had by Alibaba, it is a glaring fact that the growing influence of China, as well as the rising middle class, have become an important global market. It took JD.com only half a day to break the daily orders volume record of 2014. Alibaba co-opted the date, 11.11, and essentially created the world’s first holiday based purely on sheer consumerism.
Singles Day is huge in China.
Alibaba Group holds an annual 24-hour online shopping sales event on November 11.
Mobile sales alone came in at a whopping $9.8 billion worth of merchandise which is higher than the combined sales of all items for the retail company in 2014.
As 16,000 brands participated in the mega sale, 1.7 million couriers, 4 lakh vehicles and 200 planes will be delivering products. Total number of mobile buyers was more than 27 million in the first hour.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s office phoned Alibaba chairman Jack Ma hours ahead of the promotion was kicked off, “congratulating and encouraging the creation and achievement of the 11.11 event”, said a posting on a social media account of Tmall, the group’s business-to-consumer arm.
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However, Alibaba’s strong show on Singles’ Day has confused the China growth debate.
