Chinese shoppers spent more than US$1 billion in the first five minutes of Singles’ Day yesterday, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) said, in the world’s biggest online shopping promotion.
Singles’ Day — named after the repeated digit 1 in the date Nov. 11 — was created by Alibaba in 2009.
Now in just 24 hours it surpasses the main US online spending spree, the five days from Thanksgiving to CyberMonday.
Photo: Reuters
Shortly after noon, gross merchandise volume — Alibaba’s key measure of online sales — had reached 82.4 billion yuan (US$12.1 billion), the firm said, already closing in on last year’s total.
It had overtaken the 2014 figure by 6:54am, the firm said, with rival e-commerce giant JD.com Inc (京東), which focuses more on electronics, similarly receiving more orders by 9:14am than it had done on the whole of Singles’ Day in 2014.
In the US, total online sales for the five days from Thanksgiving through CyberMonday last year stood at US$11.1 billion, according to Adobe Digital Index.
Alibaba’s New York-listed stock has been buoyant this year in spite of worries over slowing growth in China, as consumer spending has expanded, while the old industrial economy struggles due to overcapacity and sluggish demand.
Alibaba launched this year’s event with a gala in the southern city of Shenzhen on Thursday night, inviting international and domestic stars, including Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, sports celebrity David Beckham, basketball player Kobe Bryant and pop band One Republic. Pop star Katy Perry pulled out at the last minute because of a family emergency.
Analysts said the event, which has gained more and more traction in the past few years, is key for Alibaba.
The day’s turnover was only “a very small fraction of its total annual sales,” independent e-commerce analyst Li Chengdong (李成東) said, but was “a confidence index for the firm.”
“If they do well in this, it is a boost to investors’ confidence,” Li said.
However, sales growth might not match last year’s 60 percent rise, he warned, in the face of economic worries and stricter regulation.
Commerce watchdog the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce summoned Alibaba and 14 other e-commerce companies earlier this week, banning them from making up fake orders and lifting prices before giving out discounts.
Alibaba itself has sought to downplay the importance of the turnover statistic.
“I don’t have any requirement for the sales figure,” Alibaba quoted chairman Jack Ma (馬雲) as saying in a statement, adding that the day was all about “happiness and joy.”
Online shopping is a bright spot in Beijing’s efforts to transform the economy, growing 26.1 percent in the first nine months of the year, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics.
That outstripped both overall retail growth of 10.4 percent in the period and official GDP expansion of 6.7 percent in each of the first three quarters.
The Chinese State Post Bureau has estimated the nation will handle more than 1 billion packages during the six days from yesterday, Xinhua news agency reported.
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