China's "Singles Day" Is the World's Biggest Online Shopping Blitz

hackingbear writes "While the Cyber Monday after Thanksgiving is the busiest online shopping day in the U.S., it pales in comparison to China's Singles' Day on November 11, which started out in the 1990s as a protest to Valentine's Day. Sales on Singles' Day last year for Alibaba Group, China's biggest e-retailer, totaled more than $3.1 billion, doubling the $1.5 billion spent by U.S. consumers on Cyber Monday in 2012. This year, Alibaba's two ecommerce sites, Tmall and Taobao Marketplace, are expecting sales of at least $4.9 billion."

Comments

When is American Thanksgiving?

[Bradmont]

As a Canadian, I want to prepare for my online shopping discounts, but I can never remember when it is...

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't American Thanksgiving fall on Canadian Columbus Day?

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, there were TWO Columbuses??

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you google it you fucking moron?

^^
haven't had your coffee yet?

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fourth thursday in november.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

You forget the third one played by Peter Falk

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Canadians remind me of Wilson, the next door neighbor you never saw and only heard him talk behind the fence.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[DavidD_CA]

It's always the "fourth Thursday of November".

And Black Friday (the day for crazy sales that people camp out overnight for) is the day after Thanksgiving.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[girlintraining]

As a Canadian, I want to prepare for my online shopping discounts, but I can never remember when it is...

This isn't a holiday though; It's an anti-holiday... it was meant as a joke. It'd be like finding out that Christmas got the crap kicked out of it by people buying unadorned aluminum rods.* This is China's version of that... their parody holiday is kicking the crap out of our real holidays.

*) For the three people in the audience who didn't catch the reference, google 'Festivus'. And get out more.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the Canadian Columbus was name Leif Garrettson and discovered Canada during his 1977 tour.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

google 'Festivus'. And get out more.

You expect everybody to understand a reference to a US-American TV sitcom about white, straight New Yorkers from two decades ago. Maybe it's your incredibly narrow American perspective that should get out and know more of the world.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[s.petry]

It had to be prior to that, because we knew of the great wizards of Canada "Geddy Lee", "Neil Peart", and "Alex Lifeson" in 1974.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

As dutch person born in south america I say fuck you and watch more seinfeld.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Canadians remind me of Wilson, the next door neighbor you never saw and only heard him talk behind the fence.

I also appreciate Robin Williams's definition: Canada is a loft apartment of nice guys above a really great party. "Hey, please keep it down there, eh?"

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[girlintraining]

You expect everybody to understand a reference to a US-American TV sitcom about white, straight New Yorkers from two decades ago. Maybe it's your incredibly narrow American perspective that should get out and know more of the world.

You expect everybody to understand a reference to a "Single's day", which originated from Nanjing University in 1993? Oh wait.. that was when Seinfeld was on TV. Now given that it's obviously become very, very popular over there in the same amount of time, to the point that you, a lowly Anonymous Dimwit on Slashdot have now heard of it... is it really that much of a stretch to say that one of the most popular sitcoms of that era might be well-recognized to the people that visit this site; A primarily english-speaking site based in the United States? No, not really. No.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[fatphil]

Whither should I "get out" such that I can see Seinfeld reruns there?

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[AlphaWolf_HK]

There wasn't even one Columbus, his actual name was Cristóbal Colón.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah! Hi's had to much - makes hir surly (2 holes and a pole)

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[quacking duck]

The Canadians remind me of Wilson, the next door neighbor you never saw and only heard him talk behind the fence.

If memory serves, Wilson was far more intelligent and savvy to the ways of the world, and solved most of his neighbour's problems.

I'm not sure that was the metaphor you were going for :)

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good point. I should... um... get out more, so I can... uh... watch... more TV? Outside? Which is... erm... where everyone keeps their TVs? I guess?

And we should watch not just any TV, but old people TV? For old shows? That aired two decades ago? And are old?

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[khallow]

I don't actually see evidence that this was intended to be a protest against Valentine's Day, but rather that a bunch of bored college guys were looking for something to do in November.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[osu-neko]

There wasn't even one Columbus, his actual name was Cristóbal Colón.

Cristoforo Colombo

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[cusco]

They're not camping out much any more. Most of the big retailers are opening now on Thanksgiving evening and staying open all night. My wife has to go in to work at 8:00 p.m. Thursday. WalMart of course started that foolishness, and all the rest of the big box stores followed along like good lemmings. If I were to buy anything on Friday it would go to those stores who valued their employees enough to allow them a complete and uninterrupted holiday with their families.

The day after Thanksgiving is also National Buy Nothing Day, which I heartily endorse. My typical Black Friday activity is take the bus to the mall and sit there watching people and reading a good book without spending a penny.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[ArcadeMan]

Canadians have free healthcare because they understand the true definition of the word socialism.
Canadian banks didn't go bankrupt.
Canada doesn't start wars with other countries.

I'm pretty sure the metaphor is correct.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[ArcadeMan]

1. I understood the reference and I'm a french-speaking Canadian living in Québec.
2. He gave you the Festivus keyword so that you could find more about the subject.
3. Go watch Seinfeld right now.
4. After you're done with Seinfeld, watch Corner Gas. It's kinda like the Canadian version of Seinfeld. Seinfeld was a show about nothing, Corner Gas is a show about nothing in the middle of nowhere.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[lgw]

Well, add the current politics and I agree! Despite being lambasted as horrible extreme right-wingers, the conservatives' position of basically "OK, we'll spend 100% of revenue on social programs but no more than 100%" is wisdom we need down here. We're going to have such a hangover the next day when the punch bowl finally runs dry!

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[cusco]

That was from Seinfeld? Now I don't feel bad about missing the reference. I watched most of one episode, was disgusted at how much press such a truly abysmal piece of dreck was getting, and never went back.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[davester666]

Unfortunately, some of the partyers have become extremely obnoxious about the music, insisting that only their music be played or they will trash the block. We may need to phone the police.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

Canada doesn't have free health care the system is currently collapsing in the face of pressure from private providers.

Canada didn't have a housing bubble because their lending laws are much less friendly to consumers. (Not necessarily a bad thing in this case, but bad if you've ever tried to buy a house in Canada.)

You're right about the third one though.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[rockout]

Wilson also had a sense of humor.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, Canada doesn't have free health care, it has a pubic healthcare system, but um, last I heard, it was because all the Canadians were fleeing to America to get private healthcare from there, or something. I can never figure it out. Either they're tyrannically shackled to public health care or deathly afraid of privatization.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[fatphil]

I had to google it, not having seen more than half an episode of the show myself.

I remember hearing about /The Contest/ (S4E11) when it first came to the UK. Making that show was allegedly an interesting challenge - an entire show about giving up maturbation using nothing but euphemisms and presumptions about what would happen next or had just happened. I just grabbed a torrent of it and to be honest, watched it end-to-end. It was funny, laugh-out-loud funny in places, even if low-brow (sue me) and a bit too New-York-Jewish stereotyped (even the two "Costanza"s are way more Jewish than Italian - who did the casting?!??! (and don't mention that annoying English bint who played Marla, she's can't hold her accent even to within about a 200 mile radius)). Of course, perhaps I was finding the formula "fresh", not having really seen much before. Of course, however, that episode is held up as being the best it's ever been, so that says nothing about the typical episode.

I'm not gonna bother downloading any others.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[drcheap]

I believe the plural of Columnbus is Columbii.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[scarboni888]

Kris Kristofferson

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[scarboni888]

What are you, a kommunist?

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[quacking duck]

Canada's health care system is in some trouble and costs are rising due to various issues, but it is not in danger of "collapsing" into the mess that the US had, or is currently working towards. The wealthy often do go to the US and elsewhere for more timely treatment of critical illness, but if anything that relieves pressure on the domestic health care providers (and they still have to pay taxes and subsidies into the healthcare system regardless).

And don't use our wealthy going elsewhere for treatment as proof that our system is flawed and incapable of supporting itself, because many US citizens have been dependent on the cheaper prescription drug orders to the US being filled by Canadian pharmacies, legal or otherwise.

Lack of housing bubble: As much as our current Conservative government loves to trot out our more regulated banking system as the beacon of hope to the world, they actually were trying to follow the US in deregulating banks. The only thing that stopped them was that they had a minority government at the time, so the opposition parties prevented that from happening, saving us from the 2008 housing bubble burst.

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the plural of Columnbus would be Column Buses

Re:When is American Thanksgiving?

[BalthCat]

Why would you be so unpleasant? :(

America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

in 2013 the communists beat the US at consuming useless crap.

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

It was bound to happen, only a handful of us actually have any spending money.

Re:America's fall

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Don't worry. It's not really communism. It's just a plain old fashioned dictatorship pretending to be communism.

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

That is real communism. After so many failures you realize it's built into the philosophy.

Too much concentration of power.

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. Communism was libertarian until Karl Marx & the Marxists hijacked it in 1872.

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Communism would be stateless. Besides, China has been Capitalist since the economical reforms of the 80s or so.

Re:America's fall

[TheCarp]

Well as I understood it even they advocated for it to be libertarian....you know...after the people were ready and the dictatorship of the proletariat had made the world so just and fair that it was no longer needed itself anymore and naturally would fade out of existance. (no problem there right?)

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

(no problem there right?)

That is exactly what the libertarian communists (Michael Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, etc...) in 1872 warned against.

Re:America's fall

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

A philosophy that expects people in power to voluntarily give up that power. Yeah, that'll work out just great.

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Socialism doesn't replace capitalism, it exists as a set of checks, balances and limits on top.
Communism doesn't exist, nor has it ever existed.

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

Communism is not the navel gazing of communist philosophers.

Communism is what you get when communists run things.

Ergo China is real communism. So was the USSR. So is N. Korea.

Those are the outcome of the philosophy. Not social evolution until eventual utopia. Accept this fact. Communism/socialism concentrates power in a very unhealthy way.

Re:America's fall

[Bacon Bits]

Communism/socialism concentrates power in a very unhealthy way.

Yeah, the American model is working so much better. And the Russian model is infinitely healthier now that they're a capitalist democracy. And there are absolutely no socialist nations worldwide that are clearly more successful states.

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

You'll find that most of the 'successful' socialist nations are capitalist welfare states (e.g. Scandinavia).

They realize they need capitalism so they have something to tax.

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Sane people realize that a mix of capitalism and socialism works best, but in America we have many right-wing extremists that want a purely capitalist free-for-all now that our society doesn't promote the conservative's foolish and toxic beliefs (racism, homophobia, misogyny, a hate/greed-driven variant of Christianity, etc...) anymore.

I hope you're not one of those nutters.

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

Socialism means 'the people control the means of production'. Not 'the government maintains a social safety net'.

Having the government 'control the means of production' is a very bad idea. The government already has too much power.

As to the mix. We have too much 'social safety net' in the USA already. But we still have 'left wing extremists' that want a purely government based economy and are willing to call anything short of that 'a purely capitalist free-for-all'.

Re:America's fall

[lgw]

More than half of Americans own stock. The point of capitalism is that stock ownership is control of the means of production. I'd argue that we're well on our way to 'the people control the means of production' in America - but it really needs to be more direct. Defined benefit pension plans decouple people from control.

I don't know why it's so hard to explain that capitalism is basically orthogonal to "free markets" (except that stock is bought and sold for money), and thanks for pitching in, but more education in basic economics would go a long way.

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

You can't have free markets without ownership. Socialism denies people ownership of means of production. Socialism light would at least deny them the right to buy and sell those means of production.

Saying that 50% own stocks == socialism is calling black white. It's like putting the actions of SE Asian socialists (Pol Pot) onto the capitalists.

You can't have even reasonably 'free' markets without capitalism. It's hard to explain that they are orthogonal because it's wrong.

There is no difference between 'the means of production' and any other 'good'. If you restrict trade in means of production you certainly don't have a free market.

Re:America's fall

[lgw]

You seem to have a very narrow definition of socialism - do you expect each person to have an equal share of the means of production? That sounds like straight-up communism to me - equality of outcomes. I'd define socialism as "the people own the means of production", where you seem to insist that's the opposite of socialism.

There is no difference between 'the means of production' and any other 'good'. If you restrict trade in means of production you certainly don't have a free market.

They are very different indeed: one is wealth, the other bling (what people ignorant of economics mistake for wealth). They just both (under capitalism) happen to be valued in currency. Capitalism requires only that the control of the means of production be gained or lost through success at controlling them. That's the feedback loop that makes it the least-bad system.

I'm sure there's a better system than anything anyone has tried. After all, capitalism has so many flaws and all it really has going for it is that it's better than everything else that has been tried. I don't have much clue what a better system would look like, since clearly it doesn't look anything like feudalism or communism, but I'm pretty sure the next evolutionary step comes when most people own voting stock either directly or through values-themed funds. How much regulation would we need given powerful shareholders with values other than "maximum profits at any cost"?

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Ergo China is real communism. So was the USSR. So is N. Korea.

No, they're totalitarian states and in the case of North Korea, not even pretending to be communist, but have adopted a jingoistic nationalist stance.

Those are the outcome of the philosophy. Not social evolution until eventual utopia. Accept this fact. Communism/socialism concentrates power in a very unhealthy way.

No, people pretending to be communists did. Which only puts them several centuries behind people pretending to be democrats, republicans, royalists, and theocrats.

Re:America's fall

[Anonymous Coward]

The real problem are the poor implementations. As we've seen countless times, whether you have a capitalist, a communist, or a socialist system, it's all going to fail if the people aren't paying attention and your government sucks.

Re:America's fall

[TheCarp]

Perhaps the truth is that if your system relies on more than a fraction of the population to be paying attention then it is flawed. This is why spam fighters fight for opt-in not opt-out. This idea that if you don't take up arms and violently revolt or get a huge constituency together to oppose something, then you consent.....is just bullshit.

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

The people own the means of production is _capitalism_. Granting most people don't plan well enough or work hard enough to gain much ownership.

You're _sure_ there's a better system? WTF?

Re:America's fall

[HornWumpus]

All communist states will always devolve to totalitarianism. It's built into the philosophy.

No true Scottsman is a fallacy. Communism is what actually happens when communists are in charge, not what Marx and Engles dreamed of.

Re:K-pop idol, Hwayoung

[Anonymous Coward]

this picture is like someone wishing a good day to your penis.

How is this a protest?

[Anonymous Coward]

China's Single's Day on November 11, which started out in the 1990s as a protest to Valentine's Day.

Considering the fact that Valentine's day is a Hallmark holiday to get people to buy trinkets, how is setting up another Hallmark holiday to get people to buy even more trinkets a protest?

Re:How is this a protest?

[Vicarius]

China's Single's Day on November 11, which started out in the 1990s as a protest to Valentine's Day.

Considering the fact that Valentine's day is a Hallmark holiday to get people to buy trinkets, how is setting up another Hallmark holiday to get people to buy even more trinkets a protest?

By protesting in this way they want to draw attention to single people, who feel left out during usual holidays, especially during Valentine's Day. People participating in this so called protest are trying to show that they are an important demographic, who wants to be mentioned during other holidays and during marketing campaigns.

Re:How is this a protest?

[jbeaupre]

We already have many holidays targeted at singles, with extensive marketing. They are called Friday Night, and sponsored by every beer and liquor company, plus Trojan.

Re:How is this a protest?

[Anonymous Coward]

So in other words, its not a protest at all.

Re:How is this a protest?

[Bigbutt]

No worse than "Mother's Day" or "Father's Day", both started to honor parents but promoted by commercial industries. All started out as a celebration but all plus Thanksgiving (Black Friday) and Christmas have become outlets for crass commercialism.

[John]

Re:How is this a protest?

[s.petry]

This Holiday does not get them trinkets you insensitive clod! The participants receive headaches the next day, mingled with disappointment and regret.

Re:How is this a protest?

[Anonymous Coward]

We already have many holidays targeted at singles, with extensive marketing. They are called Friday Night, and sponsored by every beer and liquor company, plus Trojan.

Ever tried to go out on a Friday night? Couples everywhere.

Re:How is this a protest?

[Anonymous Coward]

We already have many holidays targeted at singles, with extensive marketing. They are called Friday Night, and sponsored by every beer and liquor company, plus Trojan.

Yes. A bunch of alcoholic nymphomaniacs.

Ironic that most leave that environment only to find themselves married, sexless, and still drinking heavily.

Ain't stereotypes a bitch?

Re:How is this a protest?

[T.E.D.]

Actually, judging by the ads I see over the urinals, Friday Night is mostly sponsored by bail bondsmen.

Re:How is this a protest?

[Anonymous Coward]

No worse than "Mother's Day" or "Father's Day", both started to honor parents

Much like today, Armistice Day, which was about peace, but is now about honoring war and it's warriors, Mother's Day started out as a day to think about ending war and turned into one about buying overpriced crap.

In 1872 Julia Ward Howe called for women to join in support of disarmament and asked for 2 June 1872, to be established as a "Mother's Day for Peace".

It's quite sad how pro war and consumerism this nation has become.

Re:How is this a protest?

[SolitaryMan]

February 14th is the holiday targeted at singles. It supposed to make them feel lonely and desperate, so that they will go out and buy a bunch of shit to feel better and/or in a hope to get someone this way.

Re:How is this a protest?

[hobarrera]

I'm staying away from holidays with trojans or any other kind of malware, thank you very much.

not a bad way of controlling population growth

[Anonymous Coward]

appealing to single people with discounts and goods in order to stay single year by year is pretty damned efficient use of psychology rather than blunt opression.

Re:not a bad way of controlling population growth

[mwvdlee]

Yeah, give me cheap trinkets over sex any day!

Re:not a bad way of controlling population growth

[Culture20]

appealing to single people with discounts and goods in order to stay single year by year is pretty damned efficient use of psychology rather than blunt opression.

I think you misspelled "in addition to".

Re:not a bad way of controlling population growth

[cusco]

Well, you're posting on SlashDot, that's likely the only way it's going to go anyway.

Yeah Communism!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Marx would be turning over in his grave!!!

Re:Yeah Communism!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Marx was an idiot with a broken philosophy that appeals to the half-smart.

Re:Yeah Communism!!!

[TangoMargarine]

Well, since an Anonymous Coward casually dismissed it in a single-sentence post on Slashdot, I guess we should all just give up on the idea of philosophy then.

Alibaba vs Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon is terrified of Alibaba's possible expansion into the US market. Alibaba is so much larger and can get better deals from the factories in China which Amazon doesn't have much hope of competing with. Online purchases are very price competitive with ppl shopping around for best deals, and Alibaba has a huge market advantage over their US-based rival, not to mention just sheer size.

In the end it's a win for consumers to have more competition in the online retail segment.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[HornWumpus]

Alibaba's has had an English language web site for years. The shipping costs kill most deals.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[Fwipp]

Unless Alibaba starts putting warehouses in the US (so they can take advantage of bulk shipping).

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[HornWumpus]

Weekly raids for counterfeit goods.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[CastrTroy]

But there's a hundred Chinese websites out there that will ship stuff to you free of charge. It usually takes a few weeks to get there, so if you don't need something right away, it's a great way to save money. Even paying for the courier rates aren't that bad if you're buying more expensive items.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[slashmydots]

Clearly you have never used Alibaba. It's the biggest group of liars, thieves, and scam artists in the entire world. Everyone is selling fakes, low quality electronics from pretend brand names, illegally ripped off patented gear, more fakes, and pretending to ship items then claiming they have no idea where it went. I can't believe anyone in China would tolerate that kind of crap but maybe since they live there it's either better or they're used to everyone being dishonest and selling low quality crap.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[m00sh]

Amazon is terrified of Alibaba's possible expansion into the US market. Alibaba is so much larger and can get better deals from the factories in China which Amazon doesn't have much hope of competing with. Online purchases are very price competitive with ppl shopping around for best deals, and Alibaba has a huge market advantage over their US-based rival, not to mention just sheer size.

In the end it's a win for consumers to have more competition in the online retail segment.

I agree that Amazon's biggest drawback is the lack of direct China sellers. Since Amazon's ratings system is so broken and products have to be strictly described, the Chinese sellers on Amazon are not useful to buy from.

The Ebay Chinese sellers are much better and some have warehouses in the US.

While this isn't a huge deal for Amazon right now, the Chinese products have now been getting better and better and there are some products that are so unique and useful than anything available in the US. The Chinese are able to offer super-low price, uniquely designed and useful products especially for the specialized needs - like specialty tools and electronics.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[Rich0]

But there's a hundred Chinese websites out there that will ship stuff to you free of charge. It usually takes a few weeks to get there, so if you don't need something right away, it's a great way to save money. Even paying for the courier rates aren't that bad if you're buying more expensive items.

If anybody tried to scale this up I'm sure that customs would step in. When I've bought 50-cent cables with $1 shipping on Amazon and such they often show up in little brown envelops with a stamp on them declaring the item as a gift. I'm sure customs can't stay on top of that when it is just little stores mailing 20 packages a week to the US, but try to do that from a warehouse and toss in a few Amazon complaints and you'll see shipments getting intercepted unless the paperwork is above-board.

I'm sure any large company could stay on-top of the legalities, but it would still mean not selling counterfeit goods, compliance with FCC/etc, and no doubt some duties. I doubt the prices would be quite as cheap as they are now.

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[Anonymous Coward]

While this isn't a huge deal for Amazon right now, the Chinese products have now been getting better and better and there are some products that are so unique and useful than anything available in the US. The Chinese are able to offer super-low price, uniquely designed and useful products especially for the specialized needs - like specialty tools and electronics.

Any examples of these unique products?

Re:Alibaba vs Amazon

[m00sh]

While this isn't a huge deal for Amazon right now, the Chinese products have now been getting better and better and there are some products that are so unique and useful than anything available in the US. The Chinese are able to offer super-low price, uniquely designed and useful products especially for the specialized needs - like specialty tools and electronics.

Any examples of these unique products?

One area from the top of my head: bicycling. Multi-thousand lumen LED headlamps with LiIon battery packs, countless LED and laser lights for bikes, bike computers and gadgets, clothing for riding bikes including reflector straps and wearable LED lights and so on.

apples and oranges

[QuietLagoon]

...China's biggest e-retailer, totaled more than $3.1 billion, doubling the $1.5 billion spent by U.S. consumers on Cyber Monday in 2012.

How many people live in China? How many people live in the US?

.
A more valid comparison would be the amount of money spent per person, that removes the bias of large-populations.

Re:apples and oranges

[EvilGrin5000]

...China's biggest e-retailer, totaled more than $3.1 billion, doubling the $1.5 billion spent by U.S. consumers on Cyber Monday in 2012.

How many people live in China? How many people live in the US?

. A more valid comparison would be the amount of money spent per person, that removes the bias of large-populations.

Agreed. Here are some numbers:

Currently the US hosts: 317,047,520 people
China hosts: 1,349,585,838 people
(Source: http://www.census.gov/popclock/)
Ratio US to China: 1:4.2567

Re:apples and oranges

[Anonymous Coward]

A more valid comparison would be the amount of money spent per person, that removes the bias of large-populations.

Depends on context. If I develop a product that has to be tailored for a specific market and have to make a choice I might very well decide to go for the market with the most consumers.
If I look at money spent per person I am likely to end up with Norway, Schweiz and other small nations with a comparably rich population.

If you want US to be placed high on the list, total spendings are the way to go, or you can abuse the smaller nations lack of social classes and go for something like average spending by non Spanish speaking population or whatever.

Re:apples and oranges

[elsuperjefe]

yes, by gum, we are NOT to be out-consumerized by the Chinese!

Re:apples and oranges

[pr0fessor]

Cyber Monday is a poor comparison also since it immediately follows and is a continuation of Black Friday. {it's an attempt to catch extra sales from those people put off by the large crowds associated with Black Friday in retail stores}

Re:apples and oranges

[Anonymous Coward]

You also have to consider that a large number of Non-Chinese (European, Australian, Canadian, etc.) people will more likely buy from ebay than ali.

Re:apples and oranges

[aralin]

But China's middle class is roughly the same size as US middle class. But they just about met. In a decade China will have double the size of middle class, while US middle class is steadily shrinking.

Re:apples and oranges

[crimson tsunami]

Are you trying to compare the number of people buying things, or the number of dollars spent,or some combination?
Although there are many more people in China, they are also much poorer.

More people are doing the spending yes. But they are also spending a greater percentage of their money than the equivalent US shopper. So that makes them more consumerist, which I think is the point of the article.

Re:apples and oranges

[kruach aum]

And then correct it for average income

Re:apples and oranges

[Anonymous Coward]

An even better way would be % spent of total income per person.
To remove the rich-white-guy bias of wealthy countries.

Cyber Monday?

[Morris Thorpe]

Interesting to see the term used here of all places.

Remember when that term was rolled out in 2005 and we laughed? It was a bad marketing term (I mean cyber-anything went out in the 90's) for an obviously-concocted day. The Monday after Thanksgiving was not the busiest online shopping day of the year at the time. http://slashdot.org/story/05/11/29/135240/cyber-monday-doesnt-exist

And here we are, a few years later....

Re:Cyber Monday?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you prefer iMonday?

Re:Cyber Monday?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would prefer Retailmonday Superhighway.

Fleshlights and Dragon dildos

[Anonymous Coward]

Just saying ...

Protest ey?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Started out as a protest agains Valentines Day"

Nice try every business owner ever...

Google and its limits

[Anonymous Coward]

I googled it:

Thursday, November 28
Thanksgiving Day 2013

What googling doesn't tell me is that Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of the eleventh month every year. That's the kind of "answering the question" that only a human can really understand and deliver upon.

So this is a good example of:

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a night... teach him how to catch the fish and he'll eat forever."

Though when I'm left with the bad taste of a rude and uncuth dickhead pissing in my entertainment stream I'm more drawn to:

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night... Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life"

apostrophe fault, points deducted

[Anonymous Coward]

Got it right in the write-up, but wrong wrong wrong in the headline.

Sad, sad holiday

[Anonymous Coward]

"Singles Day". A day celebrating the fact that there are too many single men in China because, far too often, they kill their female babies.

opposite day

[minstrelmike]

Kind of reminds me of Calvin and Hobbs Opposite Day.
One of the things that has always bothered me is that citizens and politicians say our nation values peace but the only sorts of major awards we give out are to soldiers and we have several days honoring soldiers.
No awards and no days for war protesters, apparently because we value peace so much.

Re:opposite day

[wcrowe]

Good point. And today is a good day to bring it up. Because originally this was Armistice Day (and still is in some countries). It was a day to celebrate peace - or at least, the cessation of war. From Wikipedia: "A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday: "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

My first thought was...

[Anonymous Coward]

With so many single Chinese men it's almost like they don't have enough women to go around. I wonder why that could be...

Get used to it, America!

[Anonymous Coward]

The world's real economic giant is restless, and will soon be awake! Now, remember all that bullshit you were saying?

What do people buy on Singles Day?

[erice]

Cyber Monday and Black Friday are driven by people buying Christmas gifts. I can see party supplies being purchased for Singles Day those don't seem like big enough purchases nor are they likely to be purchased online. Or is it completely arbitrary and just an excuse for enough shops to have big sales and enough people are willing to make unrelated purchases on that day if they can get a good deal?

Re:What do people buy on Singles Day?

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutely everything.
Its completely arbitrary, probably nothing much is sold "near" that day as all the focus is on that one day.
The discounts are quite large so people wait for it and buy anything from shoes to televisions.

Sounds like a government-made thing

[ArcadeMan]

Celebrate your celibacy, because there's too many of us already!

Either that or it was made-up by a Chinese sex toy company.

Because Protesters are Dirty Hippies

[Anonymous Coward]

And the regimes they praised turned out to be far more brutal than the ones we were backing.

See also: North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq...

Go to a Pub/Bar Valentines...

[DarthVain]

It's already Singles Day (or night really). Everyone else feels obligated to be someplace else.

It also has the air of desperation that exists for singles at a wedding.