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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."
As a Canadian, I want to prepare for my online shopping discounts, but I can never remember when it is...
...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?
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A more valid comparison would be the amount of money spent per person, that removes the bias of large-populations.
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.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
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....
Just saying ...
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]
Shit better not happen!
Unless Alibaba starts putting warehouses in the US (so they can take advantage of bulk shipping).
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.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
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.
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.
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.