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]

Wait, there were TWO Columbuses??

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.

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: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]