Alibaba Breaks Records, Sells $17.7 Billion on Singles' Day (techinasia.com)

Alibaba broke its Singles' Day sales record with room to spare, offering assurances about the strength of the Chinese consumer despite the nation's economic slowdown. From a report on Tech in Asia:As the clock struck midnight, Alibaba announced its final total for 2016's Singles Day sales frenzy: US$17.7 billion. Alibaba has beaten its own sales totals each year since the sales began, and this year was no different. It passed last year's US$14.3 billion high-water mark early in the evening, a sign that this year's growth wasn't going to be quite as explosive as previous years' (in 2015, Alibaba hit the previous year's mark at midday). In the end that proved true, as Alibaba fell just short of the US$20 billion target some had been expecting it to surpass. Still, nearly US$18 billion is nothing to sneeze at.

Comments

And half of that was shops buying from themselves

[fubarrr]

>Alibaba Breaks Records, Sells $17.7 Billion on Singles' Day

The trick is simple: Alibaba gives 11.11 participant stores discount ads through the year. As nobody is still buying anything from 90% of the stores, most stores are forced to hire people to buy from them and return goods afterwards just to get those discounted clicks. This is why US SEC is going after them claiming that they faked 2/3 of the digit last year and in 2014.

Re:The takeaway

[Oswald McWeany]

Sometimes the presence of others can make one lonelier. I never feel lonely when out camping, kayaking or hiking out by myself for days at a time but can feel a melancholy solitude and feel alone in a crowded city full of strangers..