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

The takeaway

[93 Escort Wagon]

Despite living in a country with over a billion people, there are apparently a lot of lonely Chinese.

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..

Re:Singles' Day

[Nidi62]

And what is Singles' Day?

From what I understand it's kind of an anti-Valentines Day. Basically a day for urban singles to spend money on things for themselves. A lot of young people in China have moved to the cities so have a decent amount of money, but reduced availability of women looking to be in relationships (due to a combination of young people focusing on careers and a carryover form the One Child Policy) means a lot of people aren't in relationships. Basically it's a Chinese Hallmark (ie made up) holiday to celebrate being single by buying yourself crap instead of buying it for a boyfriend or girlfriend.

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.

In fairness

[s.petry]

The one child policy led to a form of gender genocide. The disparity is as high as 1 woman for every 1.4 men in the major cities . Still today you have people killing female babies in mass numbers. Strangely Wiki claims this is a "birth imbalance" instead of what it really is. They also don't remove or mention the sex slaves from the numbers, so there is most certainly favorable Chinese bias in the page. Human rights groups can't investigate this either, so the numbers given are from the Government.

Re: In fairness

[johnsmithperson123]

Which is really putting China in a bad place. They need a war soon, or else all the young men with nothing to do might take matters into their own hands.

Re: In fairness

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, hands.

Re:In fairness

[Anonymous Coward]

The one child policy was phased out in 2015. When it was in effect, it only applied to people living in the cities. People in rural areas could have more than one child (presumably because they were farmers and needed the extra labor.) Fines were somewhat arbitrary but could be many times the average annual salary. Failure to pay the fine would mean your child would never be able to go to school, get a job, rent an apartment, etc.

An interesting side note, it is illegal in China for doctors to tell a pregnant woman the gender of her unborn child. So if you ever meet a pregnant Chinese woman, don't bother asking if it's a boy or a girl.

Re:In fairness

[ShanghaiBill]

you could have more than one if you wanted to pay heavy fines.

My wife is Chinese, and her brother wanted a 2nd kid back in 2003, when the "fine" was 5000 RMB, or about $700. I gave him the money, and they had a daughter a year later. She is 12 years old now, and is the world's nicest niece. It was the best $700 I ever spent.

Re:The West better start paying attention...

[31415926535897]

How is it bad for the US if China is doing well? As far as I can tell, we'll actually have a much better economy here in the US if the rest of the world becomes affluent. They don't have to be doing poorly for us to be doing well--economics is not a zero sum game. I say: good for China that they're growing.

better explanation

[nimbius]

this is also called the 11/11 day sale (single digits) and largely affects http://aliexpress.com/ a competitor to amazon.com

Re:The West better start paying attention...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, that is true, Alibaba dwarfs either Amazon or Ebay and is in fact bigger than both together. But more than that, most Ebay sellers are just sourcing items from Alibaba and re-selling on Ebay. A huge fraction of what you buy from Ebay stores is really coming from Alibaba stores originally, with a mark-up by the Ebay middleman.

Doubles day

[Oswald McWeany]

If there were a doubles day they would make 35.4 billion.

Re:Singles' Day

[AmiMoJo]

Does anyone know if they do White Day in China?

In Japan you have Valentine's day, when women give gifts to men, and then a month later in March they have White Day when men give gifts to women.