Yesterday, Alibaba’s Singles Day sale racked up $30 billion just in a span of 24 hours. Alibaba recorded about $1billion in 85 seconds and then $10 billion sales in the first hour past midnight. Singles’ Day, also known as Double 11, is the world’s biggest online sales event which managed to outpace the sales of U.S. shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The idea behind this event comes from the Singles Day, which is an informal holiday celebrated in China by the people who are not in relationships. The date November 11 is observed as Singles Day in China.
In 2009, Alibaba started offering Singles Day discounts and since then has turned the day into a 24-hour bonanza of online shopping in China. Alibaba’s Southeast Asia subsidiary Lazada also offers Singles Day discounts in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
This year the top three products in the early sale were Apple, Dyson and Xiaomi. In the first hour, the countries selling to China were Japan, US and South Korea. A glimpse of consumer sentiment was seen because of the tensions between US and China.
Daniel Zhang, Alibaba CEO told reporters in Shanghai, “We can feel that merchants are fully embracing the internet and helping with consumption upgrade.”
The China-US trade war likely to hamper Alibaba growth story
China’s economy is getting affected because of its trade war with the United States getting worse. According to BBC news, the US has imposed three rounds of tariffs on Chinese products this year, totaling $250 billion worth of goods. This war is going beyond and in future, if the US decides to work on the idea of import taxes, then all the China’s exports to the US would be subject to duties. This year, China’s quarterly growth was the weakest marking just 6.5%. It’s already indicating a downfall.
CNN reported in September 2018 that Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, said “It’s going to last long, it’s going to be a mess. The US-China trade war will last not for 20 months or 20 days, but “maybe 20 years.”
Despite the booming record, the annual sales growth rate fell from 39 percent to 27 percent in a year . It was the smallest in the event’s 10-year history. It would be interesting to see Alibaba’s next move.
To have a look at the highlights from the Singles Day, check out the official video. And to know more about this news, check CNN’s official website.
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