Singles' Day in the world’s most populous country has become a mammoth marketing event for China's e-commerce businesses that have turned it into the world’s biggest online shopping extravaganza.
Singles' Day, which originated on university campuses in Nanjing, China in the 1990s, became an annual shopping bonanza after Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce retailer, made it into an event a decade ago.
This year's sales surpassed last year’s record, with two of the country's largest online retailers reporting combined sales of more than US$63 billion, even before final numbers were reported. The eye-popping figures make Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. seem somewhat anemic and humdrum by comparison. Alibaba posted on its website and on , but for the very keen, the company also provided a .
Singles' Day by the numbers:
1. Singles' Day takes place on November 11, because the number one and the date, 11/11, looks like a single person.
2. Alibaba said sales by merchants on its platforms (US$38.38 billion) by midnight local time, handily surpassing last year's total of US$30.8 billion.
3. Alibaba said exceeded 1.042 billion in 18 hours and 31 minutes; surpassing the 2018 total.
4. US$1 billion just 1 minute and 7 seconds after midnight on November 11, and after 29 minutes and 45 seconds.
5. In the U.S. in 2018, Black Friday brought in US$6.2 billion last year, and US$7.9 billion on Cyber Monday, .
6. Alibaba rival, JD.com, reported sales of 179.4 billion yuan ($25.6 billion) by mid-afternoon, according to The Associated Press.
7. More than from over 200 countries and regions were expected to participate in this year's event; in 2009.
8. A once-informal day, a countdown gala leading up to Singles' Day that included a performance from Taylor Swift was broadcast on nearly 30 online streaming platforms and TV channels.
9. Online shopping makes up 19.5 per cent of Chinese consumer spending, compared with about 11 per cent for American consumers, according to The Associated Press.
10. Alipay said it set a for most payment transactions, processing 256,000 payment transactions per second, just 5 minutes into Singles' Day; 1.48 billion transactions were ultimately processed over the course of 24 hours.
11. China’s State Post Bureau is packages from Nov 11 to 18, according to state-run press agency Xinhua.
