On Friday, China’s e-commerce king Alibaba (BABA) held its annual Singles’ Day shopping event, posting record sales of $17.8 billion worth of gross merchandise volume (GMV) and soaring past last year’s results of $14.3 billion. This figure was easily beaten in Chinese Yuan at 3:30 pm.
Back in the 1990s, Singles’ Day was first celebrated by young, single Chinese people as a pushback against Valentine’s Day. Now, it has become one of the country’s biggest shopping events. Alibaba began the “holiday” in 2009, promoting discounts at certain retailers on its various digital platforms; the company uses Singles’ Day as a way to boost its revenues in the typically slow sales period before the Lunar New Year season.
This year, Alibaba said that deals are offered by athletic giants Nike Inc. NKE and Adidas ADDYY, iPhone maker Apple Inc. AAPL, industrial automation company Siemens AG-ADR SIEGY and fast fashion retailer Uniqlo. Many international brands have jumped on the holiday over recent years. According to survey, 14,000 brands took part in 2016 Singles’ Day, making up roughly 30% of total GMV just half-way into the shopping event. Big Chinese brands like appliance manufacturers Haier and Midea and smartphone maker Meizu also reported strong profits in the event.
Popular celebrities made appearances at the four-hour “countdown event” in Shenzhen this year, including actress Scarlett Johansson, David Beckham and his wife, fashion designer Victoria Beckham, Kobe Bryant, and live music from OneRepublic. Even Alibaba CEO Jack Ma showed up and performed a magic trick on stage.
For some perspective on how big of a sale Singles’ Day is, 2015’s Black Friday, the annual day-after-Thanksgiving sale here in the US, only reached $4.5 billion in GMV; Cyber Monday, the annual Monday-after-Thanksgiving e-commerce sale event, only saw a record $3 billion last year, or pocket change compared to what Singles’ Day brings in.
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