Alibaba Earned $10 Billion In Revenue After The First 30 Minutes Of Singles' Day

Chinese consumers spent about $10 billion in less than 30 minutes in the Singles’ Day event this year. Goods sold during the event ranging from consumer electronics to luxury items like cars. This figure reached $30.8 billion, which is equivalent to one-third of the total value for the whole day last year.

Up to this point, the total transaction value of the Singles’ Day this year has reached $38 billion, which far exceeds the figures last year.

The annual Singles' Day has become the largest shopping festival in the world organized by Alibaba. This year, in addition to Tmall and Taobao as the two traditional shopping platforms, Alibaba also expanded to platforms including Lazada & AliExpress with the desire to attract more customers outside China. The US, UK, Australia, and Japan are the foreign markets with the most buyers on this day.

“Singles' Day is becoming more recognized worldwide … but since it is still very much a domestic holiday and event, it is a true test of Chinese consumer power,” said Benson Ng, said an expert from EY Greater China.

Alibaba celebrated its first Singles' Day in 2009 as an advertising campaign, but it has gradually become a huge shopping event. Last year, Chinese consumers spent 4,000 times more than the total spending on the first Singles' Day that Alibaba organized.

Even before 11/11 took place, consumers were very excited about this event. Statistics show that 64 brands including Apple, Dyson, Lancome, and L’Oreal ... have seen pre-orders of 100 million CNY.

In China, the reason why 11 November is called Singles' Day is that there are 4 numbers ‘1’ standing together (11/11). It makes people think of loneliness and sound similar to the word "forever alone" in Chinese. That's why since the 1990s, a Chinese university campus has used this day to celebrate being single in stark contrast to Valentine's Day.