Alibaba China’s biggest e-commerce company has broken a e-commerce record raking in roughly £24 Billion in a 24 hour period. These stats are said to be eclipsing Amazon’s entire Black Friday event forecast.
The event which is an annual event ran by Alibaba was up 27% over last years total. The event which falls on Singles Day in China celebrates people not in a relationship and is ran on November 11th of each year or 11/11 which symbolises singletons.
“Event ran by Alibaba was up 27% on last years total”
Alibaba started the Singles Day event back in 2009 and since then has turned the day into a 24 hour shopping bonanza. Many other companies in China are now taking part in the event trying to profit from the frenzy of willing shoppers. It has also taken off in other Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Many of the goods bought on this day were imported, a recent survey from research firm Oliver Wyman found that 57% of consumers buying imported goods.The top three importers were:
- Japan
- United States
- South Korea
Despite the trade war between US and China. The United States has kept it’s number two spot. Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma said in September that “the conflict with China’s largest trade partner is hurting the company’s business”. Despite these warnings Alibaba executives played down concerns about the heavy tariffs that the two countries keep trading with one another. Alibaba emphasized that the company will continue to thrive from China’s ever growing middle class.
Summary
Singles day has become a huge event in not just China but now Asia. Will we soon this come to the West? Only time will tell but with the staggering numbers being raked in by companies like Alibaba it’s hard to imagine Western markets ignoring such staggering figures. These reports and this method is something that the entire search marketing industry has had to sit up and take notice of.