Yahoo Finance Alibaba's Singles' Day smashes records with over $30bn in sales
The 10th annual Chinese shopping bonanza Singles’ Day has generated a record $30.7bn (£23.6bn) in sales for internet giant Alibaba.
The first $1bn of transactions were completed in one minute and 25 seconds, Alibaba, which is often compared to Amazon, said on Sunday.
The figures include orders settled on its online payments service Alipay across its various online retail services such as AliExpress and Taobao. The boost in sales also comes as Alibaba included revenues from Lazada, an e-commerce service operating in Southeast Asia owned by the company.
Singles’ Day was launched on November 11th in 2009 as a special occasion for Chinese singles to treat themselves through retail therapy. The idea for the event is credited to Daniel Zhang, who will succeed Alibaba founder Jack Ma as the company’s executive chairman.
Brands including Mars and L’Oreal marketed their products to consumers across platforms such as Tmall, which hosts both Chinese and international brands targeting China’s consumers and Ele.me, an online food delivery service acquired by Alibaba in 2018. Starbucks started deliveries on Ele.me on Sunday.
“Alibaba is making use of all of its platforms to make Singles’ Day a holiday that also includes dining and entertainment,” said Jet Jing, president of Tmall.
The record sales come after the company pared back its revenue targets for the financial year at the start of the month following a period of economic slowdown in China and an ongoing trade war with the US, which has rattled investors.
