China e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba Group set a $30.8 billion record for 24-hour sales at its annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
The growth rate declined to 27% in local currency terms from 39% a year earlier, amid increasing competition from other shopping platforms in China and easing economic growth in the country this year.
The 10th anniversary of the biggest shopping day in the world started on Saturday in Shanghai with a four-hour gala that saw Mariah Carey, Allen Iverson and Cirque du Soleil take the stage, along with Asian pop stars Jay Chou and Coco Lee. More than 200 million watched the show on television and online, Alibaba said.
On Sunday, hundreds of millions of consumers and more than 180,000 brands participated in the 11.11 “Singles’ Day” event on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms. Some 46% of buyers were born after 1990, CEO Daniel Zhang said in remarks to the press after midnight local time. The day underscored the strength and rise of the Chinese consumer, said relatively soft-spoken Zhang, playing the role of company frontman after Alibaba recently announced charismatic co-founder Jack Ma planned to retire as chairman next year.
Brands whose transactions exceed more than 100 million yuan of gross merchandise value included Apple, Nike and Estee Lauder. The scale of business dwarfs similar U.S. holiday spending events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The Singles’ Day event started out with sales of only $7 million in 2009. Growth this year slowed in part because 11.11 discounting has been embraced by so many other Chinese platforms and merchants, including rival JD.com. To expand sales, Alibaba also promoted 11.11 on its Lazada platform for Southeast Asia shoppers.
Alibaba used the event to highlight a variety of businesses in its vast ecosystem, including Cainiao delivery, Hema supermarkets and Easyhome furnishings. (See related story here.)
Hundreds of journalists – local and foreign—monitored the day’s sales figures on a huge screen in a press center along the Huangpu River in an area of Shanghai that hosted the World Expo in 2010.
--Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
