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Alibaba Singles' Day Sales Hit $8.6 Billion in First Hour | Bloomberg

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Alibaba's Singles' Day online sale is the world's largest event.

Alibaba Just Sold $1.5 Billion Worth of Stuff in 3 Minutes on Singles' Day | Fortune (It's November 10, 2017 in the US. It's November 11, 2017 in China.)

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Alibaba Singles' Day Sales Hit $8.6 Billion in First Hour | Bloomberg

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This Is How Big 2017’s Singles Day Could Be for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd

James Brumley
InvestorPlaceNovember 10, 2017
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), though for different reasons. Amazon.com is the beneficiary of the swell of holiday gift-giving purchases, while Alibaba is the go-to middleman for China’s so-called Singles Day … a self-indulgent day of spending on yourself.

is Singles Day?" data-reactid="12" style="margin-bottom: 1em;">It begs the question for many current or prospective owners of BABA stock though: Just how big of a deal is Singles Day?

It’s huge (the specific number waits below), but not just for Alibaba anymore, and not just because Alibaba gets to sell tons of merchandise. This year’s Singles Day event will also be a chance for Alibaba CEO Jack Ma to put a new strategy to the test and simultaneously expand the company’s reach.


Singles Day and BABA Stock
For the record, Singles Day started out as something of a joke in 1993 when single students at Nanjing University felt they were being unfairly missing the special attention couples give one another on Valentine’s Day. The date for Singles Day is always Nov. 11, or 11/11, as the number one, of course, is by definition single. It’s also said that 11/11 evokes “bare branches,” a Chinese expression for single people.

With a little help from Alibaba back in 2013, Singles Day has since morphed into a nationwide shopping event, though Alibaba captures the lion’s share of the drummed-up business.



Ling Shou Tong
While the incredible sales growth has made and will make for riveting headlines, simple revenue generation isn’t the only thing Ma has on his mind anymore, nor is it the only matter BABA stock holders should chew on.

It has been in the works for a while, evolving, but Alibaba’s “new retail” platform is going to be put to the test in earnest this year. Namely, about a tenth of China’s 6,000,000 convenience stores will be selling goods online through Alibaba’s platform, and letting those stores fulfill any required shipping.


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eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). The platform, called Ling Shou Tong — which more or less translates into “connect retail” — is an inventory management tool that lets each shop manage the procurement and sale of its goods, but also lets Alibaba see what goods can be found at any of the given stores.

It’s a bold and somewhat unusual idea, but one that provides a massive amount of consumer purchasing behavior to Alibaba (which is what it really wants) at the same time as it brings more retailers into the ecosystem.

Not unlike its U.S. counterpart Amazon, Alibaba is entering new ventures perhaps without really knowing what the end goal is, but knowing that having such partners in place (think Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods) will offer Alibaba lots of options in the future … including ones not even yet envisioned.

In that light, 2017’s Singles Day could mark something of a pivot point for the company’s business model.

Bottom Line for Alibaba
By the time you read this, the Singles Day event may be over, with slightly different numbers being reported than the forecasted ones touted above. It doesn’t entirely matter, though — it’s a massive day for Alibaba’s top line, and though to a lesser extent, it certainly doesn’t hurt the bottom line. Indeed, it wouldn’t be overstating the matter to say a strong showing on the all-important day can salvage a so-so year for China’s e-commerce giant, while a disappointing Singles Day could sour an otherwise fruitful year.

Whatever this year’s outcome is for the Nov. 11 e-commerce explosion, it’s a day all current and would-be owners of BABA should keep a close eye on, if for no other reason than the fact that it’s a barometer of the things Alibaba is doing right and wrong.

Perhaps more than anything though, it’s a reminder to judge and appreciate Ma’s latest brainchild, which may end up being an even bigger deal than Singles Day itself.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/big-2017-singles-day-could-161008408.html
 
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Singles’ Day shopping bonanza moves beyond China
By Shen Meng Source:Global Times Published: 2017/11/9

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The world's biggest online shopping festival, known as Singles' Day or Double 11, is just around the corner.

The idea for the day was originally created by Chinese netizens on the symbolic date of November 11 (hence Double 11) as a defiant celebration of bachelorhood - a key component being comforting themselves by buying products online. Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group was the first to capitalize on it by offering special promotions and discounts, and has been steadily racking up ever-increasing sales on the day since 2009.

It has become hard to imagine what the limit might be for online transactions in China. Over the years, the ever-expanding Double 11 shopping carnival has benefited hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers, China's mobile payment sector, the logistics industry, and millions of manufacturers. It is undeniable that against the background of the current sluggish global economy, China's e-commerce sector is not only a new business card for China, but has also become an important factor in the transformation and upgrading of China's real economy.

Considered a borderless world, the Internet has broken the barriers of traditional commerce and trade, drastically reducing costs and connecting both ends of the e-commerce platform - consumers and producers - at the most favorable prices. It offers consumers a broader range of goods and gives producers access to a broader market. People can place orders online and wait at home for their goods to be delivered.

This revolutionary shopping experience reflects the profound changes China's e-commerce business has generated by bringing Chinese products to billions of families. In light of this, Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun has risen from being one of many tech entrepreneurs to becoming an honored guest for Chinese local governments and even governments around the world, all of them eager to break through development bottlenecks.

Although the development of e-commerce differs in various countries and regions due to different cultural backgrounds, it is indisputable that China's Double 11 festival has become the most important shopping event in the world. Previously, the Double 11 shopping spree only involved Chinese consumers and producers, but with the gradual internationalization of Alibaba, the tremendous potential of Chinese consumers and the increasingly strong appeal of the Double 11 event, the festival has spread to foreign consumers, and overseas producers have also been benefiting in recent years.

Alipay's international payment system and the international logistics services provided by Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba, have offered vital support. A smooth online shopping experience has enabled the influence of the Double 11 festival to enter the world market. An increasing number of consumers attract more producers, and more producers also attract more consumers. Moreover, as the creator and the biggest beneficiary of the Double 11 festival, Alibaba has accumulated huge advantages in the event that no other competitors can shake.

Double 11 has gradually evolved from an ordinary promotional activity to a grand gathering of global commerce and trade, and it has also become a worldwide event for direct transactions between producers and consumers. These two sides of the Double 11 transactions may live in different parts of the world, but an array of high-quality goods and a smooth and convenient shopping experience is the best global language for consumers.

During less than a decade since its birth in 2009, the Double 11 festival has transformed into a global event. It started in China, but now belongs to the whole world.

The author is director of Chanson&Co, a boutique investment bank in Beijing. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn
 
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Good thing alibaba is coming to pakistan. It will revolutionize the ecommerce industry in the country.
 
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wow, are they going to hit $24 billion this year? It would be like 5 times of Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Chinese just got too much money to burn.

Yet another record.

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Three minutes and one second! That's how long it took Alibaba to pass the 10-billion-yuan mark in sales on its flagship Tmall e-commerce platform at this year's Double 11 shopping bonanza, beating last year's record by 3 minutes 57 seconds.

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Big data battlefield

The Double 11 has become a battlefield not only for merchants and shoppers but also for engineers.

Millions of people simultaneously rushing to apps to grab the best bargains puts a major strain on servers. In previous years people have failed to confirm their payments in the first few minutes as they try to be the first to land the best offers promised by vendors.

In 2013, Alibaba carried out a major program called " full link stress test," which stimulated real online users to check whether the system could handle the pressure at midnight.

However, engineers failed to get the results they wanted in the first three years.

This year, however, they came up with "Project Vanguard," an unmanned stress test. Many procedures were carried out by an AI system, which decides what the user volume would be, what the scale of pressure is and what countermeasures should be put in place.

Even with all this technological wizardry, some users still experienced difficulties locking down their purchases in the first two minutes this year.

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http://china.org.cn/business/2017-11/11/content_41877041.htm
 
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