Alibaba: The Giant of e-Commerce

[cirr]

So the final tally is 57.1 billion yuan。

Not a bad day of trade for Alibaba huh？

They should and will make it 100 billion yuan by 2016.

 

[TaiShang]

So the final tally is 57.1 billion yuan。

Not a bad day of trade for Alibaba huh？

They should and will make it 100 billion yuan by 2016.

Next time Chinese online stores should push more aggressively into foreign markets by facilitating online ordering system, including interfaces in multiple languages.

There are a lot out there I know dying to buy from China, made in China.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Ma Yun was born in the same village in Zhejiang as my grand father...

 

[cirr]

Next time Chinese online stores should push more aggressively into foreign markets by facilitating online ordering system, including interfaces in multiple languages.

There are a lot out there I know dying to buy from China, made in China.

I believe that's exactly what Alibaba and other Chinese online shopping platforms intend to do and achieve in the next couple of years。


Alibaba Smashes Its Record On China’s Singles’ Day With $9.3B In Sales

Jon Russell (@jonrussell)

Alibaba has announced that its total sales on Singles’ Day — China’s largest online shopping festival — reached a record $9.3 billion.

In case you missed the media hype and have no idea why November 11 (11/11) is significant, it’s China biggest e-commerce sales day. Think of it as an amalgamation of all of North America’s biggest online retail days into one… on steroids.

Home decor was a popular product category and Alibaba revealed that it sold over 1.2 million “large” home appliances, and over three million light products. But 11/11 also covers regular products — Alibaba sold more than 200,000 bottles of detergent — and the one-offs too, the company sold 50,000 cars from across its retail businesses.

The shopping day touched other parts of the group’s business beyond its marketplace websites. Alipay, its Paypal-like affiliate, saw the volume of payments processed increase by 60 percent to reach $5.8 billion across the entire day.

“Alibaba hopes to make a contribution to the Chinese economy. We feel the Chinese economy doesn’t lack external demand but internal demand is much needed and we are fortunate enough to be able to tap this demand,” Alibaba Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma said in a statement.

Last year, Alibaba did $5.75 billion in sales across its two biggest shopping services — its Taobao Marketplace and T-Mall site for brands — and the company easily matched that this year, reaching that number with more than ten hours left in the day.

The big numbers started early, and Alibaba said it clocked its first $1 billion this year in less than 20 minutes — by 12.17am to be precise. The company went on to notch its second billion in GMV one hour and 12 seconds in the sales, and passed $10 billion seven and a half hours into the day. For comparison, Cyber Monday in the U.S. generated a record $2.29 billion in sales last year.

Impressive revenue from mobile devices

It’s interesting to note that 42.6 percent of sales came from customers using mobile devices, for the first $2 billion in sales that figure was even higher at 46 percent.

Those are hugely encouraging stats for Alibaba, which has been forced to adapt its business model and strategies in recent times to cater to the huge growth in mobile internet usage in China.

Alibaba noted in its inaugural earnings report last week that its group-wide revenue from mobile devices grew a whopping 1,020 percent year-on-year to account for $606 million in the most recent quarter of business. That’s up from $54 million one year previous. Over September, the company claimed 217 million monthly active users of its mobile apps — another impressive feat.

Planning shopping around Singles’ Day

It was always like that Singles’ Day 2014 would break all records once again. Last year, Alibaba notched an 80 percent growth in sales compared to the shopping day in 2012, but this year it widened its efforts behind Mainland China, with sales expanding worldwide.

Experts believe that 11/11 has become an integral part of Chinese shopping culture, so we should expect record to tumble each year.

“Chinese users now plan their shopping around this promo day. They have come to expect great deals. And are willing to wait for it to buy. So this sales record will likely be broken every year, ” Hans Tung, managing partner of GGV Capital — an early investor in Alibaba — told TechCrunch.

Finally, more wow figures to give you a sense of perspective: Alibaba estimates that 27,000 merchants and 42,000 brands were involved in the 11/11 sales this year. That covers Tmall, Taobao, and also its AliExpress and Tmall Global services for customers outside of China.

Note: The original version of this post was updated to reflect Alibaba’s final sales figures and add comment from GGV Capital.

 

[cirr]

Xiaomi Made $254M Selling 1.16M Phones On China’s Singles’ Day

Posted 3 hours ago by Jon Russell (@jonrussell)

Singles’ Day, the largest online shopping day in China/on the planet was yesterday, and — as many predicted — a spate of companies set new sales records for the shopathon.

Alibaba, the retail giant most synonymous with the 11/11 bonanza, matched its revenue from last year with 10 hours still remaining, and Xiaomi — the smartphone-maker getting a lot of attention right now — also set a new best. Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s VP of International, tweeted that the company generated $254 million in revenue from selling 1.16 million phones.



Earlier in the day, Barra revealed that the company reached ¥100 million (US$16 million) in sales after just five minutes. Xiaomi matched its performance from last year’s 11/11 event — revenue of ¥550 million (US$90 million) — within four hours of this year’s shopping day starting.

Behind the sales numbers, Xiaomi said it had sold some 720,000 units by midday. Of that figure, around 250,000 were its flagship $300 Mi4 device, with 460,000 units of its $150 Redmi device snapped up. In addition, it says it sold 25,000 of its Mi TVs.


Xiaomi’s revenue figures are, of course, far lower than those of Alibaba, but they are nonetheless impressive for a company that sold only 19 million smartphones during the whole of 2013.

Singles’ Day came at an ideal time for Xiaomi. It has garnered increased media attention after climbing to third place in the smartphone industry (based on quarterly shipments), and these impressive sales figures will doubtless help itsapparent ongoing efforts to raise $1.5 billion in fresh funding to continue to expand its operations worldwide.

A series of new market launches this year mean Xiaomi now sells to customers in seven different countries in Asia — including India — and there are plans to reach more parts of Southeast Asia and to enter Central and Latin America.

The corks were popping over at Xiaomi HQ yesterday… here’s co-founder Bin Lin breaking out the champagne.

 

[jkroo]

Xiaomi Made $254M Selling 1.16M Phones On China’s Singles’ Day

Posted 3 hours ago by Jon Russell (@jonrussell)

Singles’ Day, the largest online shopping day in China/on the planet was yesterday, and — as many predicted — a spate of companies set new sales records for the shopathon.

Alibaba, the retail giant most synonymous with the 11/11 bonanza, matched its revenue from last year with 10 hours still remaining, and Xiaomi — the smartphone-maker getting a lot of attention right now — also set a new best. Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s VP of International, tweeted that the company generated $254 million in revenue from selling 1.16 million phones.



Earlier in the day, Barra revealed that the company reached ¥100 million (US$16 million) in sales after just five minutes. Xiaomi matched its performance from last year’s 11/11 event — revenue of ¥550 million (US$90 million) — within four hours of this year’s shopping day starting.

Behind the sales numbers, Xiaomi said it had sold some 720,000 units by midday. Of that figure, around 250,000 were its flagship $300 Mi4 device, with 460,000 units of its $150 Redmi device snapped up. In addition, it says it sold 25,000 of its Mi TVs.


Xiaomi’s revenue figures are, of course, far lower than those of Alibaba, but they are nonetheless impressive for a company that sold only 19 million smartphones during the whole of 2013.

Singles’ Day came at an ideal time for Xiaomi. It has garnered increased media attention after climbing to third place in the smartphone industry (based on quarterly shipments), and these impressive sales figures will doubtless help itsapparent ongoing efforts to raise $1.5 billion in fresh funding to continue to expand its operations worldwide.

A series of new market launches this year mean Xiaomi now sells to customers in seven different countries in Asia — including India — and there are plans to reach more parts of Southeast Asia and to enter Central and Latin America.

The corks were popping over at Xiaomi HQ yesterday… here’s co-founder Bin Lin breaking out the champagne.

Impressive and ... crazy.

 

[cirr]

Impressive and ... crazy.

Impressive indeed。1,160,000 smartphones sold by Xiaomi alone in a single day。

Five Takeaways From Alibaba's Record-Busting $9.3 Billion Shopping Fest

Nearly 43% of Sales Came From Mobile During World's Biggest E-Commerce Holiday

By Angela Doland. Published on November 11, 2014. 0

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's ambitions seem limitless: Bigger, more mobile, more global. During its just-ended annual e-commerce holiday, Alibaba set a new record, selling $9.3 billion in merchandise in a 24-hour festival.

The figure for the 11/11 sale, named for its date, Nov. 11, topped the 2013 record of $5.8 billion. That's way more than everything people bought on their computers during the five-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday last year that included both Black Friday and Cyber Monday ($5.3 billion, according to ComScore.)

So what are the big takeaways?

Size matters

Alibaba started small in founder Jack Ma's apartment, but now everything the company does is larger than life. In September, it broke the record for the biggest initial public offering, at $25 billion, in New York.

The company brought more than 600 reporters to its headquarters in Hangzhou, about 100 miles southwest of Shanghai, and flashed real-time sales figures at them on a giant screen.

Its news releases abound with huge figures: There are more than 1 billion product listings on Alibaba's platforms, which include Tmall (a giant online shopping center where brands have digital storefronts) and Taobao (similar to eBay). And more than 27,000 brands participated in the sale.

Jack Ma is the Steve Jobs of China

The big buzz of the night was whether Mr. Ma would appear. After security guards swept the room, Mr. Ma got a rock-star welcome, with the crowd rushing the stage to photograph him. He's revered in China for turning a local underdog into a giant with a market value bigger than Amazon and Facebook.

But the former English teacher, wearing a simple green sweater, injected some modesty into the proceedings: He said very big sales would make him nervous because of the impact on logistics and deliveries.

"The most difficult time will come in the next few days," Mr. Ma said. He added that he doesn't have time for online shopping himself – family members bought his shoes. (Scroll down to watch scenes from the Alibaba campus.)

Mobile has momentum

Every year, Alibaba gets more mobile sales on 11/11, sometimes called Double Eleven or Singles Day. In 2012, the figure was 5%, and last year 21%. This year it was nearly 43% after Alibaba encouraged brands and merchants to give an 80-cent discount for buying on mobile.

In China, the stakes to capture mobile consumers are huge, Many people are going online for the first time on a smartphone, not a desktop. Internet penetration in the country of 1.3 billion is 47%, so there's big room for growth. And Alibaba and rival Tencent, which has a hot chat app, WeChat, are battling to win over Chinese mobile consumers.

McCann Worldgroup Shanghai's print campaign for Alibaba shopping platform Tmall.

Chinese brands win

Many big Western brands are on Tmall, where you can buy everything from Huggies diapers to the Apple iPhone 6s to Adidas sneakers to Costco dried cranberries. But the top sellers were local brands.

Xiaomi, the local maker of sleek and cheap smartphones and other electronics devices, was No. 1. Just four years old, it's already the No. 3 smartphone player worldwide. Another smartphone brand, Huawei, was No. 2, while Haier, the Chinese appliance maker, was No. 3.

Alibaba has global ambitions but is laying low in the U.S. -- for now

Consumers worldwide could buy goods from Chinese merchants for the first time via the company's AliExpress platform (that sale started later and its full results have not yet been tallied.) Mr. Ma said the event needs a few more years to become truly global: "This is only the beginning."

China is the world's No. 1 e-commerce market now, after surpassing the United States last year, according to Mintel. Alibaba owns a small U.S. e-commerce site called 11 Main, but it didn't take part in the discount sale.

Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice chairman, said the focus now is bringing goods from U.S. merchants to Chinese consumers, though targeting U.S. shoppers could be interesting later on.

The industry is buzzing about how and when that might happen. Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru just advised people to watch out for an Alibaba marriage with eBay, probably in 2016 at the soonest.

 

[jkroo]

Impressive indeed。1,160,000 smartphones sold by Xiaomi alone in a single day。

Five Takeaways From Alibaba's Record-Busting $9.3 Billion Shopping Fest

Nearly 43% of Sales Came From Mobile During World's Biggest E-Commerce Holiday

By Angela Doland. Published on November 11, 2014. 0

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's ambitions seem limitless: Bigger, more mobile, more global. During its just-ended annual e-commerce holiday, Alibaba set a new record, selling $9.3 billion in merchandise in a 24-hour festival.

The figure for the 11/11 sale, named for its date, Nov. 11, topped the 2013 record of $5.8 billion. That's way more than everything people bought on their computers during the five-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday last year that included both Black Friday and Cyber Monday ($5.3 billion, according to ComScore.)

So what are the big takeaways?

Size matters

Alibaba started small in founder Jack Ma's apartment, but now everything the company does is larger than life. In September, it broke the record for the biggest initial public offering, at $25 billion, in New York.

The company brought more than 600 reporters to its headquarters in Hangzhou, about 100 miles southwest of Shanghai, and flashed real-time sales figures at them on a giant screen.

Its news releases abound with huge figures: There are more than 1 billion product listings on Alibaba's platforms, which include Tmall (a giant online shopping center where brands have digital storefronts) and Taobao (similar to eBay). And more than 27,000 brands participated in the sale.

Jack Ma is the Steve Jobs of China

The big buzz of the night was whether Mr. Ma would appear. After security guards swept the room, Mr. Ma got a rock-star welcome, with the crowd rushing the stage to photograph him. He's revered in China for turning a local underdog into a giant with a market value bigger than Amazon and Facebook.

But the former English teacher, wearing a simple green sweater, injected some modesty into the proceedings: He said very big sales would make him nervous because of the impact on logistics and deliveries.

"The most difficult time will come in the next few days," Mr. Ma said. He added that he doesn't have time for online shopping himself – family members bought his shoes. (Scroll down to watch scenes from the Alibaba campus.)

Mobile has momentum

Every year, Alibaba gets more mobile sales on 11/11, sometimes called Double Eleven or Singles Day. In 2012, the figure was 5%, and last year 21%. This year it was nearly 43% after Alibaba encouraged brands and merchants to give an 80-cent discount for buying on mobile.

In China, the stakes to capture mobile consumers are huge, Many people are going online for the first time on a smartphone, not a desktop. Internet penetration in the country of 1.3 billion is 47%, so there's big room for growth. And Alibaba and rival Tencent, which has a hot chat app, WeChat, are battling to win over Chinese mobile consumers.

McCann Worldgroup Shanghai's print campaign for Alibaba shopping platform Tmall.

Chinese brands win

Many big Western brands are on Tmall, where you can buy everything from Huggies diapers to the Apple iPhone 6s to Adidas sneakers to Costco dried cranberries. But the top sellers were local brands.

Xiaomi, the local maker of sleek and cheap smartphones and other electronics devices, was No. 1. Just four years old, it's already the No. 3 smartphone player worldwide. Another smartphone brand, Huawei, was No. 2, while Haier, the Chinese appliance maker, was No. 3.

Alibaba has global ambitions but is laying low in the U.S. -- for now

Consumers worldwide could buy goods from Chinese merchants for the first time via the company's AliExpress platform (that sale started later and its full results have not yet been tallied.) Mr. Ma said the event needs a few more years to become truly global: "This is only the beginning."

China is the world's No. 1 e-commerce market now, after surpassing the United States last year, according to Mintel. Alibaba owns a small U.S. e-commerce site called 11 Main, but it didn't take part in the discount sale.

Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice chairman, said the focus now is bringing goods from U.S. merchants to Chinese consumers, though targeting U.S. shoppers could be interesting later on.

The industry is buzzing about how and when that might happen. Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru just advised people to watch out for an Alibaba marriage with eBay, probably in 2016 at the soonest.

Ebay is one of Alibaba's target with no doubt. Do you still remember the handstand strategy?

 

[jkroo]

I am a little miss the eachnet times.

 

[TaiShang]

Many big Western brands are on Tmall, where you can buy everything from Huggies diapers to the Apple iPhone 6s to Adidas sneakers to Costco dried cranberries. But the top sellers were local brands.
Xiaomi, the local maker of sleek and cheap smartphones and other electronics devices, was No. 1. Just four years old, it's already the No. 3 smartphone player worldwide. Another smartphone brand, Huawei, was No. 2, while Haier, the Chinese appliance maker, was No. 3.

That's probably the best part of the story. It is better if money stays at home.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Singles day was invented in 1990 in Nanjing, not by Alibaba. Thanks.

 

[kyle Chiang]

Anyone ordred from Ali Express? It doesn't seem to have a secured checkout

There are so many kinds of Express.

Zhifubao is the third-party,consumers pay for it firstly.When you received the goods,confirmed everything is Okay,you could ask Zhifubao pay the shop and give comments.If comments is not good,the shop has to cost their commercial integral and be fined by Taobao.Later consumers can see these comments,so they can judge quality and effects in use.

 

[qwerrty]

most impressive is their cloud computing network that use to process millions of transactions per minute without a glitch

 

[TaiShang]

Alibaba will launch an international version of Taobao

Taobao, China’s smash-hit ecommerce marketplace run by Alibaba, will get an international version in English and other languages, said company founder and chairman Jack Ma today.

Ma’s remarks came during a speech at the World Internet Conference and were reported by Reuters.

Taobao is a little like Ebay in that it involves person-to-person selling, but many of its merchants are small businesses selling new goods, in contrast for the tendency of Ebay to be full of random people selling secondhand stuff.

Alibaba already has a global marketplace called AliExpress, but that’s mostly for Chinese merchants to ship wholesale to overseas buyers.

In September, Taobao launched a regional version for Southeast Asia, with translation available for a few major languages there including English. But the translated version only applies to links and navigational elements, not the actual product listings. Taobao uses the International Parcel Forwarding Service (IPFS) to send goods to overseas buyers. Shortly after launching there, 280,000 customers signed up in Singapore, and another 210,000 in Malaysia.

Ma didn’t give a timeline or any further details about the international marketplace.

 

[cirr]

Don't tell me BABA is setting itself a goal for 200 billion yuan worth of sales on the Singles' Day。

Ma and his clan need to find a good use for the funds raised from the recently concluded IPO。