Alibaba Breaks Records, Sells $17.7 Billion on Singles' Day (techinasia.com) 64
Alibaba broke its Singles' Day sales record with room to spare, offering assurances about the strength of the Chinese consumer despite the nation's economic slowdown. From a report on Tech in Asia:As the clock struck midnight, Alibaba announced its final total for 2016's Singles Day sales frenzy: US$17.7 billion. Alibaba has beaten its own sales totals each year since the sales began, and this year was no different. It passed last year's US$14.3 billion high-water mark early in the evening, a sign that this year's growth wasn't going to be quite as explosive as previous years' (in 2015, Alibaba hit the previous year's mark at midday). In the end that proved true, as Alibaba fell just short of the US$20 billion target some had been expecting it to surpass. Still, nearly US$18 billion is nothing to sneeze at.
Singles' Day (Score:2)
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Or Kraft Cheese.
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A day dedicated to singles like you and me, apparently.
Correct. And the best day to take care of number one is 11/11.
Re:Singles' Day (Score:5, Informative)
And what is Singles' Day?
From what I understand it's kind of an anti-Valentines Day. Basically a day for urban singles to spend money on things for themselves. A lot of young people in China have moved to the cities so have a decent amount of money, but reduced availability of women looking to be in relationships (due to a combination of young people focusing on careers and a carryover form the One Child Policy) means a lot of people aren't in relationships. Basically it's a Chinese Hallmark (ie made up) holiday to celebrate being single by buying yourself crap instead of buying it for a boyfriend or girlfriend.
In fairness (Score:4, Interesting)
The one child policy led to a form of gender genocide. The disparity is as high as 1 woman for every 1.4 men in the major cities . Still today you have people killing female babies in mass numbers. Strangely Wiki [wikipedia.org] claims this is a "birth imbalance" instead of what it really is. They also don't remove or mention the sex slaves from the numbers, so there is most certainly favorable Chinese bias in the page. Human rights groups can't investigate this either, so the numbers given are from the Government.
Re: In fairness (Score:3)
Re: In fairness (Score:4, Funny)
yeah, hands.
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Re:In fairness (Score:5, Informative)
The one child policy was phased out in 2015. When it was in effect, it only applied to people living in the cities. People in rural areas could have more than one child (presumably because they were farmers and needed the extra labor.) Fines were somewhat arbitrary but could be many times the average annual salary. Failure to pay the fine would mean your child would never be able to go to school, get a job, rent an apartment, etc.
An interesting side note, it is illegal in China for doctors to tell a pregnant woman the gender of her unborn child. So if you ever meet a pregnant Chinese woman, don't bother asking if it's a boy or a girl.
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So if you ever meet a pregnant Chinese woman, don't bother asking if it's a boy or a girl.
Yeah, because Chinese women can't visit Hong Kong for a quick sound scan. Right.
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That is correct it has ended, and you could have more than one if you wanted to pay heavy fines. However, fewer people are taking advantage of the second child now allowed than was expected because society has got used to the one child norm now.
Re:In fairness (Score:5, Funny)
you could have more than one if you wanted to pay heavy fines.
My wife is Chinese, and her brother wanted a 2nd kid back in 2003, when the "fine" was 5000 RMB, or about $700. I gave him the money, and they had a daughter a year later. She is 12 years old now, and is the world's nicest niece. It was the best $700 I ever spent.
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$700 not that much in the west, and probably not a huge deal to people in China toady either. I imagine it wasn't something to sneeze at for a family in China circa 2003.
Here in the US, $700 is less than a third of the cost I owed (even after insurance) for each of my children to be born. Medical Insurance is trying to enact a zero child per family policy here in the US I think.
Re:Singles' Day (Score:4, Interesting)
Does anyone know if they do White Day in China?
In Japan you have Valentine's day, when women give gifts to men, and then a month later in March they have White Day when men give gifts to women.
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The date 11/11 is like sticks, and there's basically a term for single guys in China like .. stick man or something similar.
Source: my Taiwanese wife.
The takeaway (Score:5, Funny)
Despite living in a country with over a billion people, there are apparently a lot of lonely Chinese.
Re:The takeaway (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes the presence of others can make one lonelier. I never feel lonely when out camping, kayaking or hiking out by myself for days at a time but can feel a melancholy solitude and feel alone in a crowded city full of strangers..
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The "singles" bit refers to all the 1s in the date, not being single. A lot of this stuff was probably gifts, in fact. They sell a lot of clothes, jewellery, gadgets etc. People stock up for new year and, sickeningly, Christmas.
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No, it means single as in unattached. The "1"s bit in 11/11 just reinforces the "single" bit and that's why that (unfortunate) date was chosen. Given Alibaba made it up, that's their interpretation.
Basically it's a day for the singles to celebrate, just like Valentine's day celebrate
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Trump is going to ruin singles day for Americans by placing a tariff on Chinese goods. And then he's going to start WWIII after dinner.
And half of that was shops buying from themselves (Score:5, Interesting)
>Alibaba Breaks Records, Sells $17.7 Billion on Singles' Day
The trick is simple: Alibaba gives 11.11 participant stores discount ads through the year. As nobody is still buying anything from 90% of the stores, most stores are forced to hire people to buy from them and return goods afterwards just to get those discounted clicks. This is why US SEC is going after them claiming that they faked 2/3 of the digit last year and in 2014.
^ this ^ (Score:1)
I don't have mod points so all I can say is they're being investigated by basically everyone and have been warned several times by the Chinese industry monitors about this. Nobody's had hard evidence I have seen of them faking the numbers but lots of authorities (in the US, China, some others) have been calling them out on it.
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Still, 5.9 Billion bucks is nothing to sneeze at. Their international outlet racked more sales today in Russia than what eBay sells here in a year.
Stats anyone? (Score:1)
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Last year it was like that: 90% China, 6% Russia, 4% everything else
The West better start paying attention... (Score:2)
...and here is why: -
There was a report that Alibaba generated more revenue than Ebay and Amazon combined. Have a look [rt.com]
I am afraid we in the west may soon cease to be that relevant when it comes to global or worldwide money matters, though I must admit that this is still way far off.
Re:The West better start paying attention... (Score:5, Informative)
How is it bad for the US if China is doing well? As far as I can tell, we'll actually have a much better economy here in the US if the rest of the world becomes affluent. They don't have to be doing poorly for us to be doing well--economics is not a zero sum game. I say: good for China that they're growing.
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Yes, that is true, Alibaba dwarfs either Amazon or Ebay and is in fact bigger than both together. But more than that, most Ebay sellers are just sourcing items from Alibaba and re-selling on Ebay. A huge fraction of what you buy from Ebay stores is really coming from Alibaba stores originally, with a mark-up by the Ebay middleman.
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I can say it's true here in Brazil too (the local eBay is called "Mercado Livre" [mercadolivre.com.br])
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My own theory is that this is due to (1) corruption in government and business, and (2) inefficiency due to traditional Confucian ideals which impa
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Typical sign. (Score:2)
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so the Chinese will be in good mindset for making deals. Glad to hear it, playing into Trump's hands already
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Doubles day (Score:5, Funny)
If there were a doubles day they would make 35.4 billion.
"Singles Day"= Chinese holiday (Score:1)
Singles' Day or Guanggun Jie (Chinese: ; pinyin: Gunggùn Jié; Wade–Giles: Kuang-kun chieh; literally: "bare sticks holiday") is an entertaining festival widespread among young Chinese people, to celebrate the fact that they are proud of being single.
Ah to be single again (Score:2)
Imagine if you will being alone with hundreds of millions of other lonely people, together.
Is it possible that this one child policy and other change factors completely fucked an entire generation? why so many are depressed, why suicide rates are high, especially for women?
You grow up in this odd environment where males are more sought after because they can earn more and of course expected to achieve and earn more all so they can buy stuff for themselves whilst they are alone. Sounds grand.
Now that s
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Yes, many are perfectly apathetic to the human condition. They are alone and fill their time with work and buying things.
PRC wants to keep you busy. Don't think too much about it just be productive.
New trend developing (Score:2)
This is getting quite annoying and disappointing.
See, back in the "good ol' days", we used to pay attention to market trends, gets news releases about a huge new storefront corporation opening, etc. Now it's starting to degrade to "News" being released about a single website/corporation's "records" being "broken". It's starting to actually sound like a broken record now.
To stoop to the level of "News" release advertising to try and gather more uneducated peoples' purchases is different from SPAM.. how?
That's quite surprising,... (Score:2)
I thought all their fucking wealth was tied up in property at Vancouver, LA, SF, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland? ,..........
Fucking decimating a generation over here, fuck our politicians allowing this, fuck them to fucking death.
I guess their wallets truly are endless.
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I thought all their fucking wealth was tied up in property at Vancouver, LA, SF, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland? ,..........
Or perhaps, just perhaps, your starting premise is at best simplistic and most likely wrong.
That the reasons property prices are high in those cities are for a multitude of reasons, some foreign, but many domestic. Perhaps because (in some of those countries), the economy has been doing relatively well (especially in those specific cities -- relative to the rest of the country -- which are drivers of their country's economic growth). Tax and planning laws in many countries encourage property speculation. Quantitative easing (aka printing money, aka currency manipulation by the Federal Reserve) has led to a prolong period of low interest rates which reduces the interest payments and bumps up property prices. Hey life is complex.
You want cheaper house prices, have a depression where there's an unemployment rate (which only counts people actively looking for work) of 30%, that'd fix you right up. Buy in the rust-belt states.
Fucking decimating a generation over here, fuck our politicians allowing this, fuck them to fucking death.
I guess their wallets truly are endless.
Nah, let's just hate instead. Yeah, spread the hate.
wish I had mod points, refreshing to see someone who actually understands one effect in a complex set of interactions isn't the cause. People simplify complex realities with multi variables and direct and indirect interactions between those variables into binary black/white single variable scenarios with no outside interactions.
It wasn't much of a sale... (Score:2)