Singles Day: Alibaba Says a Lot of People in China Bought Online
The planet's biggest shopping day has come and gone, and Alibaba again showed the world how many mountains of stuff (物品) it could persuade people to buy in the 24 hours.
Monday was Nov. 11, known in China as Singles Day. This year, nearly $38.3 billion worth of stuff was sold on Alibaba's platforms (平台) that day, beating last year's $30.8 billion and making Black Friday look, yet again, like a yard sale.
China has grown richer and more digitally connected. Alibaba has become a technology powerhouse. Along the way, the company has made a few famous friends. This year the singer Taylor Swift performed in its live-streamed evening gala (庆典) in Shanghai on Sunday. In previous years the model Miranda Kerr and the actors Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig also showed on the Singles Day stage.
Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese manufacturers with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed people to buy almost everything. Alibaba's advantage wasn't hard to see: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards.
Alibaba now calls itself a data and technology company, one that provides digital tools to help the businesses on its platforms. That, in turn, leads consumers to look to those platforms for their every need, from shopping and services to entertainment and travel. Today, Alibaba is itself a gigantic company, and it wants to grow bigger still.
