Conceived in the 90’s as a day for many of China’s young adults celebrate their singledom, the date Nov 11 is significant as written numerically it’s 11/11 which resembles ‘bare branches’ a Chinese expression for the unattached.
Since 2009 Alibaba have turned this day into a national shopping event with an online shopping festival. The numbers of the 24 hour shopping frenzy outstrip Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US combined.
This year almost 2 billion dollars of sales were made in the first 3 minutes of sales and after 24hrs more than 30 billion dollars were made.
This makes 2017 the most successful ‘Singles Day’ ever and further establishes it as the world’s biggest shopping festival.
Spotting the opportunity to take something and own it has created a bumper annual day for Alibaba proving that where there is a creative opportunity for growth you always take it with both hands.