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Laura Zhou

Online retailers braced themselves for 24 hours of frenetic activity as they prepared for the world's biggest online shopping marathon on Singles Day.
Photographs of staff at e-commerce giant Alibaba gearing up for the event have been circulating online since Tuesday, with camp beds and tents set up in offices as part of the preparations.
Red banners with stirring slogans aimed at motivating staff were displayed at the headquarters of rival e-commerce firm JD.com in Beijing.
READ MORE: On His Majesty's Singles Service: Jack Ma pockets over US$3 billion in less than hour as Daniel Craig and Kevin Spacey promote China's Singles' Day
The company had prepared instant noodles and fruit and beverages for its staff as they worked through the early hours and into the night yesterday, Chinanews.com reported.
The firm appeared to be trying to instil a competitive fighting spirit in its employees.
"Keep fighting", one banner read.

"Fight the double eleven battle, kill the big face cat," another said, in a reference to the November 11 date for Singles Day and the Chinese name for its rival Alibaba's Tmall.com which literally means "sky cat".
Religious rites were performed to ensure commercial success for online stores on the big shopping day.
READ MORE: Singles Day November 11: How did AliBaba and JD.com turn China's celebration of the lonely into a shopping orgy?
E-commerce retailers in Guangzhou burned incense and offered a roast pig as an offering, the China Youth Daily reported.

Some workers even went as far as bowing before posters of Alibaba chairman Jack Ma Yun and JD.com's co-founder Richard Liu, the report said.
Masseurs were also hired to help massage away staff members' tensions as they took in the cash, the report added.
Ride-sharing app Uber sent out text messages offering free rides to ladies in Beijing from 5pm to 10pm yesterday.
Some firms offered subsidies for their workers to shop. For example, a tech company in Chongqing gave out a 1,100-yuan (HK$1340) allowance to each of its employees.

"The Double 11 has become a festival. I won't be able to leave the office without giving my staff red packets," its chief, Li Li, was quoted by the Chongqing Morning Post as saying.
Another internet-based car rental company in Chongqing organised a matchmaking party, the newspaper reported.
Some companies in the municipality allowed their workers to start work two hours later, giving them more time to shop, the report said.


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Focus

All praise Jack Ma: Prayers to tycoon, camp beds and instant noodles as China’s online retailers gear up for Singles’ Day shopping binge

A man prays for a successful day's trading in front a cartoon image of Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma. Photos: SCMP Pictures

Jack Ma and his staff preparing for Singles' Day. 

Tents and camp beds set up for Alibaba staff as they rake in the cash during the shopping "festival". 

Singles Day sale beats spectre of 2014 by delivering record US$10bn for Alibaba, after arch bachelor James Bond launches event

James Bond actor Daniel Craig and Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma appear during Tuesday night's TV gala promoting the event. Photo: Reuters

A worker at e-commerce firm JD.com prepares at a company warehouse for the huge shopping spree. Photo: Reuters

Singles Day November 11: How did AliBaba and JD.com turn China's celebration of the lonely into a shopping orgy?

*** ONE TIME USE ONLY *** 24 May 2014, Shanghai, China --- Chinese parents note down personal information of male and female participants for their unmarried children at a massive matchmaking event in Shanghai, China, 24 May 2014. The largest matchmaking event in Shanghai was held over the weekend on May 24 and 25 in Qingpu District, with about 10,000 unmarried young men and women taking part. For the first time this year, the matchmaking expo, named Shanghai Love and Marriage Fair, had a special area for overseas returnees. In China, overseas returnees may have difficulty finding a partner because they often are older than what is considered an ideal marrying age, the women may be older than 28 years old, for example. The woman also may have a good education, so their requirements for a potential spouse are higher, said Zhou Juemin, director of the Shanghai Matchmaking Association, the organizers. --- Image by ?Imaginechina/Corbis

*** ONE TIME USE ONLY *** Singles read personal information of other singles at a blind date event in Yichun city, east Chinas Jiangxi province, 12 February 2012. Taking place during the weekend in the final run-up to the Valentines Day, the events attracted lots of young singles, and even their parents. [11NOV2014 BROADSHEET LIFE]

Wen Changlin and Zhang Feng pose for a picture with their son at home in Ningxiang county of Changsha, Hunan province, in this December 2, 2013 file photo. China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of a strict one-child policy, the ruling Communist Party said on October 29, 2015, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy. REUTERS/Stringer/Files CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYFROM THE FILES - "CHINA'S TWO CHILD POLICY"SEARCH "TWO CHILD" FOR ALL 14 IMAGES

epa01170137 Single people queue up to join in 'three-minute speed dating' (L) as they take part in a Bachelor day match-making party at a stadium in Qingdao city, eastern China's Shandong province, 11 November 2007. A matrimonial agency in Qingdao,organized 2008 single people to hold this match-making party at a stadium,to help the single people to find their spouses,but the ticket price is RMB 60 (Euros 5.49). EPA/WU HONG

(131111) -- GUANGZHOU, Nov. 11, 2013 (Xinhua) -- A storage house of Shentong Express is filled up with packages in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 11, 2013. The online shopping spree on Nov. 11, initiated in the name of "Singles Day," a celebration for those not paired off, has become China's most popular annual commercial holiday. The surging package volume caused great pressure for many express delivery companies.(Xinhua/Liang Xu) (mp)

Healthy competition

Dating is different in China: Singles read personal information about other singles at a blind date event in Yichun city, 2012. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Calling all the single ladies: Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping spree set to hit new sales record despite slowdown in China’s retail growth

A giant billboard promoting this year’s Singles’ Day shopping festival in Beijing subway. Photo: Simon Song

(141111) -- XIANGYANG, Nov. 11, 2014 (Xinhua) -- Workers sort out packages in a dispatching center of China Postal in Xiangyang, central China's Hubei Province, on Nov. 11, a holiday of "Singles Day" that has become China's busiest online shopping day. (Xinhua/Wang Hu)

10 Nov 2013, Xuchang, Henan Province, China --- Young single participants look at personal information of other bachelors at a mass matchmaking event ahead of Singles Day in Xuchang city, central Chinas Henan province, 10 November 2013. Matchmaking and blind date events were held for young singles across China over the weekend ahead of Singles Day which falls on November 11. The day was begun by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a version of Valentines Day for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date November 11 or 11.11 with four singles. --- Image by © Imaginechina/Corbis

Chinese postal workers sort out the flurry of packages to send out from their dispatch centre on November 11, Singles’ Day, last year. Photo: Xinhua

Staff members of Tmall, a business-to-consumer marketplace of China's biggest e-commerce platform Alibaba, cheer for rising order volumes in Hangzhou in 2013. Photo: Xinhua

Young single participants talk in pairs at a mass matchmaking event ahead of Singles Day in Shanghai.

For couriers, China’s ‘double 11’ shopping day means double the work

Workers work in the logistic center of Beijing Rufengda Express, one of the express delivery companies for online shopping on Tuesday morning Nov. 10, 2015. On the eve of the Double 11 online shopping spree day (Nov. 11), express delivery companies are busy with stocking up the delivery products/packages in advance. 10NOV15 Photo by Simon Song

Workers at Beijing Rufengda Express prepare for the Double 11 rush in the days before the shopping festival. Photo: Simon Song

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