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Daniel Moss

Singles Day is more than billions in sales on Alibaba and JD.com. Singles Day is more than a day for lonely hearts in China. It is both.
While now November 11 in China is more commercial than Christmas, it had a similar journey from cute to crass.
In 1993 students at Nanjing University chose November 11 as Bachelor’s day, for unmarried men to celebrate their singleness and buy themselves a present. They chose the date 11.11 as the numbers look like four singles.
The numbers are also reminiscent of empty branches, which gave us the slang term: bare branches day.
11.11.1993
This was a decade or so after the start of China’s one-child policy, which officially began in 1983 but was hanging over Chinese society unofficially since 1979.
Bachelors Day took off and was renamed Singles Day to encourage unmarried women to join in, Nasdaq.com reported.
As TV presenter and relationship academic Yue Xu told Time, the day evolved to become a deadline for those who weren’t married to update their status.
“Rather than seeing it as a way of celebrating single-hood, they see it as an end date,” Xu said. “This is the last day I’m going to be single.”
Lonely hearts would treat each other to dinner or buy another a present, perhaps ending their single status, making the day more like a Chinese Valentine’s Day.
READ MORE: Calling all the single ladies: Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping spree set to hit new sales record despite slowdown in China’s retail growth
Time’s up
But there’s a nuance in China that needs to be explained. The notion of being single was a foreign concept until recently. Chinese people were either married or not married, Xu said.
“China used to be a society where there was no dating culture,” she said. “There was no going on dates to turn into a relationship. You see someone if you can marry them or you never see them again. It’s all or nothing.”
As the one-child policy took its toll on Chinese youth, singles were becoming all the more common as male children were preferred.
In January 2015, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission acknowledged in a statement on its website: “Our country has the most serious gender imbalance that is most prolonged and affecting the most number of people”.
In 2013 about 119 boys were born for every 100 girls, leading to estimates that by 2020, men at marriage age would outnumber women by 24 million, the South China Morning Post reported.
It was the perfect environment for a sales pitch.
For the past three years November 11 has been synonymous with record breaking online sales initially publicised by Alibaba founder Jack Ma in 2009.
During that time the value of its turnover has become unfathomable. More than US$1 billion worth of goods were sold in the first 17 minutes of November 11, 2014 and the total value sold on the day reached US$9.3 billion, an increase on the 2013 total of $5.75 billion, according to Alibaba.
By comparison, Singles Day or Double-11 Day as it’s also known blitzed the US super sale Cyber Monday’s total of $2.29 billion, according to the Adobe Digital Index , which it has been doing for the past three years.
So how big is it?
More than a million products were offered last year, according to Comscore. Customers this year will be able to choose from more than 6 million products from around 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands. Consumers are expected to spend an average of 1,761 yuan ($277) per person, up 22 per cent year on year, according to a Nielsen survey of more than 1,000 Chinese Internet users.
The logistics
Alibaba estimates that 1.7 million deliverymen, 400,000 delivery vehicles, 5,000 warehouses and 200 airplanes will be deployed by its partners to handle the deliveries. China Post estimates that 760 million packages will be shipped by various Chinese e-shopping sites to customers on the day. That’s up significantly from 540 million packages produced last year, according to a post office quote by Alibaba’s news site Alizila. Retailers will be offering more perks such as free refunds and delivery, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Watch: Kevin Spacey - aka President Frank Underwood - promotes Singles Day for TMall/Jack Ma
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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

Sales worth billions in just a 'Singles Day': Online shopping extravaganza now China's biggest annual commerce spree

Worker transports parcels at a sorting center of an express delivery company, one day ahead online shopping festival in Beijing. Photo: EPA

Workers at delivery company Beijing Rufengda Express prepare yesterday for the Singles Day rush. Photo: Simon Song

The online shopping extravaganza, which takes place on November 11 every year, was started in 2009 by e-commerce giant Alibaba. Photo: Simon Song

More than 760 million parcels are expected to be handled during the online shopping spree from 11 to 16 November, according to the State Post Bureau. Photo: EPA

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.

Alibaba and JD brace for big shopping battle on Singles Day

Shopping fever is expected to hit the mainland on November 11, with Alibaba and JD lining up merchants for the big day. Photo: Reuters

Battle stations readied for ‘Double 11’: Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao prepares for China’s ‘Singles Day’ with military-scale campaign

(151010) -- HEFEI, Oct. 10, 2015 (Xinhua) -- Staff members of an e-commerce company prepare for the Singles' Day Shopping Spree, or Double-11 Shopping Spree, in Hefei City, Capital of east China's Anhui Province, Oct. 10, 2015. The Singles' Day Shopping Spree, Chinese equivalent of Cyber Monday or Black Friday, is an annual online shopping spree falling on Nov. 11 for Chinese consumers since 2009. (Xinhua/Du Yu) (mt)

epa05001455 From L-R, Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands, Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, and Sharon Dijksma, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, attend a ceremony to launch an e-commerce campaign for Dutch goods on Alibaba's online platform, at the headquarters of Alibaba Group in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province 29 October 2015. EPA/XU KANGPING CHINA OUT

An Apple Inc. iPhone 6 with the Youku Tudou Inc. app is held in front of the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. website in this arranged photograph in Hong Kong, China, on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Alibaba offered to buy the rest of Youku Tudou as billionaire Jack Ma seeks to stream more video content to Chinese Internet users through control of the YouTube-like site. Photographer: Xaume Olleros/Bloomberg ORG XMIT: 585959673

Staff of an e-commerce company prepare for the Singles' Day shopping spree, or Double 11, in Hefei City, capital of east China's Anhui Province, on October 10. The event, China’s equivalent of Black Friday, falls on November 11. It started in 2009. Photo: Xinhua

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

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Shopping frenzy Singles Day has a heart and a story, so where did it begin?

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}11.11.1993

Shopping frenzy Singles Day has a heart and a story, so where did it begin?

11.11.1993