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Gloria Chan

Vietnamese brides were being offered on sale for 9,998 yuan (US$1,500) each on Taobao as part of the Singles Day shopping festival.
“Vietnam bride wife double-eleven shopping spree,” a post read at about 4pm on Wednesday, referring to Singles Day, an annual online shopping extravaganza held on November 11 each year that was launched seven years ago by e-commerce giant Alibaba.
“[For] only 9,998 yuan, bring a beautiful wife home,” the post added.
READ MORE: Singles Day sale beats spectre of 2014 by delivering record US$10bn for Alibaba, after arch bachelor James Bond launches event
The post featured a photo of Zhang Ziyi, a Chinese actress and model, and claimed to have 98 “items” in stock ready to be shipped from Yunan province to anywhere in China.
According to the seller’s profile on Taobao, identified as Wang Xiao Xi’s Gift Shop, the shop had sold 2,568 items over the past thirty days with the most popular being socks sold at 1.6 yuan per pair.
The post selling Vietnamese brides was no longer available by 4.30pm.


Vietnamese brides on sale on China's Taobao for US$1,500 as part of Singles Day shopping festival

A screenshot of the advertisement for Vietnamese brides on Taobao during China's Singles Day shopping festival. File Photo

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

News

China

Money & Wealth

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

(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)

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.